Common Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, I think we're going to get started. I want to welcome everybody. Uh, welcome. Today is Tuesday, January the 20th, city council meeting. Like our prior meetings, we are streaming live on City Madison YouTube channel and you can view the meeting there live or it's being archived. You can view it later. Um, we have a uh short but important meeting tonight and I'd like to welcome Troop 717 to the city of Madison City Council meeting. So you guys are on camera right now and if you'll face that way and wave, everybody in the city of Madison forever will be able to see Troop 77 here. So we appreciate you guys being here and working on your citizenship merit badge uh and helping or allowing us to be part of it. Like with all of our prior meetings, we'll begin by uh inviting you to stand and recite the Lord's Prayer. And then after that, I will ask Troop 77 to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Our Father, who art in heaven, be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. We'll do start with a roll call. Our clerk treasurer is on the phone, so I will do those duties for her. And uh Teanol here, Krebs here, Datillo here, Wilbur here, Schaefer here, Storm here, and Bartlett here. All right. Thank you guys. We have a full council tonight. Council, have you had an opportunity to review the me meeting minutes from Tuesday, January the 6th? If so, I'll entertain a motion to approve. I'll move to approve the minutes. Second that. Any discussion? Hear none. All in favor, please say I. I. Any oppose? Thank you.

At this time, I'd like to invite Chief Munt from Mass Police Department up for a presentation of Officer of the Year award. And thank you officers for being here tonight. Good evening. So, a couple of years ago, we started uh doing the officer of the year award. And I think uh a lot of times in the past, we had done this in our our uh Christmas party there in December, but we kind of wanted to change that up and and make it more of a citywide u uh notification. So, uh, this year, officer of the year, what we do is we take nominations from each of the captains on each of the shift for the officer that they, uh, that may have been on their shift that they wanted to nominate. So, uh, this year's winner is Colton Fox. Colton, step up there. Colton was nominated by Captain Adam Guzman. Uh and a letter was drafted up here by uh the major major Kyle Cutshaw kind of detailing why he was named officer of the year this year. The letter says Madison Police Department would like to formally announce that patrolman Colton Fox has been named MPD officer of the year for 2025. Throughout calendar year 2025, Patrolman Fox served the department with exceptional dedication, professionalism, and initiative. while assigned a night shift. Patrolman Fox was nominated for officer of the year by Captain Adam Guzman, who's standing over here. During this period, Patrolman Fox consistently demonstrated outstanding leadership, stepping up and setting a standard for performance and accountability among his fellow officers. Patrolman Fox has demonstrated sound judgment and strong investigative abilities. Patrolman Fox's work ethic and commitment to proactive policing were evident throughout the year as his actions became infectious

among the shift partners. Beyond his measurable accomplishments, Patrolman Fox is highly respected throughout the department for his reliability, positive attitude, and willingness to assist others. He exemplifies the qualities of an officer who not only performs at a high level individually, but also strengthens the department as a whole. Patrolman Fox's performance during the 20 2025 year reflects great credit upon himself in the Madison Police Department. His recognition as officer of the year is welld deserved. [applause]

[applause] this letter set up. Thank you. Get your picture over here. Wow, everyone's old. [applause]

[applause]

Thank you officers for your service and your leadership. And that awesome uniform major. You look good in those class A's. [sighs] Moving on, another order of business that uh was deferred from the last meeting and that is the election of President Pro Tim. Turn that over to council. Um, I would like to nominate Jim Bartlett for president prom. I will second that nomination.

Any discussion? Any other nominations? All in favor relative to the nomination of Jim Bartlett for the 2026 uh, President Pro Tim, please say I. I.

Any opposed? Thank you. Congratulations. [applause] Well, Mr. President, moving on to resolution or bills. Uh we have one ordinance on its first reading tonight and it is ordinance 2026-1 establishing the Damon L. Welch Park Project Fund and its sponsor is Councilwoman Krebs. This uh ordinance, as you know, we've done in the past, creates a special project fund for the construction of uh Welch Park. And this would be the uh designated fund to capture uh contributions and revenue sources as well as the expenditures for the revitalization of that park. I'll give you one one other uh fact I was going to save till later, but I'll do it now since we're just talking about uh since we're on the first reading and talking about this ordinance. and that is um the bids were opened today in the board of public works uh prior to the board of public works and safety meeting. So we're taking those bids under consideration. We did have I believe six bids for the work which is good very healthy environment. One of the probably the largest bid responses we've had in all the projects that we've done. So, we're taking those under advisement now and reviewing those with our engineers uh before we make a recommendation on who to award the bid to. Uh we'll do that at the next uh board of public works and safety meeting um two weeks two weeks from yesterday. Moving on. So, that was first reading. It'll go to its second reading uh at the next meeting, Tuesday, February the 3rd, 2026.

Mr. Mayor. Yes. I would move that we wave the rules and move ordinance 2026-1 on to second reading. I'll second that. Okay. We have a motion and a second um to suspend the rules. Any discussion? Uh do a roll call vote. Teo, yes. Krebs, yes. Datillo, yes. Schaefer, yes. Storm, yes. Bartlett, yes. Wilbur, yes.

Okay, we are suspending the rules and moving to the second reading and it's open for discussion. Any comments or questions from the audience or council? Now would be the time. Teachable moment to the Boy Scouts in the group.

Okay. So the way we normally pass things like this is we have a first reading and we just read it out loud and we discuss it and then the next meeting we have a second reading and we vote. This is a a thing that we're just setting up for this park. It's just to be able to put money in and out. It's not a new law or anything like that. So we don't see the need for waiting another two weeks to do it. So we can do a thing where we kind of surpass the rules and we say we're going to wave that and we're going to go ahead and vote on it the first time. So that's just what you saw was we all agreed we don't need to wait two more weeks to set up that fund for the park. We're going to go ahead and vote on it tonight.

Good explanation. And uh uh what it does as you've described is it establishes the fund, the purpose of the fund uh the sources of of monies in it and as well as the use of the fund. So I think it captures all the key ingredients for creating creating a fund for the Welch park. It's exciting parks been under planning for several years and uh like I said we will be awarding the bids at the next board of public works and safety meeting and then um having a ground breaking shortly thereafter. Uh it's a much needed revitalization but also an activation of the park for multigenerational um uh outdoor recreation. All right. Any additional comments, any questions? Hearing none, we'll go to a roll call. Teavnol, [clears throat]

yes. Krebs, yes. Datillo, yes. Schaefer, yes. Storm, yes. Bartlett, yes. Wilbur, yes. This carries. Thank you, council. Uh, we will begin a series of reports from city officials at the next meeting, but are there any reports or recommendations or other business from the standing or select committees of the city council? None. Moving on. We do. Oh, go ahead, Charlie. Go ahead.

Nope. Do you have any reports? No, it's just like to put out to the council a discussion about the um shortfall for last year for the payroll. So, if you were if you were or mind were going to do that, that'd be great. If not, I can I'm happy to discuss it. No, we were not going to uh bring that to council tonight because we don't have a recommendation to make to them. Um so, that's why it's not on the agenda. We don't have any recommendation for council. Okay. Do we know when that when we were going to get to a recommendation and stuff? We have to close the year out. Yep. February.

Hoping hoping to do it when you get back or if you have time this week. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Uh anything else? Any other matters? No bills on second reading. Uh, Councilman, or I should say, Mr. President, uh, are there any signins for public comments tonight? Do we have the sign in list?

Okay, we want that to Hi guys, Lisa Ferguson, 718 East Second Street. Uh, in my mind, we're celebrating the 250th birthday of America already. Uh, something that I think we should have started planning last July and not, uh, January, but here we are. And so, um, I did this before you all were on council. Maybe Patrick was when we tried to get the, uh, flags along Main Street. Jim was and it Lucy was. It took a long time to get it and it was I think everybody loves it. I think when you come across our bridge it says I'm in Madison, Indiana and this is a proud American town and I love that [snorts] about it. So I started thinking about ways to increase uh having flags in our town and one of those would be to line Vaughn Drive with American flags uh because that's probably the second most traveled street in town. It's also the reason that Madison exists still and we're still viable is from that river traffic that we get to see sit every day and watch the barges go by um even in January. Uh but we're as spec we're specifically a boating town too. I think a lot of people love it for recreation. Uh and it's also um something that we've started welcoming in the river boats. The paddle boats are coming in and we have a few flags on Main Street on the large poles. Uh, but we have lots of polls that can have flags on them. Uh, and so I go to Veterans Council's meetings every month. Uh, just because I enjoy being around veterans. I enjoy representing uh, the Jeffrey coming Republican women at their meetings. So, my first thing was to talk to them because we have the banner project that goes along Vaughn Drive and we didn't want to interfere with the banners that they have there. Uh they requested many many mayors ago to have those on Main Street and that was turned down because they used to have the flags representing all the festivals and everything in

town. So that mayor decided that a good thing to do would put them on Bond drive. I'm also a part of that team that puts them up in May takes them down in November. So we wanted to make sure that the flags that we were going to ask you all to put wouldn't interfere with their banner project. That's their main fundraiser. and they were all loving it because veterans love American flags, right, Joel? So, that's who we are. That's who we want to represent is America. So, uh, I went to them first and made sure that that would be okay. Now, there are some that might interfere because there are banners there, but we have what they call, maybe Bob does, too, bumpouts where they go out farther along Lamplighter Park. So, there's no flags there, but there's poles there. So, my second thing was to go to Trev and say, "Can we get these put in?" And he said, "It's literally a couple dollars to put um like a bracket on the other side so they would face the riverside." So, every traffic going up and down our river would have an American flag on it. And so, since I'm a positive person, and I don't agree with negative people at all, uh the Jefferson County Republican women have written a check to sponsor one of the first flags. Charlie and I have written a check to sponsor the second flag. We assume this would be acceptable to you all. So, I'm going ahead with that and saying it would be very much like when we uh donate the money to Hannah uh over Christmas and we sponsor a light pole along Main Street. I would assume it would be similar to that. So, uh when I'm giving you this gift, it is not just a 10-centent flag in my heart. It is a gift to me from you because this is American. I love it. So, there you go.

Thank you, Lisa. Welcome. Well, watch the cords check so you find out what to do with it. Thank you very much. Thank you for your generosity. I think it's a great idea and we do need to do I know that we've had some conversation with parks about planning for the 250th uh uh celebration this summer and it'll be here before you know it. They're not here. Yes.

Thank you, Lisa. Good evening.

All right. My name is Shelley Murphy Smith from 418 East Second Street. Um, I just wanted to bring up the stop signs. I know there's been some discussion in the papers. I've read them. Um, on the flip side of what I've seen of positive, there are some negatives. Um, I was just kind of checking. I know that's going to be brought up to the board of works, but you know what the plan is for the temporary stop signs. Um, and you know, there are a lot of people that do not like them. Um, because there's so many of them. I think there I went through and counted. Um, on Second Street from Jefferson Street to Craigmont, there are nine stop signs. Six are permanent and three are temporary. And only two street intersections, Popular and Plum, are without stop signs. So basically, every time you go to a intersection, you're stopping. Um, and one of those is kind of unnecessary because it's right over here and it's a oneway. So if you're going to turn,

are you talking about Are you on Second Street? Yes. Second Street. Okay.

Yeah. Second Street. So if you get to the intersection of I think it's west right past Mad Paddle, you stop and it's one way. So the people coming from Main Street have to stop and you have to stop if you want to turn. So it's kind of an unnecessary stop sign. Um on Third Street, it's not quite as bad. Uh there are still seven stop signs there, four permanent, three temporary. It takes longer to travel down second and third. Not because anybody's driving faster, it's just that you're stopping and stop. You start, you start, you stop, you stop. Um, it is confusing. I've noticed a lot of tourists coming to every intersection and pretty much stopping because they're like looking for the other stop signs because they're like they're not familiar with the roads, so they haven't gotten familiar with that. Um, I have noticed a lot more traffic leaving Second and Third and going to Main Street because it's faster even though they're stop lights. And I've noticed a lot of people going on River Road more, which will start to wear and tear that road. Um, so, and I've seen people run the temporary stop signs. They're not even paying attention to them. Um, I always stop. I don't think it's safe that people run them, but there are people that are disregarding them because I think they're irritated. They're wondering why, you know, these were put up because of the main street and now Main Street's open. Why are they still there? So, my question is if we're looking at leaving them or not, maybe we could not put as many of them back. Um, and maybe look at some of them that might not be as necessary. Um, you can't even do the speed limit because by the time you stop and you want to drive, you don't even get to the speed limit before you break to the next stop sign. Um, I know this because I live on Second Street and I travel this road every day to go to work. Um, so it's just a thought um, from the other perspective of why some people do not like it. Um, I know some people do like it. Maybe a few

more might not be bad, but that many seems a little excessive and some of them aren't very well placed. So, um, that's it. So, just a thought for when you do discuss it. So, thank you for your feedback because I, you know, I drive it quite frequently, so I was kind of paying attention to just how many there are. And that's a lot. Seven. I mean, nine out only two streets without one. So, and I do I was I was driving home from work the other day and I did I saw several cars and I was like, what are they doing? And they kept stopping at every intersection and I looked at their license plates and they weren't from here. And I was like, I've been noticing that more. So, I think it's it's kind of like they're afraid cuz they're like there's so many they don't know. So, it's just a thought.

I'll just make this observation and we're evaluating it and I know that the flip side.

Yeah, I we want all perspectives on it. It's interesting if you go east on Jefferson on second and third, there's a stop sign at every corner, but you don't notice it because it's a shorter distance to where you're going on uh to get to Maine or to to the bridge. If you're going west, it's a much longer path to Craigmont Street to get up to Maine or go up to on Highway 7. So, um, relatively speaking, it's probably about the same number of stop signs if you're going west as east as east already is structured. But, you know, the goal was to slow traffic down. I think it's accomplished that. I'm I'm open to suggestions. Uh, I agree with you. There's probably too many there, you know. Um and uh certainly we want to gather more uh more input and input from our police department on what they're experiencing and and council from repres who are representing the districts.

Anything else? I believe that's all of the uh folks that signed up.

Okay. Um, as I mentioned before, uh, to to our troop leaders, if there's any, uh, scouts here from Troop 77 that have any questions about, uh, your observance of our meeting tonight, this is our, uh, every other week meeting that to, uh, for our community. It's open to the public. It's streamed live on you guys all seen YouTube. Anybody watched anything on YouTube? Well, now you can subscribe to the City of Madison YouTube channel and watch over two dozen meetings that happen uh every other week or each month uh which is for your city. So, thank you guys for being here. But again, I'll open the floor up if anybody would like to come to C to the podium and ask any questions uh or make any remarks or share your experience of what you're doing with your citizenship badge. Uh we'd love to hear you now. And Mr. Mayor,

yes, sir. Uh, I'd like to congratulate the boys. They've been working on their citizenship in the nation merit badge for some time now. That's a very important uh merit badge for them to be working on as it teaches them how our government is structured and how it works.

And it's a requirement for eagle. So, how many here is working toward eagle? Awesome. I would tell you, um, my son's an Eagle Scout and Troop 77 produces a tremendous number of Eagle Scouts. So, that's a compliment to the troop leaders uh, for Troop 77. I know that we have other troops in Madison and Handover, but Troop 77, you guys doing a great job there. Moving on the rest of the agenda, I just have a couple things. We talked about Welch Park earlier. Uh we are about halfway through this legislative session. It's uh uh should be concluded by the end of February. Uh there's still a week or so left before they kind of have the make the cut off for all the bills. There's over 400 bills that have been filed. We're closely following several of those that affect um road funding uh uh planning and zoning as well as um uh some changes to Senate bill Senate enrolled act one which as you know was the um property tax bill from uh Governor Braun last year and that has some imple continued implementation over several years but one big one will be in 2027 when the all municipalities ities uh cities, towns, counties have to adopt a municipal local income tax rate. So, we're working uh legislatively this year to try to smooth that process out for next year as there's still a lot of concern and uncertainty with regards to the data that's going to be utilized to establish that rate. But that's going to be a lot of heavy lifting in 2027. uh and unfortunately it will require the city to adopt a municipal local income tax rate which right now we have a combined rate uh that's adopted by county council and then uh I want to mention too I don't know if you saw uh our

announcement and then uh the mass and courier did a great story on this uh representative uh congresswoman Halchin secured nearly $8 million for critical infrastructure projects across Indiana's 9th district and one of those projects was um a community project funding for our Cricut Creek storm water mitigation project. Um more to come on that that's still uh making its way through the legislative process. I believe it's on President Trump's desk to to sign that bill into law. When that happens, we will be working with the Department of Interior to finalize the uh the structure for that grant and also um uh the initial phases of the of the flood mitigation for Crooked Creek. And then we'll combine that with some other uh announcements for that area of town that I think you're going to find very very exciting. So, we've been working on storm water mitigation and protecting that area from chronic flooding for um over four years now since our last flood in 2021. But I believe we now have uh most of the plans in place um and are working towards securing funding for the initial couple of phases. It's probably about four phases over over about a 10-year period, but getting started on it uh this year is going to be important for us. So, look for more announcements for that area. Council, that's all for me. Do you have anything to add before we adjourn and our next meeting is February the 3rd, 2026?

Uh, yeah, just to echo what Jim and the mayor said, uh, I commend you guys, the Boy Scouts. I always wanted to be one. I never was. Um, but you know, your guys's dedication to your organization and learning civic duties and responsibilities is huge, and I think it's going to serve you all well. So again, I commend you. I think it's so cool that you're here today and thanks for coming.

We'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. I move we adjourn the meeting. Seconded. All in favor, please say I. I. Any oppos? Thank you.