Common Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening and welcome to the Monday, August 24th, 2026 meeting of the Martinsville Common Council. The meeting is hereby called to order. At this time, I'd like to invite Pastor Chris from the First Methodist Church to come. So if you would please stand for our prayer and stand for our pledge.

Let's pray. Holy and gracious God, we do indeed thank you for our community. We thank you for the beauty of this place. We thank you for our neighbors. We thank you for our leaders and just for the place that you put us in life. Lord, we pray that you would guide these deliberations. We invite your presence here. Lord, help us to see beyond our own agendas into your greater good. Lord, we need your guidance and your strength. Lord, we do pray that you be with our community and those around us who have been affected by recent flooding. We pray for Mac Porter as he's recovering from surgery. We pray also, Lord, that you would be Lord of this time, that you bless our community in every way. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands,

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Mr. Mayor, please call the roll.

John Badger. Present. Susie Lips. Present. Ben Mahan. Present. Josh Barron. Present. Ann Miller. Present. Jonathan Collier. Present. Bill Deckard II. Present. We have a quorum.

Thank you.

Prior to tonight's meeting, you were sent the minutes from the August 10th Common Council meeting. And you've also got the minutes from the executive session that took place at that point that evening also. So I would entertain a motion for the acceptance of the executive session meeting minutes. And then we'll do a separate motion for the regular council minutes.

And Miller makes a, I'd like to approve the common council executive session meetings minutes.

Second. Motion made and seconded to approve the minutes from the executive session on August the 10th. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. And about the regular common council meeting.

I'd like to make a motion to approve the common council minutes from August 10th, 2026.

Second that.

There's been a motion made and seconded to approve the Common Council meeting minutes from August 10th. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. You've also been sent claims to review. Are there any questions or comments about the claims?

Make a motion to approve the consideration of claims.

Second.

The motion made and seconded to approve the claims as presented this evening. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed no. Motion carries. just want to make a quick comment uh pastor chris mentioned how blessed we were not having flooding and some of the communities around us had experience so we were very blessed and fortunate i don't know if chief green wanted to comment on what their department had done and maybe go a court of how things went with our levy on closing for the So put you on the spot. No problem.

So we actually fare very well. We've never had that we've ever had to really worry about where the city of Martinsville didn't get as much rain as everybody else up north and it was coming towards us. So it was a great chance for us to see how the levee would work out. We have different, with the railroad company, we have different criteria we have to meet. So whenever the water table gets to 17 feet, we have to go out and close the railroad track and put up barricades. and they're heavy barricades that get put up, and it's quite a process and a system, but it's one that allows for us to protect our city. So our levy sits at 22 feet, and at 17 feet, that's when we will put those barricades up. Throughout this process, we were very fortunate. We never saw the water get up to that area. The guys from the fire department, the mayor, the wastewater treatment guys, they all came out. Everybody kind of came out and helped put it up. It was our first time to have to deploy, and it worked out really well. So that was really nice and felt really confident that our city is very well protected now with this levy. The thing that we did get a chance to do is we got a chance to – go north of the city and go up to 144 and do some work up there. You may or may not know this, but Mike Porter was very instrumental in helping us get a grant for us to get an airboat. And if you haven't seen the airboat, we have it at the fire station now. But we drove to Texas to get it because it was a guy that... basically got sick and wanted to get rid of a really nice big airboat. And with a great price tag to it, it was something we couldn't pass up. The biggest thing that we run into, typically speaking, on the river during the summer months is that we go out for rescues and the water is really low and we end up tearing up the props and the boats and Captain Collier and his crews and everybody else end up having to carry boats and have the person get out. And it just never works out real well since it's very expensive. So now we have the ability to travel up and down anywhere we need to go with airboats. And so we're very fortunate with that. So I really do appreciate MAC and getting the grant for us. And we were able to utilize that boat and then our other boats as well. So we fared very well. I feel very good that all of our people were ready to go. And we had several volunteers. When I say volunteers, the guys that work at the fire station spend their weekend basically at the fire station ready to go in case we need to be deployed. So kudos to those guys, and we really appreciate it. So did really well. Any questions?

I know Madison Township would be extremely grateful to the Martin Sofar Department for your help with the boat.

Yeah, we have a swift water rescue team. I think you may all know that. So it's just a lot of different departments that have people, and we have boats and things like that. but like i say swift water is one thing and typically if you're going on the river it's still slip water doesn't matter but we end up really struggling and whenever the water was running like it was going down the river our swift water boats sometimes will struggle because the current is just so much so those boats are really good for being on the outlying areas not right in the middle of the river whereas the airboat it can go anywhere we can deploy it out in the cornfield and take off and and do whatever so we're very blessed to have it and it's quite an asset for the for the fire department for the city too so it keeps us from driving driving million dollar fire trucks throughout the city when we have a boat that can go out and do those things so anyway very happy about it feel free to come over and look at it anytime you'd like okay Thank you.

Brad Martin works at the wastewater treatment plant. He and Chase Bentley spent a lot of time. Brad, do you want to make any comments on the pumps, how they work, how you have to test them? He and Chase are testing and checking these things monthly. And again, I put him on the spot.

Yeah, there are a series of pumps on the levee. We have three pumps in the south levee house, which is the big levee house, as you can see. And there are also a series of pumps for the north levee as well. Those were installed in 2025. That levee was put in in 1975. And then, of course, the south levee. So the pumps up there, the concept I want to try to explain to you is the levee was kind of designed to get the water out of Martinsville. We have a big rainstorm here. It's to get the water out on the other side of the levee. Well, the levee actually did its job this time from the river side. And so we have to monitor that. We monitor it from the center to the river gauge. We monitor that all of the time. The pumps are checked once a month. We inspect the levee once a week. chase does the majority of that while i stay at the plant but we have to test the pumps we check the levee for any animal intrusion any water seepage that may go through there so it's a it's a a very extensive endeavor and we take pride in it.

And once the pumps were turned on, you had to be there 24 hours to...

Correct. Yeah, once the pumps are engaged, the pumps have, we have certain stages that's based on the A river gauge. So once it reaches above 9 feet, we have to monitor it. Once it gets to 12 feet, that's when we close three sluice gates that are at the levee. And then from that point on, we have to constantly monitor the pumps to make sure that they're functioning. And at any time, we would have to step in and troubleshoot if we have some electrical problems or pumping problems or anything like that from 12 feet up. And the height of the levee, the water on the levee got to 17.65 feet. To give you a general idea, at 18 feet, the wastewater treatment plant, or no, I'm sorry, at 20 feet, the wastewater treatment plant is isolated. You can't get to it. At 22.1 feet, it's over the levee. So, you know, it was all hands on deck, you know, the chief and everybody to help with the railroad wall there too. But yeah, it was... It was an interesting experience, a little bit of a learning curve for us, but we were ready for it. Thank you, Brad.

Thank you, sir. And again, we're thankful to Senator Gray for making this grant available for us through the state for the $23 million. It was well spent. Also this evening, Ashley Cox would like to be able to report on the park. Ashley?

Hello. So most of the items in your folder are just flyers of upcoming events. You guys can look at those at your leisure. The first update I'd like to give is the swimming pool. You know, we closed it down a couple weeks ago. The swimming pool was open from May 23rd to August 2nd. The splash pad is still open and will be open through Labor Day. The hours of that, we have it open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Most days, some days it stays open later than 7 p.m. if it's nice and it's being used. But we always definitely get it closed before 9 p.m. um good things that have happened at the poll this year we have to submit weekly poll samples of all of our bodies of water we've passed every single one of those this season and we're still continuing to pass those as we send them off for the splash pad so that is a exciting that we made it through this season the board of health has come out twice we passed both inspections without having to make any corrections so that is something that that was new for us typically there's something we need to improve on The biggest fix that we had at the pool this year was actually before the swimming pool opened. Our dive bowl had a leak underneath the concrete. We knew there was a leak. We knew there was a leak last year when the pool was open because we were losing water daily and had to keep adding it to the pool. But we knew it was nothing we could fix while the pool was open because it was going to be a big process. And then we had to wait until we put water back into the pool so we could have a company come out and find, like detect the leak for us. And then we got that fixed. So that was our biggest expense for pool repair this year. And that cost us around $5,000 to get that taken care of. And a good portion of that was just paying the gentleman who came out to find, or to detect the leak for us. If you've been past the pool recently, you might see lawn chairs under the concession stand awning and lawn chairs closer to the splash pad. All the ones closer to the splash pad are broken and we will have to fix them or replace them before next season. And I'd say there's probably 30, 40 chairs out there. Some of them are just nothing we can do with. Some of them we can try to replace the straps on. We know other parks departments have done that. We know Morrisville does that often, so we're going to get with them and see about what the process looks like to replace the straps on those chairs that we can fix that way, because chairs are very expensive to replace. A good thing this year, so between the daily admissions, the pool passes, and the concession stand items and swim lessons, we brought in an additional $27,000 than we did last year for just opening the pool daily. So that's a big news for us. We were excited to see that. You do have one flyer in your folder. The first one you come to, it was our 2026 swim lessons and we took in $6,960 and we had 88 participants for our swim lessons. Last year was our first year. We did well, but this year we did have a growth in that. So that's what we like to see. When we started in June, sometimes the water temperatures are cool, but it looks, we had pretty much the same sign up in June as we did the July months. Any questions about those things pertaining to the pool?

What are the hours of the splash pad again?

10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Yeah, and we're opening it seven days a week, of course, and we'll close that the day after. I don't know if we'll have a ton there this week with the cooler temperatures, but I mean, we still open it daily. People can utilize it if they'd like to. After that swim lesson flyer in your folder, you will see the 2026 shelter house rental report. Now this is just a report of January 1st to Friday, August 21st. So this is the amount of shelter rentals that we've had so far to date. So we've had 310 total and we've brought in $31,625 from those 310 shelter rentals that we've had to date. um the smaller shelters shelter two through nine i mean we will have more rentals in those but those do close from november 1st to may 1st so we're you know just a couple months out to our season wrapping up for those but shelter one is open year round so you'll see we will definitely see that number grow quite a bit more before we get to the end of the year the other flyers in the folder again you can just look through as you would like it's our event schedule that we have for the remaining events for this year We did have a couple events we had to cancel this year just due to lack of participation. We had two adults once scheduled, which we also had last year. We didn't have high attendance last year, but we know not to expect that on a first year event. But to just cover the cost of the event itself, we needed 50 participants to sign up. In one go around, we had 10 sign up and we had 20. So financially, it just didn't make sense to hold the event because we knew going into it what we would be out. So we did cancel both of those. We had a movie night scheduled. We had to reschedule it three times due to rain. So by the time we got to this last time, we canceled that as well. We're not gonna try to reschedule it. A lot of the summer concert series got pushed back because of rain dates. So we're gonna get really busy in September and October with concerts. So we did not have a good date to get that movie in. I say that to say this, one of the next flyers you're going to see, we are having an outdoor movie at the park, but Habitat for Humanity is doing a fundraiser, so they actually bought the cost, or they're paying for the cost to show the movie, so that's no cost to us, but it will be in the grassy field at the park. So that day is pretty exciting. That evening, I should say, we're going to have our Jimmy Nash pumpkin patch event, which this is our sixth year doing that. We usually have 150 to 200 kiddos with their families come out to that and then have a touch showing the movie after that. So that will be a fun night at the park. We have a couple groups who have rented the pickleball courts to do a fundraiser. So last year we started doing a couple of our own pickleball tournaments just because we have requests from the pickleball players to do a tournament. I don't know that we're going to do one this fall just because we have a couple groups now coming to us taking on the cost of that. They do pay a fee to use the pickleball cords, but then they get all the proceeds. So we have two coming up back-to-back, like one September 19th, and then the other one the following week on September 25th. So one is a sorority, and then the other one is Habitat for Humanity.

Your Nate and Kate one, I think that should be September 26th. This looks like it's last year's wire.

Oh, yes, they put that together. They sent it to us, but thank you. Well, I'll get with them because that's what we're sharing on social media too. So I appreciate that. The last flyer you will see for you guys to review is just our summer concert series if you guys are interested in attending. If you get questions of when it is, who's performing, you guys can just have this to help us get that information out. With all of these events, you can find them on our Facebook page. We have some listed on our website. I would encourage you guys, if you don't mind, if you see those events, to share them just to help us get more people to attend our events. That's the funner portion of what I have. Now, we'll do a couple more updates. We are working on our five-year master plan. I'm sure you guys have seen that. So I just want to give an update on where we are with that. At our August board meeting, Pros Consulting, which is the company we're working with, They came out to share their findings with the park board. Those findings came from the social pinpoint that the city has been sharing and that the park has been sharing and community surveys. Proves came out earlier in the year in May to our craft fair and they met with people while they were at the craft fair and they have vision boards that people get to put like colored yardstickers on just to see what's more important to the community. Even though we have wrapped up this survey, it is still posted for people to participate in, and as we do the concerts in September and October, we will take those vision boards with us and still let the community participate and put dotted stickers on the vision boards too, just to see. Pretty standard stuff came back from the findings for that. I can share with you guys via email. what they have found. If you guys would like that, I can send that to you. A lot of it was wanting more walking trails, more community events. A lot of it is they're asking for indoor fitness space. But those were pretty much the top priorities. The next stage will be the recommendations and strategy stage. So they're going to work on that now, taking their findings and thinking of what recommendations they would make to us. Then they're going to work on a rough draft that will get submitted to me mid-October for us to review. At that time, I will send that out to you guys and the park board as well. If there's anything you would like to see changed in that, any concerns you guys have, that would be the time to let me know so I can let them know. Because the rough draft, the first rough draft has to be submitted to DNR no later than November 15th. DNR will take a couple months with it. About the beginning of the year, we will receive the DNR's copy back. They will make their suggestions and edits and say, hey, this looks good. We think you need to work on this. Then we will make those modifications. We'll get our eyes on it again. And then we will submit at the beginning of March for the final draft. This process should be wrapped up. by the end of April if everything goes as planned. So far we've been trucking along and things have been going as planned. So with that comes, then we'll be able to apply for some grants and funding that we currently cannot apply for. That leads me to our pond issue. I'm sure many of you have been by the park and you have seen orange snow beds around the pond. A couple weeks before the 4th of July, we noticed that we had like some sinking going on around the pond. The pond had started to separate a little bit from the rocks. Some holes are popping up around it and just some really soft spots to stand on. So it looks like we have two issues, a drainage issue and an erosion issue. We have the help with Mac Dunn, Frank Lane and Jason from the water department all came out the first couple of days because we weren't sure at the time if we had an underground water leak and it was causing this problem. We had noticed for a long time that we had a softer spot, but since the six years I've been there, that spot has always been a little damp. So we didn't think much about it until this problem came up. So now we've had, like I said, we've had other city workers come out and look at it. We've had Morgan County Water and Soil come out and look at it. We've had some pond specialists come out and look at it. And it really just seems like, like I said, it's two issues, a drainage issue that was probably not done properly years ago, and it's just catching up with us, and some erosion issues. I don't have a fix at this time. We're still waiting on a couple companies to come out and kind of quote it and see what we need to do to fix it the right way. I know it's going to be very costly. If we do nothing with it this year, we have the opportunity to apply for grant, DNR grants, when we get the five-year master plan done. But again, that has to fall on the right time. You know, do we get our master plan done and we fall within the grant timeframe to write a grant. But most of those grants do require that the city would have to match the funding of the grant. So it's kind of do we find, I would like to fix it properly, but do we find a cheap fix now or do we let it go right now because we're gonna get to the winter months and things are going to freeze up and we revisit it when the five-year master plan is done. But I'm waiting right now for the companies to come out, give us some bids so we know what we're looking at and what price point and take their recommendation. Again, as you drive by and you see that, we are not ignoring the situation. We're very aware of it and we talk about it every day. We just do not have the perfect answer at this time. But never hesitate to reach out if you have questions or if you wanna come out and walk and look at it, that's fine too. Any questions on that? I'll do my best to answer.

So are you wanting to get it done now? Is that what you're saying?

No, we're not sure when we want to get it done. We just are getting prices right now to see how much it will cost so we can prepare or make that decision after we know what the cost is. So yeah, we're not saying we want to get it done now. But yeah, it's definitely something I know we'll be talking about again this year to decide if we want to work on it now or hold it off until 2027. Also, other bad news that has happened at the park. Our hill mower mowed its last hill about two months ago. We have been mowing the hill with demo mowers. So we're trying to be creative. I mean, we also have to have demo mowers to see what we like, but they're bringing us demo mowers so we can mow the hill. We can get the same mower we currently have been using for the last seven years, which is a Cub Cadet for roughly $20,000. I'm still looking for cost-friendly options that can get the job done better. While we know the cupcake that can do it, it's probably not necessarily ideal for the size of that hill either. But like I said, we're still doing research. We're going to see if we can get a couple more demos and find something that can get the job done at a good price. I've also been looking into grants for that. Those do seem harder to find for mowers because most people look at that as an operational cost. So again, we'll get it. we'll make sure it's mowed this year this is something i would like to wrap up by the end of this year and purchase a new mower but we want to purchase the right thing so we're just taking our time on it and not rushing into any decisions and that is all i have unless you guys have any questions how long have we had that mower seven years Yeah, as I said, we know that mower can do the job. It's not necessarily designed for that, but we've had three mowers come out, and we really like one, and it can really do the job, and you have to buy attachments separately, but it's pricey, so that's why I'm trying to look for some additional funding to see if that's something we can possibly make work. There is a... The mower show, too, in October, I think a couple of my guys are going to go, too, just because they can demo some stuff there in one room with tons of mowers. Maybe get some good finds or deals looking there, too. Thanks. Thank you, guys.

Thank you, Ashley.

Thank you.

In their new business this evening, Mr. Coffey, we've got a second reading consideration ordinance 2026-1920. We introduced this two weeks ago.

It's cleaning up some of our municipal code that contradict each other with the new fire code we put in chapter 38. This is covered and so the current chapter 66 article 2 section 37 needs to be repealed. So that's what this is all about. I was asking you for your consideration tonight in regards to the second reading of Ordinance 2026-1920.

I make a motion that we approve Ordinance 2026-1920, Ordinance Repealing Chapter 66.

I'll second. Motion made and seconded to approve Ordinance 2026-1920. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Next on the agenda is Ordinance 2026-1921, established in Maple Hills, Penn, Cheyenne.

Good evening, Mayor Koston and Martinsville Common Council. Thank you for hearing me yet again. I feel like I've been at every meeting for the past two months, so I appreciate your guys' time. I have a handout, but Mac usually has it printed out for you guys if you don't have it. There you go. Cool. I'm here for the... Second reading of the Maple Hills PUD. I'm Cheyenne Hoffa, the Entitlements Manager with Four Star Group. We are a residential land developer, and we are looking to rezone a property that will have an entrance on State Road 44 for a residential neighborhood with a minimum lot width of 50 feet. We have currently proposed 159 lots in this PUD. working with staff members of plan commission as well compared to the hannah farms neighborhood that we have had approved a few years back off artesian these are all going to be the larger of those lot sizes and then these also are going to have some additional brick requirements compared to that pud this pud will also have some language about anti-monotony that will require that you can't build the same house the same color right next door to each other which I don't think it's happening at Hanna Farms, but it just puts in an extra layer of protection that we can kind of make sure there's not two monotonous streetscapes throughout. Pages six through eight or nine have some home renderings from our two most likely home builder clients, D.R. Horton and Arbor Homes. Again, this PUD would allow for the narrower product that is being built on the 40 foot lots at Hanna Farms right now, but the lots are all gonna be that 50 foot wide. lot so i am happy to answer any questions that you guys may have tonight

yes i do have a question i appreciate your quickness on the correspondence that we had but just wanted to reiterate from the last council meeting when you said that you discussed with the fire department did you speak with martinsville fire department on the comfortability with the side setbacks yes so we've had we actually they came to our first meeting that we had about the the maple hills pud and that's actually where we removed all the 40 foot logs because they were not comfortable with those and the

tightness of that many lots in a dense area, but they weren't comfortable with the 10-foot total side yard separation there that we were going to retain on these 50-foot lots.

Chief Green, does that sound accurate?

When was this meeting?

This was probably six months ago at least. We sat down and we decided that we did not like the 40-foot lots.

The 40-foot lots we don't like. What's going to be the distance between the houses? 10 feet.

which is the same that's at Hannah Farms right now.

I thought we'd make the discussion that that was going to be a blighter. Right now, 10 foot is just so close. But I thought we'd already had that discussion that we went to 50 feet to make them wider so we didn't run into that 10 foot spacing.

And I mentioned this to you as well. not all the home products are going to be the maximum width, which is on a 50 foot lot, the widest the house can be is 40 feet. So of all of the offerings, Arbor and Horton both do offer 40 foot homes, but they also offer some that are 38 foot wide, even down to 32 foot wide homes. So there will be, not all of the homes will be that 10 feet apart, but that is the minimum in the PUD.

that yeah that was i guess a misunderstanding on my part as well i thought the 40 foot loss were the larger concern there and i'd like to get with charlie on that because i know he's part of that yes okay i apologize charlie wasn't i know the fire marshal was there yes yes and i'd like i'd like to get his uh recollection of what was discussed on that as well if you don't mind because it's 10 feet is I mean, we're just, it's going to be tough to fight fire when we have one at 10 feet. So if you don't mind, let me have a discussion with the employees.

So this correspondence was that we had the UDO was originally six feet.

And that's the PUD. With the PUD, we aim to gain some flexibility when we do PUD versus street zoning. And I know when we met, and this was probably over six months ago, we met with the mayor, Mac, and Charlie. I'm so sorry. I thought that maybe you were Charlie. So I'm so sorry. I know I had met him. Um, so that, that, you know, we had talked about maybe doing wider setbacks and the, because we wanted to retain 40 foot lots or maybe 42 foot lots or to try. And that was that we did not want that smaller lot size. And that was the larger of the concern there. I know I mentioned as well, we do work throughout. you know, the greater Indianapolis area. We have a lot of projects in Hornsville, which is where I live as well. And we, they are like across the board, do five foot side yard setbacks there. And I know, uh, Indiana state code, that's the minimum requirement there as well as five feet without having to have extra, uh, building protections within, um, that building material.

Chief, what is a good number? Like what would you like to see?

But I would like to see the house not lined up so when the fire's blowing out the side of it, it's not already taking the next house by the time you get there. And so that's what we'd like to see is alteration, you know, staggering. That would be better.

So maybe like a variable front yard setback there, which is definitely something that we could agree to because these lots are 130 feet deep. So we definitely, right now the front yard setback is 25 feet. We could, you know, I've done between like 22 and we go as deep as sometimes 30 feet front yard setback. So then it would be, the houses would be kind of staggered a little bit. No two homes could be that same 25 feet from the roadway. They kind of vary.

I mean, that helps. That certainly helps. Again, before I make any kind of decisions on that, I definitely want to give the fire marshal, just from the standpoint of making sure that we're doing our due diligence on the safety of our people. I get that everything is about size and I get all that, but I was under the impression that we went to the larger law side is to create more space between and it's a big concern. I mean, it is a big concern. And I know that that's just a little bit further out. I know there's a fire department close by, but we're still We're still a long way from Hannah Farms, from Barnesville Fire Department. And I'm afraid if one gets filming, we're gonna have multiples. So nobody's gonna like to hear that, but you know, I think, Captain Collier, I think you would agree that we would be struggling, any department would struggle unless you're right outside the door of where it's at. And at which point, maybe you can get a quick knock on it. But let me get with, let me get with So, Mr. Coffey, if this is tabled for a third reading,

and they want to change the setbacks, is this something then that goes back to the Planning Commission?

No, it doesn't necessarily have to. It depends on how major the change is, but something such as setbacks doesn't necessarily have to go back before the Planning Commission. The Council can do it.

So I do have another quick question on that. So have we discussed at all with Chief Lake with Washington Township Fire Department? Because I know they're closer in reality to that. Have we talked about that? Because what would you think your estimated arrival time would be if something were to start ripping on that?

Well, we're going to be at least

in the five minute mark at least yeah i mean from the time the bus goes off to get ready to get there uh you're probably looking at the five minute mark and they're going to be obviously a lot closer yeah so if we looped have we looked at looping them i know it's the city of martinsville but have we looped them in the road the language of this at all or kept them in the circle on that they're not

they're not they're not in on this on the pud no okay the only thing correct me chief would be a situation would be mutual aid right i think we want to discuss this a little bit more and again i guess i was a little bit under a different thought process i'm sorry no i understood i

And I know I've talked with Charlie a couple different times about we met and talked about the side yard setbacks and that lot size and then also about the entry road. So I have been in communication with him as we've gone along with this to make sure that he's comfortable with a couple number of different things as this project has changed.

I will get with him.

so council what's what's your wish i think we have to table i mean that's why we asked i know i didn't you know i thought you'd ask last time we want to make sure we met all the city requirements we're happy with last time because i want to make sure we didn't get to this point and here we are so but i think we have no choice but to do that i'll make the motion to table this second

There's been a motion made and seconded to the table of the ordinance 2026-1921. We're going to have a third meeting at the next meeting. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Okay, motion passes. And, Cheyenne, if you want to give the Chief Green some of his information and let me know when you're meeting.

Perfect.

I know you guys just wanted to see me again next time. Thank you. Thank you. Next is resolution 2026-0724, establishing cashless and electronic payment procedures. Mr. Merriman.

so before tonight for your considerations resolution 2026-0724 this is just establishing procedures for the day in which we go cashless or just receive electronic payments that date has not been established so i want to make that clear we're just trying to get ahead of the game and make sure that we have our processes and procedures in order You'll note that a lot of it doesn't really change anything from how we do it now. We just wanted to document it and make sure that everybody was comfortable with it so when we do make that change that everybody's familiar and comfortable with the process. Your claims approval cycle will still be the same, dockets will still be the same, all that will remain the same. We just wanted to get that in writing and get it approved so we're all on the same page.

Any questions for Mr. Maryland? Yes. Will there be, when we go to this, is there going to be a fee like we do with the water utilities on that?

No. So if we, once we do accept ACH or electronic payments, there will not be a fee to the user.

Now are we able to change that with water utilities, or is it still going to stay the same?

Once we switch softwares at the end of the year, that will be changing. So it will no longer be a fee to the resident to pay for their bill online. Thank you. You're welcome.

I'll make a motion to approve the consideration of resolution 2026-0724, Establishing Cashless Electronic Payment Procedures.

Second. Motion made and seconded to approve the resolution for establishing cashless electronic payment procedures. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, none. Motion carries, thank you. Next one is resolution 2026-0725, establishing pinning rounding procedures.

with the circulation of pennies no longer being available again nothing that we set a timeline to do anytime soon we're going to drag this out as long as we can but eventually we're not going to be able to get pennies we're not going to be able to make exact change so Again, this is just getting a procedure and policy in place for when that day happens so we can round change for the folks. Obviously this will only be in effect as long as we're accepting cash, but we thought it'd be good just to get a process in place. So far it has not been an issue. We are still getting pennies. We are still doing that, but when that day comes when we can no longer get those, then we want to be prepared for that.

I make a motion we accept resolution 2026-0725. I second.

A motion made and seconded to approve the resolution for establishing penny rounding procedures. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed no. Motion carries. Mr. Merida, you're up again for ordinance 2026-1924, the 2027 budget.

So you're stuck with me again. So before you for first readings, we won't be taking any action tonight is ordinance 2026-1924. This is the budget for 2027. You will note this is unchanged from our workshop that we had in June. I did meet with our DLGF rep earlier today just to get their input and feedback on this budget. They are in full support of it. Just for your records, this is a decrease in budget. So our budget from this year to next year will be going down a total of 4.23%, which should translate to a reduction in our tax rate. So obviously that's all in. Estimation process right now, but it looks like our tax rate for next year will be gone from 1.14, which it is now to about 1.09 next year, so. Our debt is down. Our request for funding is down in our tax levy is decreased, so DLGF is. And they are very positive and very appreciative of the city of Martinsville's hard work in this.

Any comments or questions for Mr. Merida at this time?

Thank you to Mr. Merida and your office and administration. Thank you for being aggressive with paying down debt and helping clean up our tax rates and get that done. Thank you.

As this is the first reading to be on the agenda, the next meeting is the second reading. Any council comments this evening? I have some.

Over around Sycamore and South Street, if you go around that little park there, on one side, there's a stop sign. On the other side, there's a yield sign.

You yield to the right, and it's stopping when you go left because of the traffic. I don't know what you're saying. South Sycamore Street's coming out, and they can turn left there. That's the traffic, the full traffic, and that's why they kept it that way. You hear that?

It seemed like it'd be confusing to young drivers.

We have a couple tricky spots. We have Sharma State and some other we've discussed before.

Okay. We'll ask Chief Malloy to look at that. He's getting pretty good at that.

Yeah. Checking those areas.

I just want to again thank the water department for all their overtime and work that they did on the, you know, in conjunction with the rain and high water and the flooding, and also the fire department for helping our neighbors up north. It's very much appreciated.

Any other comments from council? Any more from the public this evening? If you state your name and address, in which hat are you wearing?

I'm wearing, I'm proudly Commissioner Brian Collier, District 1, 190 North 4th Street. On behalf of the commissioners and the employees of the county, we'd like to thank our city, our sister city, our partner, for opening up your doors in a time of need. when we had to shut down the judicial center for a couple weeks. I know the clerk was over here. I know the council set their budget in the police station. The only room that I had problems as a commissioner getting in was the mayor's office. They said I couldn't sit behind his desk. So I need to thank MacDonald for keeping me out of there. but no seriously we have a serious situation that was being addressed and your help in getting through that helps serve the taxpayers for the whole county. So thank you very very much.

Glad we could help. The next regular meeting of the council will be on Monday, September 14th, 2026. We get it at seven o'clock here in the council chambers. We are adjourned.

Amen.