Common Council - Regular Meeting

We streaming. Well, welcome everybody. Today is t Tuesday t Tuesday t Tuesday t Tuesday t Tuesday t Tuesday t Tuesday t Tuesday t Tuesday t Tuesday t sorry Wednesday it's not Tuesday anymore. Wednesday May 6. Welcome to the city council. We're streaming the meeting live on city mass and YouTube channel. Uh we're also archiving the meeting there. And uh as with uh all of our meetings, we'll invite you to stand and recite the Lord's Prayer followed by the pledge of allegiance. So we'll get into tonight's visit.

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. 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, clerk. May we have a roll call. Patrick Teanov here. Carla Krebs here. Lucy Dillo here. Josh Schaefer is online here. Uh Joel Storm absent and Jim Bartlett here. Josh Wilbur here. Thank you. Council, uh have you had an opportunity to review the minutes from the last meeting, April 21st? If so, we'll entertain a motion to approve. I move that we accept the minutes as provided. Second. Second. Any discussion? Hear none. All in favor, please say I. I. Any oppos?

Thank you. Um, tonight, uh, we'll start with the presentation of petitions. I'd like to invite Andrew Forser up and like to give a proclamation for National Tourism Week. Andrew, I'm going to read it here so I can be miked and then uh, invite you to give some remarks. This is a proclamation celebrating National Travel and Tourism Week. Whereas the travel industry is essential to the success of every industry and will continue to be a critical part of Madison and Jefferson County Indiana's economic development, workforce, and quality of life initiatives. Whereas travel is an economic powerhouse for every state and destination across the country with an economic output of $3 trillion supporting 15 million American jobs. Travel spending supports our clean, safe, and beautiful communities of Madison and Jefferson County by generating $7 million in state and local income taxes that help fund essential services such as education, emergency response, and public safety. Travel enables success across industries, including manufacturing, agriculture, defense, healthcare, and more by driving sales growth, innovation, education, and operations that power our economy locally and nationally. Whereas tourism spending in Jefferson County exceeded $64 million in 2024, supporting more than 687 jobs and over 18.2 million in total wages, while 47 cents of every tourism dollar is spent locally. Tourism brings nearly a million visit visitors to Jefferson County annually with more than 400,000 visitors traveling from over 50 miles away to enjoy Madison's architecture, natural beauty, exciting festivals, unique shopping and dining, and unmatched hospitality. Whereas Visit Madison staff welcomed more than 35,000 visitors into the visitor center and 30,000 into the comfort station last year. While overnight trips to the community have increased more than 25% since 2019, resulting in over 180,000

visits, supporting local lodging, restaurant, retail, and service businesses. Tourism amenities in Madison and Jefferson County are enjoyed by residents and visitors alike 365 days a year. and growing travel continues to foster economic growth, support businesses, encourage mutual understanding, and connect communities across the nation. Therefore, I, Bob Courtourtney, do hereby proclaim May 3rd through the 9th as National Travel and Tourism Week in Madison Jefferson County invite and urge all citizens of Madison Jefferson County to join me in recognizing the central role this industry plays in our community. Thank you. Awesome. There we go. Is it on? All right. Well, thank you very much, mayor. Thank you, council. It is good to be here tonight and really appreciate your continued support of tourism and quality of life initiatives that support tourism um in Madison and Jefferson County. We had another excellent year in 2025. I did bring um visitor guides for 2026 if you hadn't had a chance to see those. Those have been out on the streets for a few months now. And then I also brought the 2025 tourism annual report. You guys are getting a sneak peek at that. We will actually start handing those out tomorrow night at the tourism awards reception that we will be hosting. want to invite you to come to that at the visitors center at 5:30 where we will be honoring some people and businesses that help make the tourism industry really shine here in Madison. Um so you're getting a sneak peek at that. Um a couple things I want to highlight for you out of that annual report that that just shows how uh important the tourism industry is for Madison. Um, we had over half a million visitors drove from more than 50 miles to come here to Madison

last year. Depending on the place or report that I run, there's some discrepancy in in which report I run, but it's anywhere from half a million to 700,000. Those are driving from 50 miles away. If you draw that 50 mile radius, that you got to get to the west side of Louisville before you're considered a visitor. So, we know we've got a lot more than that coming here. people coming from the east side of Louisville, um you know, northern Kentucky area, um places that are just right inside that that 50 mile range. And so we have a lot of visitors here supporting our businesses, hotels, um Main Street. We had last year over 2500 people take trolley tours uh paid trolley tours around Madison and we had 2500 take free trolley routes when we offered those on a fourth Friday or a summer Sunday. Uh we distributed 55,000 visitor guides like you have there. Uh those not only are are distributed here in the community when visitors are here trying to figure out what they want to do, but we get them out to rest stops and visitor centers all across the region going as far up near Chicago and down into Kentucky. Um so people can learn about Madison and plan their trip. Um as mentioned in the proclamation, we did welcome over 30,000 visitors into the comfort station this last year. And again, I I want to say again what a great partnership that has been. Thank you again to the mayor, city council, your whole team that has made that partnership really successful. That's just 30,000 in the time that we are there. Um we know the restrooms are open a little earlier, stay open a little later uh than what we are there. We have 30,000 people in six months. Um for comparison, we had about 40,000 in the visitor center down on First Street for 12 months. Um, so that is is quickly becoming a hub for tourism and it's it's

a really important uh place for for our visitors to get information. Um, so thank you again uh for all of your partnership in that. And we also had record overnight visits in 2025 in August, September, October, November, and December. So um that's that's been great for our local hotels. the first quarter of the year kind of dragged that down and we're working on initiatives to try and get that uh up in first quarter, second quarter and just want to thank you all again for all that you do to to help make tourism a great industry here in Madison and Jefferson County. So happy to answer any questions that you have, but otherwise thank you. I just want to say congratulations and also congratulations on the uh first year of operating Madison Trolley Line and the stats that you gave were very uh very encouraging and just shows that you know Madison's tourism experience is continuing to be elevated every year. Keep up the good work.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Yep.

Smile too. I will just add, you know, maybe a final comment on that and that was the remark about being able to enjoy all of the amenities that we build for tourism. We get to enjoy those 365 days uh a year and uh there's not a day that goes by that we don't have an opportunity to discover something and share something new with our families and uh and also enjoy those same experiences over and over again. It's just a wonderful place to live. Thank you, Andrew. Keep up the good work. Now, I'd like to invite Chief Munt and his team up for um something else that's very special to our city and to the mayor's office as well as council, and that is uh being part of these young men's journey uh as police officers uh here at city of Madison, Indiana.

Yes. Thank you. Uh tonight, we'd like to introduce you to our three newest members of the Madison Police Department. Um they got back, they graduated from the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy. uh academy April 24th. Uh we're very excited to have them. Uh you know, we tried to set their mind to ease a little bit before they left and telling them that the police academy is really not that difficult. It's kind of fun, but we were just joking about that. I don't think they realized that until after that first day. Then they quickly realized how how hard it was and and what kind of work they had to put in. So, but they made it. They're here tonight. So, uh I'd like to introduce you all to them now. Uh our first one is Mark Adams. And then we have Bryson Webster. And last but not least is Noah Gudik. All right, Chief. How do you want to start? going to do individually. Invite the families up for the start with Mark.

Okay. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Bryson Bryson's family can come up here and join him. Don't be shy. This is a proud moment. Family Congratulations.

Noah, come on up. Noah's Noah's family's more than welcome to come up as well. I know. Heat. Heat. Also like to thank our police mayor board president being here Dave Adams back. I think he's back there. Oh. Oh. Thank you Dave for being here. Always a great night when we get to do this. All right, moving on with the agenda. We do have a resolution. Joe, I'll turn it over to you. This is

Is it? We don't have the number though. We kind of have to have our number. So, uh, okay. It's resolution number 2026-3C and is a resolution electing to join the 1977 Police Officers and Fire Off Fire Fighters Pension and Disability Fund. Um, I'm going to ask Shirley to pinch on this one because this is a first step for Madison, but it's also an investment in the city of Madison's future firefighting uh capacity. And I think our fire chief is here back there, Brandy.

Okay. So, basically, since you have never had a full-time firefighter, we had to start over. So, we have the police pension which started. Do you even know how long ago the police pension started?

Well, it was before that because I think you guys had the 1938 plan. So, the police plan has been in place and it's transitioned over the 1977 fund. But since you've never had a full-time firefighter until this year, congratulations. Now, we have to enroll with them in uh Impress, which is uh Indiana Public Retirement Systems. um they won't allow you to just latch on to the police plan. So we have to create our own per fund for firefighters and that's basically what this paperwork is. Once we complete this paperwork, we enter the paperwork into um Imp, we call it Impress for short. So we enter the paperwork into Impress. the numbers and the figures that you see here, the contribution figures and the max amounts, everything is dictated by Impress and that has been a long haul getting that information from them. But they are waiting for our phone call and we're going to process this information tomorrow hopefully if you all sign it and approve it so we can get uh Brandon up and running on the 77 Perf fund for firefighters, the brand new one. I have any questions with regard to this? Do we have a motion to approve?

I have one question. Did we have money in our budget for this? Yes. I I felt like we did, but I couldn't. I I wasn't sure. When we did the additional appropriation to create the uh chief position, we added it in there. Okay. I thought we did. I just wanted to make sure. Yes. Do we have a motion to approve? I'll move to approve resolution 2026-3C. Okay. Is there a second? I'll second. Okay. Motion a second. Is there any public comment? Seeing none, we have a roll call vote. Patrick, yes. Carla Krebs, yes. Lucy Dillo, yes. Josh Schaefer, yes. Jim Bartlett, yes. And Josh Wilbur,

yes. Thank you, council. Uh, council, are there any reports, recommendations, or other business from standing select committees of the city council? Hearing none, uh, we'll move on to bills on second reading. We have two bills on second reading and they are ordinance number 2026-8 C, an ordinance of the common council of the city of Madison transferring certain appropriations and revenue between different funds. And this is with regard I believe to the airport. Yes. And Brent here can answer any question you may have uh with regards to the transfer. So can surely too. It seems like there's a cleanup there.

Yes. It's just a cleanup. It's moving funds from um one fund to another. Basically the monies were spent out of the wrong fund. So it's a simple clean up. Is there any questions? Any questions from the audience? Okay, seeing hearing none, we have a roll call vote. Okay. Okay. Patrick Tavanagh, yes. Cara Krebs, yes. Lucy Dillo, yes. Josh Schaper, yes. Jim Bartlett, yes. And Josh Wilbur, yes.

Okay. Next, we have ordinance number 2026-9 C. And this is sponsored by Councilwoman Krebs. This is an ordinance of the common council of the city of Madison, Indiana, establishing a non-reverting hanger cumulative fund for the Madison regional airport. You guys talked about this at the last one, but are there any questions or comments from the council as it pertains to this? No, just it's a simple ordinance to create that fund for them to put money for their new hanger. Okay. Is there any public comment or questions from the audience? Okay, seeing hearing none, if we can have a roll call vote. Yes, ma'am. Patrick Tavanagh, yes. Carla Krebs, yes. Lucy Dillo,

yes. Josh Schaefer, yes. Jim Bartlett, yes. And Josh Wilbur, yes. And the only other thing on the agenda has been tabled. So, do we need a motion on table? Yeah. Oh, has it? Yeah, I was going to ask for that. It has not been tabled. I explanation there. Uh that is the fee charge amendment um that came out of the recommendations from plane commission uh that required an advertisement and a public hearing. We had a delay in getting the advertisement completed. So we pushed the public hearing to May 19th as we're requesting a motion to just table this until and we'll bring it off the table at the May 19th.

I'll make the motion to table the uh ordinance 226-10C. I'll second. All in favor? I I Any opposed? Josh, are you opposed or Okay, delayed. All right, it was just delayed. Sorry.

Thank you. Uh Jim, are there any public comments for signup sheet? Uh Debbie Okay. Pass.

No, there are no others.

All right. Well, thank you. We'll continue on with the agenda. I just want to give council and committee an update. You probably saw a uh Facebook post about this uh from INDOT. Uh INDOT has announced traffic traffic traffic signal improvements coming to US 421 and Main Street. We had a really successful meeting with uh INDOT. Madison and Jefferson County participated uh in that meeting together. We were also given an opportunity to share our our own concerns and as well as the projects that we would like to collaborate on with uh INDOT. There are quite a few. Happy to report that INDOT continues to invest in Madison and Jefferson County through a lot of traffic safety and traffic calming uh measurements and one of the first things out of the gate is the uh the left turn signals there at uh Jefferson Street. That's going to help immensely. They are proposing quite a few other uh I said traffic s uh traffic calming and traffic traffic safety initiatives here in Madison and across the the county on the uh INDOT's transportation network. So, we're really grateful for their investment. Uh we are about to kick off soon, our 2026 uh CCMG project. That was another thing that we went through with them. All the paperwork was finalized on that. Uh we're now just waiting for uh our contractor to begin mobilizing. That'll probably be sometime uh next month and then complete uh in early fall. Uh lastly, I just want to mention that on the way here this evening, I attended an event at the Mass Junior High School and it was uh a dedication of their frequency spot and it is a uh um an investment by the high school at the junior high to support music uh music uh production, composition, songwriting, performance. And it's it's uh essentially with a group of professionals. Jerry Navaro is leading that along with Eric Fagan uh teaching our fifth and sixth and seventh graders

all about music. And I can tell you uh going to the to the facility tonight, it's not the old band room that we probably remember from our days in high school. It is very amazing, very cutting edge. It is as professional as you would see in a recording studio in in Nashville. Uh we did get uh a couple of live performances from some local musicians while we're up there. It's pretty fascinating to see what all is happening to help uh create additional pathways for our youth and music. Not only just music educa education, but the business of music. So hats off to uh the school for another great investment in our in our kids and that's an investment in our in our community. So I want to give them some recognition. Council, do you have any remarks you'd like to share with the community before we adjourn?

Mr. Mayor. Yes.

Uh this being National Tourism Week, uh I think it's appropriate that we take a quick glance when you have an opportunity at the schedule this spring, summer, and fall. Madison is packed with events that draw tourists into this town. But the lifeblood of those events are our hundreds of volunteers that we have throughout the city. And we need to take a moment to express thanks to those volunteers and to encourage people that are interested in volunteering to raise their hand and uh and find a spot where they're they're doing what they enjoy doing that also benefits the city and uh tourism within Madison.

Thanks Jim. uh appreciate those remarks and it's true uh all the energy behind making Madison a special place to live or visit uh work and invest is just amazing and we're just getting into leaning into to that season. Anything else council surely? Okay, hearing none. Our next meeting will be Tuesday, May the 19th. We'll entertain a motion to adjourn. I move to adjourn the meeting. I'll second the motion. All in favor, please say I. Bye. Any oppos? Thank you.