Town Council - Regular Meeting

meeting to order. Everyone, please rise for the pledge. 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. Let the record reflect Mr. Calhoun is absent tonight. All other council members are present.

Pastor Brown, would you like to start us off tonight? Sure. Let's pray. Our heavenly father, we give you thanks for the other day. Father, we thank you for seeing us through this storm and keeping us safe. We thank you, Father, for our town, our community. Thank you for the way you've blessed us so faithfully for all these many decades. And I just pray for this meeting tonight. We ask for your blessings on it that you guide the discussion and any decisions that are made. Father, let those be in the best interest of the community. And I thank you and I pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, sir. All right, Jennifer, do you have a list of the appointments? Um, yes, I do. Um, uh, first one will be um, council president. I would like to nominate Murray Dixon to be to be our council president for 2026. I'll second that. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Next will be our utility superintendent.

We don't currently have one and I don't think we have we're prepared to uh name one tonight. So, what do we do? We just table. Can we get a motion to uh should we motion? I'll move that we table utility superintendent. Total positions filled. Is there a second? I'll second that. All in favor? I. Next will be street superintendent.

I would like to uh nominate or discuss appointing Luke Brown as our street superintendent for the year 2026. I'll second that. Do you do you have a list of what the duties are for that? Um it's in our um salary ordinance is all what we there's a job description. Um is it everything he already is doing pretty much?

Uh part of it I mean there's things with like the the road inventory and ordering salt and stuff like that, but those are kind of detail uh items. I don't know how familiar you are with either of those, but I know you've been doing like vehicle maintenance and stuff like that. So,

I'm very familiar with Salt B. Uh I uh just being honest and fully transparent right now. I would I would need uh I would have questions when working with papavers, you know, at first until I get a little better with that. I have resources and people I can reach out to for that, but never done that before. So, but you feel confident that you could handle anything they throw at you? Yeah. Yes. Is it something you want to do? It is.

Pam, you second it. Second. We got a motion and a second. All in favor? I I thank you guys. Thank you, please. Appreciate it. Next will be um town labor, which is really what Luke was still. I mean that still falls within that I believe. Yes. I'll nominate Lou and continue to be our town labor.

That also include Matt or No, he's he's part-time. I don't I mean until we had somebody that was full-time, I don't know that that transition would be appropriate. I mean I don't know. Okay, I'll second it. All in favor? I I Next will be uh building commissioner.

It's currently Rick Viper. Uh he um I did have a conversation with him a couple months ago. He's very interested in continuing to do it. Uh he did have and this is a separate discussion I believe that we probably need to have with the attorneys too. He did have a question about compensation, if it would be possible to do a percentage of each permit rather than a stipen. U and I didn't think that was a terrible idea. I just don't know if there's a legal mechanism that would enable us to do that. Um because some of some of these some of these uh are very simple. They take 15 20 minutes, but some of them he has to invest quite a bit of time in and that's pulling away from from other work. So some of them just aren't worth it to do. Obviously he still does them, but it it's becomes a hardship to him at some point. Um so um as far as I know though, he's he's still happy doing the job. He just would like to have that discussion at some point.

Okay. Is that something we would need to amend the salary? Yeah, but we need to we need to figure out if we can even do it. Okay. I'll nominate Rick Feifer as the building commissioner. Second. All in favor? I I Next is code enforcement.

I'll nominate Luke for that as well since he's currently doing that. I'll second. Is that something you want to keep doing? It's a difficult position to fill. So, we appreciate that you've done it till now. But I do I do I just uh our our past year year and a half's been crazy, you know, and so

I've kind of fallen into a position that I didn't have a a title or pay for. Now I do as of five minutes ago, but to balance it all has been difficult. Um, I have made changes in my uh personal life that will allow me to to spend more time on that. So, I mean to answer your question, yeah, I am interested in continuing that. Okay, we've got a motion. Did we have a second? Second. All in favor? I. Okay. A festival clerk.

I will nominate. That's you, right? Jennifer Farley to be our festival clerk. All in favor? I obviously recording.

And our next is town attorney. We're Nick, Loy, Albbright, Gordon, and CB believe is their name now. I'm move that we keep our established attorney. I'll second that. All in favor? I I Next is our financial institution which is First Merchants. I make a motion we Is that where you want to keep the money? It's fine. I make a motion that we keep the money in First Merchants or have our be our financial institution. Are they in Tipton? No vote. No.

Jennifer, how does that work? What are the qualifications for a financial institution? They have to be approved by state board of accounts. Okay. Is the is the first thing. Does it have to be a bank? It can't be a credit union or does it matter or I'd have to just I just have to look at what's on their list, you know, because I'm not sure about that. I'm just curious. I don't know of a a reason to change. I just didn't know what those qualifications are. So, All right, we've got a motion, correct? Yes. I'll second. All in favor? I Is all of our money in one bank? Mhm.

I believe other than there's a Trust Indiana account. Oh, I think through the state of Indiana, um council meeting dates and times. We're currently second and fourth Mondays at 6 pm. Is that uh all right with everybody? Works for me. I move that we keep them current. Second to fourth Monday at 6. Second. Okay. All in favor? I. Next are festival meetings.

They're currently um the first following the first council meeting. They're the first council meeting of the month. Every month following the the council meeting. Yes. I make a motion we keep the festival meetings the same. Second that. All in favor? I I um next will be our plan commission meetings. We we need to have one quarterly and uh but then we could we we set it for quarterly but then if if we need to Yeah. If we need to have a meeting, then we've set it at 5:30 before the second council meeting is how it was.

Does it make sense to just schedule them every month for the prior to the second meeting? If there's nothing on the agenda, we can cancel it. Just cancel them. We can do that. That would give us 12 a year potential. That's fine with me. Without having to do anything, you know, we'd just be advertising for it all the time. It doesn't we don't have to we don't have to specialize like if we're talking about something we don't have to special that it would just be you're giving you're giving notice that there's going to be a hearing correct but it just a special public hearing or anything right a regular meeting and it would get cancelled if there was no business to discuss. Okay.

Yeah. And these all these meetings will be I'll send this all to the reporter um and it will go in one time and then um so then if we have to cancel the plan commission meeting I'll just put it on the door. No council no plan commission meeting tonight. I make a motion that we have a planning commission meeting before the second meeting of council meeting of the month and at 5:30 at 5:30 as needed. I'll second that. All in favor?

And the last one is um we could do this in our reports or we could just go ahead and do it now. It is um the EMA representative, which has been Tim for the last several years. Are you okay with continuing? I'm more than okay with it. I enjoy it. I move that we appoint Tim representative to the I'll second. All in favor? Hi.

Okay, that uh can we can we circle back to Luke as street superintendent? So, with the street superintendent, so um his pay as far as that goes, like right now he's just getting um paid through the town labor. Do you want him to go ahead? Are you guys going to talk about his salary and putting him at this superintendent salary or I think we need to figure out what that'll be and the reason being there's only so much money in roads and streets, right? So,

the biggest part of your street superintendent um pay comes out of MBH. Um and then um as the labor, a small portion comes out of MBH. So, right now, um, of course, we haven't been using the, uh, the street superintendent MBH money. So, um, but just giving you guys that's how that's how that works. So, what's currently put aside for street commissioner?

Um, I think it's like, um, it's like 17,000 I think. Um, I'd have to I could look at our salary ordinance. Yes, that will be our new Yeah, 1778650 is what um, So, I don't know if you guys want to adjust the salary to fit the title. Is that something we should do in an executive session? If you guys want to discuss it in executive session, we can. I think that makes sense.

U as much as I would like to throw 17 on top of what you already make. I don't know if we're in the position to do that because we have other positions to fill, right? So, we might technically have to drop part of your what you would get as laborer. You still make more. Does that make sense? You would make more. It's just a matter of how how it actually looks on paper. Yeah, I trust you guys. Okay. I'm trying to feed it a little people up there.

So, do you want to send an executive session? We can do it under employee. Um, this is certain criteria. So, you could do it at employee discussion. I'm not good on Tuesdays, but other than that,

it's whatever you guys. Um, this week I've got Thursday and then next week I have any day Monday through Thursday. Would it would it behoove us to have it before a council meeting because obviously we can't make any decisions? It doesn't matter. It just we're going to have to amend the salary ordinance.

So that so if we could do it the week prior to the council at least the week prior there could be some time to have that document ready. Okay. I hear I can do Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. of next week. February 2nd, Monday is now. Is that enough time? Is a week enough time to get Yeah. publicized? Yeah, I think we can wait. 48 hours. How's some time on Monday sound to everybody? Good. It's morning or evening? I don't care.

I don't know. I don't know what schedule is since it's executive session morning. What? 9:00 10 o'clock? 9 o'clock would be best. 9 o'clock on Monday on February the 2nd. Yes, ma'am. Groundhog Day by the way. Good. Okay. All right. I'll get that advertised then. Okay. That should be it as far as appointments go. So,

okay. All right. Uh, we have meeting minutes from December 29th. I'll make a motion that we approve the minutes from the last meeting. We have a motion and a second. All in favor?

I. I. and we'll start into our reports. Beginning with Luke,

I don't have a written report tonight code, but I did send information over to our attorneys about the property cross 19 um for what I think he called an injunction hearing for that. Um, there is a new problem property like lookswise, I guess you could say. It's like right down here. And that'll be the next one that I send over to them. I just need to keep making attempts to contact him. It gets kicked back through the mail. That's been the past two weeks. Uh, so and then so I've done like several parking at the subdivision, especially when I it makes it difficult. Um some trash cans all that type of stuff pops up and utility wise just uh we ser recently I've been uh I've been cutting my comp time quite a bit but I've taken off a lot of time lately. So really that's all I got.

Okay. Questions for Luke? Don't have any questions. I just have a comment. Thank you Luke for the snow removal. I know it was a a challenge. That was crazy. This a big snow event. That's the biggest snow. I know we've had bigger snows than that, but yeah, but this is the biggest one we've had in I don't know. years when you get up when you I agree with Fred. Thank you very much. But could you look at the two east west roads uh down there by 19 I forget the names of there's only it's only one lane is Adams. No. No, he's talking down by him. Jackson and Monroe Madison. Okay.

The first one and the second one by there. That curve on Indiana likes to drift up too. Okay. Yeah. So So it it's not important. I mean there is it's passable but if you get a minute so basically the way I was taught was like especially with snow like this. Um we'll just be plowing like what I call grid plowing. That's touching every single street with your blade. Um we'll be doing that for the next few days. It'll drift. We'll we'll hit it. People will shovel our cars out. We'll be put in the street. cars that weren't moved will move and then there'll be a car shaped pile of snow there. We'll

just stuff like that. But we'll be we our piles will be on our trucks for at least another week. Uh just I came that way and I noticed that both of those roads were single lane. Okay. So I don't know if they don't get much traffic, but yeah. Then you cleared Yeah. If you get a minute, it's not I will I'll do it again. Right. Clean it up a little. And then also our our salt is getting pretty low. Um I've reached out to Cargo. It seems that they're behind on delivering to almost everybody. Um I was

uh going to try to make contact with them, but if you want to do that, she she can we so I called her, she didn't answer. She called me back. And I missed the call. I called her back. She didn't answer. literally back and forth. And so there's been six phone calls placed. U three on my end, three on her end. Um so but I think I already know what she's going to say because I've read email chains from like Caramel, uh Noblesville, and everybody is in the same boat. Everybody's running out of salt. The people we get salt from are running out of salt. So, and uh the majority of this salt comes from a a mine in Detroit, Michigan, and it gets trained uh it gets brought here by a train car. So, it's it's pretty uh difficult times right now. So, I'm so I'm using this sparingly. If I if I don't saw and you guys think, well, why any salt? It's because we're under

Could we possibly just maybe hit intersections? Yes. Yeah, especially where our four-way stops are. And I think, you know, if we could concentrate on those, just keep an eye on how slick stuff gets. I mean, it's if it's a hard snow pack and you can drive on it reasonably, right? Correct. That's what I was just going to say, too. Temperature this this week, it's going to be cold all week. We might luck out. I don't know. It's going to be too cold for salt ir I was hoping I'd wake up this morning and um it would look different than it did in the dark and it did not. And I was like

I know. But just always remember I'm always thinking about it. I'm never just like, "Oh, I'm always I figured you had a plan." I do. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. But I do have a plan. All right, Jennifer, what do you have for us tonight?

Um, couple things um in your packet. You have We'll We'll move to festival just a little bit. There's the festival resolution um application rules um to review. So, we can have that hopefully passed at our next council meeting. That way, we can get our applications out. Um we've already been contacting um sponsorships um entertainment restrooms. So so it's it's starting up again. So if we can get this taken care of at our ne next meeting then we can um go ahead and get our applications um mailed out for our vendors. Um policy handbook had a policy handbook meeting with Kathy. Um we reviewed everything. um she is going to make those changes, send it back to me. She would like to have a meeting with each of you and she said whatever you guys decide. Um you know, she's um she's going to try and work it out because she would just like that. There was a few things that we talked about that you kind of wanted changes on and she was kind of like um wasn't quite sure if maybe they should have been changed. So she said that she would like to end and to talk about the um exempt and non-exempt. So, she would like to have a meeting with you guys. Um, so

we just schedule a special meeting and she could call in or come here. She's gonna come in. She's coming in actually. That way she can answer any questions whatsoever. We could do it before or after the special meeting Monday. She have time on Monday on next on the February 2nd. Yeah. Yeah. I can I will call her and let her know and then let's let's do another date just in case she doesn't have that one and then I can let you guys know. Um I'm good. Any evening anytime except Tuesday evenings? So either Wednesday or Thursday maybe next week. That's fine.

I can't do Wednesday like 10 to two. Sure. Other than that, is she available evenings? Yes, she is too. So, day. Do we want to do it maybe like right before the council meeting or that' be the 9th or we want to get it done before then? We could do five o'clock on the 9th. That be that work for everybody? Works for me. Yeah. Okay. I'll I'll Is an hour an hour be long enough? You think? Sure. I think so. I think so.

We'll just do it as a special meeting. It'll be open to the public, but we'll we'll be able to work our way through those. Okay. I'll give her both of those dates and see which one works for her. So, it'll either be what? 9:30 we'll say on the 2nd or say 10:00 just just on the second or or five on the the ninth and then once I find out I'll let you guys know for sure that one. Okay. Um let me see what else I got here.

Um in your report you have um Alex's annual report. Um, and then the we were we we do have our our we made our have our deposit of $441,367.50 went into the general fund. Um, in your packet you have um I've talked with First Merchants and they are running CD promotions, but then also they have a money market promotion or Trust Indiana. So, as far as that goes, um, first merchants, they have a 3.5% for 6 months. That's, um, a money market savings. There are no, you can, we can use it.

Um, now on the CDs, you'll be penalized if we put it in there. But if we put it in that money market, um, we will not be penalized if we need it. Um, and that that's is kind of the same way with Trust Indiana. Trust Indiana is right now at um 3.65%. How much did you say that would deposit what? Um $441,367.50.

Why wasn't at the 450? Because there were fees taken out. We had to pay in one and a half%. First merchants is 10 or 3.10 right now. First merchants perman say by 3.1 3.1 that would be like $1,500 every every month is first merchant is 3 3.5 the first merchants is 3.5 so it would be that'd be a better deal 310 310 310

right that's 3.1 where this is 3.51. So this is 350 and a half three and a half and then and trust Indiana is right now at 3.65. That's the better deal is that and that's through the state of Indiana. So what is that number they're going to what's that mean? That's the interest rate. How much of interest they're going to give us on that money every month? Well, and calculated by the year. Oh, but

so like um for example like our um our Dolly's Park um that used to be in the CD it was like a little just a little over 50,000. So we've had it at Trust Indiana and right now it's about 56,000. Um we've got from our water project um we have our debt reserve that's been at Trust Indiana u to uh the beginning of that was like 46 and 46,000 and some and it's now up to um like 50,000 you know so um and that's all at Trust Indiana who

and Trust Indiana is through the state of Indiana and Um, so I can take any of the money without council approval and put it over there because we are able that's that's our money and there's no stipulations on that. So as far as we need it, we can use it. We can use it. What's the interest rate on that one? Is that 3.65? So in a year 10% would be Now granted, these were up to like 5 something. They're dropping. Yes, they are dropping.

I got a question. Um, that might been put in the general fund, correct? Right now, it's just sitting there to decide what they want to do with it. I thought it was earmarked for specific. It had to be it had to be receded into the general fund and now now we're going to move it somewhere where it is specific to the park. the same one with 56,000. Mhm. I mean, if they want to do that, they want to do that. If they want to do that, I'm waiting on them to Is it a separate is it a separate wait? No, it would. The park fund is where Indiana right now park fund is at trust Indiana. Okay.

If you want to add this to that, I can do a sub fund under that where we can take to where it can you can see what we're using from it. You want to do that now or later? I mean, do you want to do it now or later in the I mean, you just tell me where you guys want it. And I think I think Trust Indiana, we should go for the highest return. Yeah. Okay. I make a motion that we move $441,367.50 proceeds from the Ball Diamonds into the park account. And it's earmarked for only park use. Correct.

There's a line item on your fund report right here. Yep. Has a current balance of $55,875.19. So that would give us almost5 million. Uhhuh. 3.65. Is that compounded every month or quarter or what? Monthly. Monthly. We have a motion to move the uh proceeds of the ball diamond sale to Rust Indiana at 3.65% currently. Is there a second for that? Second. All in favor? I I It's also earmarked to for that use. Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer, I have a question. How often do they adjust those rates? I mean, is that a fixed rate or is that a is that just a current rate? It fluctuates with They fluctuate daily. Daily. So it's not a fixed rate. If the Fed drops the rate again by a quarter point, that rate's going down. Sure. Now on the on the um the money market for first merchants at the um 3.5 that would have been fixed for six months. Is that CD or that's just that's just a money. Okay. Our historic

returns with the CD have been pretty poor. I know the rates are higher right now, but uh while while the money markets are doing what they're doing right now, I I'm in favor of parking the money there. We should leave it. I wonder though if with the sixmonth guaranteed rate, what are the chances that it's going to go down in the other account if we put it in first or in the first merchants for six months guaranteed at 3.5. It's just a yeah roll of the dice.

If you're chasing interest rates, you're going to be losing losing money in the long run. Um, other than that, I've talked with Jim Higgins concerning the annexation and he is going to because we talked to him about the um fiscal impact for the park for the roads and the annexation. So, he's going to be working on that all that and have something to ask for that. And then other than that, W2s, 1099s, 100R, key billings closed out. Um, starting to close out key fund and then I'll be starting the annual report. And that's all I have.

Can I ask you a stupid question? And I know the answer to this. So on our W2s, Mhm. it was 4 cents more. Is that a rounding error? It's just how it works. That's how it works. Yes. I just wondered. Yeah. What's was up with that? But yeah, it's about my wife T's been saying you got a raise. Any other questions for Jennifer? All right. Uh let's go ahead and do your EMA report.

Uh went to the emergency management meeting this past Thursday. Um the highlights of that meeting, there's a new president. He is the Westfield Fire Chief, I believe. I didn't catch his name. Um the highlights of the new 911 uh EOC building is being constructed right now and they're going to move in the first quarter of 2027. Um it's a huge building going to hold all their operation stuff. The public safety training center construction is going to begin this summer. That's where they're going to have firing range and the training for all officers and fire safety EMS. Um they also had the record number of volunteers um this year. They saved in salary they saved over $300,000 that they wouldn't have to pay someone because of all the number of volunteers. So if anybody wants to volunteer, you can ask me and I'll put you in touch with somebody. Um there was I believe they said the biggest training exercise in the country. It was held in November

at the is it Ruof now? Um I don't know. Did you participate in that? And I guess there was fire, EMS, police, state police, pretty much everybody from around was was in on that. Uh it was huge from what I understand. They showed a video of it. Um they had active shooter training, they had fire training, they had all kinds of stuff going on. I think it was over a week, wasn't it?

Yeah, it was all an active shooter scenario. Uh they varied the scenario each time. They had outside consulting firm come in to basically run the the the training and vary the scenarios and and you know act asalants and and uh they said they had volunteers laying there on the ground for six or eight hours. There were there were an incredible amount of volunteers. It was it was impressive. You did you think it was worthwhile training? Yeah. Yeah. Put you on the spot there. You can't say no on. No. Right. It's hard to make any training uh realistic, but they did a pretty good job.

They also The other things that to mention would be uh there's having a weather spotting. If you want to be a weather spotter, they're having training at the Caramel Fire Station on March 13th. So, you can go be a certified weather spotter if you want anybody. It's open to anybody in Hamilton County. So, that's it. Any questions for Tim?

Thanks for doing that. Appreciate you being uh willing to do that. Old business. Uh we've got our CCMG um mill and resurface cover sheet that needs to be signed by everybody. Um so this is for the the paving project that's upcoming. Um Jennifer, all the advertisements that they came up with have been put in the paper, right? So, we're currently accepting bids for uh an upcoming paving and sidewalk project um that we've put together over the last couple months. We were awarded our grant, which is awesome. Um and it's an 8020 uh deal. So, um basically any streets that haven't been done in the last 5 10 years, we're finally getting done. um plus a couple that have been but have some issues. Um and then anywhere any of those that have sidewalks adjacent to them, the sidewalk is also wrapped into the project to replace that sidewalk. So, um we're going to end up with a patchwork of decent sidewalks around town and hopefully eventually we can connect the dots, but um at least it's an opportunity to that we have available to us to start replacing some. Sure. uh and uh gets us closer to our goal of of finally tackling that issue that people have been complaining about since I was little. Um so we're making some progress. Uh but um as it stands, this uh we've got a um cover sheet that needs to be signed by everybody that then goes together with the the whole packet. Um, so

now here on Walnut Street, Murray, uh, I know the paving and the sidewalks, there are sidewalks on both sides of that street for parts of it on both sides. Um, so like for example, down there by the Yeah, you can't put in new. You can replace existing. What if we find What if we can find old? We can replace it. Um, but but we did quite a bit of looking and I think we've only found what we found. So, for example, that there by the um by Fletcher Park, like all that's gone. So, there's nothing there. There's nothing there to replace.

Um but further up the block in front of Parker's house and heading north, there's sidewalk that's been buried. We can replace that. Is that on this current? Correct. Okay. That was my question. that sidewalk. It actually continues on north. And so part of what goes north of Meridian is good on that side of the road, but the parts that aren't like there's no ramp that would get done and then it would connect up to the uh the bar parking lot. So whatever part there that's grass, there will be sidewalk. So So that all gets it as correct as the west side, too. Yes. Okay. Yep. That was my question. Yeah. Yeah. whatever whatever we can replace we worked it into the project

to main on the west side right and then and then partial on the other partial on the east side and right here is this um right here that's the full breakdown there's a couple little adjustments that they made they came out and surveyed there is that newer than when we met that's no that's so like for example down on Jackson Street um by uh Um Jod Jod's house,

there's a point in their driveway where the sidewalk crosses the driveway. They had to make some adjustments to redo part of that uh just because of the grade. For ADA requirements, you can only have I think it's one or two% grade, something like that. Um so anything they put in, they want it to to meet that standard. And so the part of their driveway between the sidewalk and the street I think is going to end up getting replaced too, but it's all worked into the project. Is that going to go sidewalk going to go across the alleyway too? It is. Yep. And anywhere it crosses the alley that's it's extra thick. Okay. Um so any trucks going across it should never break it.

Okay. um out there at the subdivision, some of those streets, they've got some weird where there used to be trench cuts or something. There's some little dips and then also the streets are the original portion's real flat and so they're going to make repairs where necessary and then when they repave they're going to introduce some crown into the street so it flows better to the gutters. It's it's the the crown so inverted if I plow down the center it leaves a patch Yeah. on the sides because it's an inverted. Yeah.

So, they're gonna they're gonna do a like a I can't remember what they call it, but they can adjust their mill head to take more off at the outside than the middle and put back and it'll have crown to it. But in any case, uh I've got this cover sheet. Jennifer, do you have one for me to use or you want me to pass mine on? Uh if you want to keep yours, I mean, do you do you want to just have or you want to trade? I'll just Yeah, we can trade. I'll start signing this.

And I'm sure this all hinges on how bids come in. Correct. They built in a pretty decent buffer. They thought they they were trying to go with current market trends and beef things up a little bit as as necessary. We'll see how the bids come in. Um but I'm pretty optimistic. So are the the engineers are as well. So um the bids will have to be in and accepted by the basically by the end of February is what the um bid opening is scheduled for the second meeting in February. Okay.

And if there's any review that needs done, I've already confirmed we can approve contingent upon whatever that review might be and you know make that happen still by the end of the month. Thank you for taking care of all that, Murray. Yeah, I know that was a big task. I'm glad we were able to uh make it happen and it's it's great that our little town with our limited resources has this available to us. So, I'm pretty happy about that. That was a big undertaking for you. So, thank you.

Any other old business? Uh we will move on to new business. Uh, we did receive a resignation from Alan Schultz effective February 6th. Uh, if we don't have anybody hired by then, I believe I've got a contingency. I'm going to try to talk to him tomorrow. Okay. Um, but we may have another interim operator only. Um but it does look like this one application we've gotten may be maybe uh pretty decent candidate. So um we need to start talking to them as well.

Something we can discuss when we discuss the executive session. Sure. We could just do it as a um what's the standard there? It's employee uh uh performance or something like that. Yes. Okay. Didn't you tell me, Murray? I thought you did, that when you let someone go, you have to have an immediate filling, but you can't have any lapses. If they leave, then there's a little grace period from IDM or is that Sure. But he's given us a couple weeks of notice, so they're not going to look at that as nicely as if somebody walked in today and said, "Hey, I'm not coming to work tomorrow." Right. Okay.

Right. So, we've got enough time. We'll find somebody that that can serve in that role if we need them to. Um website, you had website on here, Jennifer. Yeah. Um Pam Annie needs something from the council that says because we talked about limiting comments. Mhm. And she needs something from us that says yes, she can do that. She can't for for accountability purposes. Didn't we do that? She needs something in writing. We voted to do it. Okay. So, we do we need to have something prepared, some kind of a legal document, a resolution. I don't know that we ever really said made a motion for it. I think we just talked about it.

Okay. Would a resolution be helpful, though? Um, does she need a resolution or just Well, let's see. We We contacted Cicero to see how how they actually did it. I think I think if we just actually have it in the minutes, a resolution in the minutes. I mean, um So, it's it's up to you guys if you want to. So, is there a motion to disable comments on our public uh social media accounts, town social media accounts? I'll make that motion. I'll second. All in favor? I I Okay.

All right. Um, Jennifer, do you know, you said the state has some uh resources for websites for municipal websites? They do. And some some communities some communities um use it and um I can find that information out. Yeah, if you could, that'd be great. I think it's time for a refresh of ours. Yeah, I totally agree. Think so, too. Yeah, that'd be great. Yes. All right. uh utility assistance. We've got a request. Um is is this as far as you can tell this uh written request from this person pretty accurate?

Um yeah, as far as I know, I look back and we have we have not ever helped her. Okay. With our um with our utility funds. So what is the uh amount of their bill? Uh she's always she's a minimum user. Should be 12580 I believe is what it is now for water and wastewater. Yeah. And would we still try to have them cover their their trash and their storm and the hydrant or how does that we that's just we usually just do the whole the whole thing. Yeah. Okay. Is this just a one month thing or is it going to be recurring do you think? Um, I would hope it would just be in one month.

Are they current right now? Yes. Okay. And in our fund, we have 1,700, excuse me, $1,74.12 remaining in our fund. I make a motion that we pay this person's bill, next bill. I'll second that. All in favor? I I Okay, I will let her know. Okay. Any other new business from the council tonight? Zoning change.

Thank you. The plan commission has uh made the recommendation to approve a reszone of a property on South Central Street from agricultural to C2. All the contact information for the owner is on this sheet here. Is there a motion to approve that zoning change, that recommendation by the plan commission? I'll make that motion. I'll second. All in favor? I I You're official. Stick it around to make sure. Good choice.

Is there uh any questions or comments from anyone in attendance tonight? I have one more thing, M. Um Luke, I know you noticed this. We had police come out to my neighbors the other day um at the wellness check. She sometimes forgets to put her garage door down. It was up for a couple days so she wouldn't answer the door. So the I had Arcadia come down and they took care of it. But she was okay. Okay. I just want to thank Arcadia police for showing up. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry I'm a little late. We didn't realize we thought possibly the weather. So, I'm Officer Tracy Owens. Nice to meet you all. Oh, you do?

I am. I started in December, so you'll see me. I work the second and third shifts. Great. So, you'll see me through town. Um, I do shut a lot of garage doors. I knock on people's doors and wake them up, but then once I get to know them, I usually just shut them. You'll see me up here. Well, thank you, Tracy. Welcome. Thank you. Well, thank you all for being here. Has anybody applied for the water? Yeah, we've got one application so far. Um, so we'll hopefully receive a couple more in the coming weeks. Um, but that's a position we really need to get filled. So,

you guys have any third party operators in line just in case you don't get fil? Um, uh, that's what I was just talking about. when we got um our current operator um there was another person that was interested in it and I have a high degree of confidence in him and I think that he would probably be willing to do it on an interim basis. If not, there's companies that contract out for that and then there's other local operators and stuff. Yes, correct.

So, I'm going to try to talk to this individual first since he has already seen our our our plants and um see if he's still interested in helping us out for a month or so. And if not, we'll we'll go a different route. All right. Is there a motion to sign our claims and adjourn? Send the claims and adjourn a meeting. Second. All in favor? I. All right.