Town Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, let's go. Like to call the town council to order, please. Wednesday, April 8th, 2025. Uh 2026. 2025. You know, what can I say? Let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. It's been one of those days. I pledge algiance 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.

At this time, do we have any remembrances or acknowledgements? Well, I don't know if this is the right time to say it or not, but uh I've had lots and lots of compliments about the new street signs. I have too. Um wanting to know when the next load's going to be here. Just really excited about the way they look and how it just cheers up the whole town. Brightens it up, doesn't it? So, yeah, makes a big difference. Good. Good. Anything else? We'll go on to roll call. District 1, Steve Shoemaker, present. District two, Paul Perry, present. District three, Stacy Kger, present. District 4, Ann Russon, here.

Council at large, Lyanna K. Hughes, I'm here. Clerk treasurer Nanette Angel here. Administrative town manager Chris Cook here. Deputy Town Manager Andrea Balon here. Town attorney Christopher Wisher here. And engineer Drew Flain, present. All right. I need a motion to approve the March 25th, 2026 minutes. So move. Do I have a second? Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I have a second. Huh? Did you second?

Okay. I I just I need a second. I didn't use that. Um I assume we have no scheduled requests or appearances and no comments by citizens. Okay, we'll go on to new business. Civil Town Drew Eller Bush Ro Colbert.

Yeah, so U Engineering Legal has reviewed the full quote packages that was received at the last meeting. Uh, Chastain Excavating was deemed a low responsive responsive bidder in the amount of 32,400. This amount is below the engineer's estimate. Engineer recommends town accept the engineer's bid recommendation of Chastain Excavating. All right. I need a motion for the approval of Eller Road Culver. So move. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I.

I. All those opposed. Can I ask you a question about that? When do you expect something to begin? They have a contract of 45 days to which we'll get to the next point here. There'll be 45 days will be their contract time period to get the work done. Okay. Yeah. All right. Going on to Eller Bush Road cover installation. Motion for the approval of Eller Bush Road installation and misellating patching owner. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries.

So that will just real quick that that gives them the notice to proceed essentially. Leing. So this will start their construction timeline period. Okay. as of tonight. Okay. And on this one, is it just on the south end of public bush? Uh, no. It's north of South Gate there. So, it's a little bit farther north. Yes. So, they're just doing way past or something. It's just going to be one culvert in there to be installed at one crossing. Yes. There will be some center point relocation work that'll be coordinated with this as well. Okay. Yep. Sounds good. Yep. Okay. Town of Newberg internship.

Yeah. We come before you to seek your approval tonight. Uh we're looking between uh the wastewater and the uh storm water to hire up to two interns for the summer of 2026. Um hourly rate not to exceed $12 an hour, roughly no more than 25 hours a week. Time period be roughly from the end of college uh end of May to about the 1 of April. So about two months give or take. And these folks are mainly going to be assisting uh the wastewater and the storm water with loading up the inventories into the NOBO software. They'll be doing site views to where they'll be knocking or pinging GPS locations of like our signage, our park benches, anything that we can manage and maintain like uh street signs, street lights, inlets, outlets. um some of the ditch work and then Russell's got some similar stuff out in the sewer territory. We would be splitting the cost uh between the utility and the civil town uh for the $12 an hour. We would work it into our intern program. We've got one gentleman already kind of ready to go. Um if it gets approved tonight and then we're still seeking a second one uh because we'd rather work in pairs. Um, but the data collection that they're going to do for the most part will be the backbone of the NOVA system. Um, from a standpoint where everything's going to be inventoried. It's going to have a GPS and an individual uh serial number on it to where we can start doing some long-term proactive maintenance.

Okay. And um kind of management of these assets. And we would seek your approval of this tonight. I need a motion to approve the town of Newberg internship positions for the summer of 2026. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed.

Okay. Item uh five is a similar u we've worked through our wastewater uh utility board. Um we've been having some challenges with the seasonal salary rate of getting anybody interested um for these positions. This is a lot of uh grass cutting at our properties, maintenance work, some painting, and uh Russell had asked us to look at bumping that up to $20 an hour um to try to carter some additional interest. This would be in line with what mowing contractors pay their staff in the region. Um, so we would seek, and this came with support from the utility board as well. I forgot to mention that on the previous item. Um, but we would seek your approval on bumping that potential up to not to exceed $20 an hour for seasonal at the utility.

I'll have to read the ordinance. Yeah, my fault. All right. I need a motion for the first reading of ordinance 2026-02. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Chris. Ordinance number 2026-02, an ordinance amending ordinance 2025-11 regarding payment of officials and employees for the town of Newberg for 2026. All right. I need a motion for the acceptance of the first reading of ordinance 2026-2. So move. Do I have a second? Second.

Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed. I need a I need a motion for the second reading of ordinance 2026-2. So move. Do I have a second? Second. Discussion. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Chris. Ordinance 2026-02, an ordinance amending ordinance 2025-11 regarding payment of officials and employees for the town of Newberg for 2026. All right. I need a motion for the acceptance of the second reading and adoption of ordinance 2026-02. So moved. Do I have a second? Second.

Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed? Motion carries. All right. Drew. Yes. Carplace. Yes. So for this pay application, Cobberstein Contracting is requesting payment approval for $149,32.50. 50. This equates to 33% of the contract work being complete. Of this amount, retaining is $4,470.98 with the amount of $144,56152 being paid to the contractor at this time. Engineer recommends town council approve uh contractor's pay request.

All right. I need a motion for the approval of pay application number one to Cobberstein. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? How are they on schedule? They're ahead of schedule. They should be they should be wrapping up all the work essentially next week with the exception of restoration and testing. So, they're doing well. Good. Thank you. Y any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. All right. Income survey. Drew.

Yes. So, Klein Peter Consulting is a grant administrator firm. Uh they have expertise in OKRA funding opportunities. Uh the sewer department is seeking an OKR grant um up to about $750,000 for an area within town that automatically qualifies. Um so, the sewer department has multiple sewer rehab projects within this automatic qualification area. However, there's two project location areas that are just adjacent and outside of the qualifying boundary. Um, one of them is at the Newberg Elementary School and the other one is near Fourth Street. And since they're out just outside the income bound or the qualifying area, an income survey would have to be complete in order for those two project locations to qualify. So uh what climier consulting will do they would conduct an income survey uh to ensure that those areas those impacted residents would qualify for okra funding. There's a median household income threshold that has to be met. So, they'll follow all those proper protocols and procedures with OKRA and hopefully the town can get qualified for those um those two projects. And then also hopefully with the if those areas qualify, especially around Fourth Street, the town has another storm project as well, so we can gauge funding opportunity for that project in the future. Um so with that request um utility committee has recommended town council approve this uh agreement with Klein Peter Consulting and uh to to move forward with the okra um letters that would go out for the income survey and with that

authorization uh town council president would also need to sign two letters that I have. Uh, one just is a letter that states that the town intends to um submit an income survey. They're requesting those two areas to be qualified. And then also a letter that would come from town council president that would uh be sent to the impacted residents that gives the proper instructions on how to mail the income results back. I have just a little question. Yes. What if the residents do not respond?

There's a minimum amount that percentage that has to respond back. If he will send it out twice. If they do not get the number desired to meet it, then they may have to go door knocking. Okay. Until they they seek the proper amount. Okay. We've done that before. All right. I need a motion for the approval of the income survey agreement with Klein Peter Consulting. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries.

Drew Kenwood Court. Yeah. So this is a permit submittal to the state environmental agency for a a water quality certification that will fall underneath a nationwide uh permit. Uh the project entails bank stabilization in the south broadview subdivision area. Got some exposed sewer manes in that location. So this allows the u engineer to submit on the town's behalf. And unfortunately Stacy we're going to have to go through that electronic signing process again. Hopefully it'll go a little bit smoother for you this time, but uh hey, as long as you come by and bring it up. Okay, I need a motion for the approval of Kenwood Court Menhole Ditch Repair.

So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. All right. I don't believe we have any unfinished business that we're going to talk about. So, we'll go on to staff reports.

Okay. I have my report for you in front of you. Um, want to hit a few highlights under miscellaneous. Uh, we had a good meeting with INDOT recently. We've really made some progress on getting some additional truck signage um placed up at the highway, the interstate and uh 62 or 662 just off of 69. And also there'll be a one on 66 both ways. And we're making some progress there. I think Chris, you were on that with me. You know, um we got a response like we've never gotten before. So, um a lot of good positive things there. And then under number seven, the solar panel installation at the senior center started on April 2nd. They've got the brackets kind of installed and look for progress here in the next week or so on that. Just want to remind you that I will be attending the IMMA annual conference on April 29th through May 1st. That's the town manager conference and that we will be having the event on the the 17th which I put a flyer uh since they finalized the flyer um in your packet as well. Also on item 13, we've had a lot of uh false alarms recently here with the construction going on downstairs. So, we've really re redoubled our efforts on Knox boxes. And uh there will be some Knox boxes installed at those locations where we currently don't have them as we continue to evaluate and expand our our safety and first response program. Um and then you have the weekly town website report. I do want to talk a little bit about um the announcement we made today. We did announce the uh the playground and I don't want to get into your report a little bit but um there was good media coverage and uh very positive response

online across all the uh the places we're getting. So I'd imagine the next time we gather those website report numbers are going to go up immensely. Okay. Any questions for Chris? As far as the very first one, page one, number one. Yeah. the discussion about lighting at Veterans Park. Will we be kept up with what that discussion entails?

He's he's he's looking at pricing now and he hadn't got he said it would be a couple weeks before he gets back to me and when we get some pricing and options um I would be bringing that to you all. But there's also opportunity with some of the people that uh spoke out last year on that about some folks want to donate some money. So, we would also revisit those folks that want to make donations if we upgrade that. Um, but he we had a talk about um what it looks like where we would put the the tree and um how it wouldn't be on the the brick where the names are and everything. It would be farther back to where you would still have the flag pole and that the the option would not be taller than the flag pole to where the flag pole would be the focus. Um if that makes sense. like the the tree would be a little bit less than the like not as tall as the flag pole to where you your eyes would go to the flag and then you'd have the tree kind of back behind it.

Well, I'm glad and I've said this to you before. I'm glad we're not waiting till no the last minute that we're doing something proactive now and we'll be ready in the fall.

A lot of his suppliers unfortunately that do this type of work are not based in the country. So, we have to kind of get it ordered sooner rather than later to ensure that it's here by the fall. And um you have to build these things the first time and then once you build them out, sections come apart to where you have to hang the branches individually and then once you've get got them hung, you can kind of take the sections off. So, there will be a little bit of a learning curve on the installation this time. Um, but we're also looking at options because some of the lights that were along Water Street were at the end of their life and he's also going to be giving us some pricing on those as well, upgrading. Um, so I'll have hopefully in the next couple meetings uh some some information to present to you uh with some options, but just bear in mind what cost are. I do have a list of folks that I'll be circling back to that wanted to donate money as well last year for it and we'll have to come up with some sort of way to if if folks did donate money how to make sure that their sponsorship is uh

well promoted. My personal favorite is right out here for eye grabbing attention. And I I know that there are reasons that that won't work, but or we've been told there are reasons that won't work, but this is still the best location. And he in my mind,

we talked about that in the meeting. And it's just the wind coming off the river that time of year. We just don't feel that it would whatever you bring in is not going to last if it's subjected to that because I asked him if there was a way to get a a beefier product. You know that would because you can't tell me somewhere in the world doesn't have wind stronger than what we have here and he was going to look into that but he didn't feel that that was going to be a viable option but if he did come across something he would definitely present it. Thank you. Yep. All right. Any other questions for Chris? Andrea, deputy town manager.

Um, I don't have much. You guys have my, um, full report in front of you. The only thing that I want to remind everyone, um, is the groundbreaking for the new playground at Lou will be on April 24th at 200 p.m. Any questions for Andrea? All right. Planning and zoning. Um, you guys have her report in front of you. Um, she has all the boards, committees, some other things that she's been working on as long as well as her code enforcement and permits.

Okay. Any questions for um planning and zoning for Andrea? Then clerk treasurer. So, we finished our first quarter of the year so far and with auditors being in um I haven't had an opportunity to really dig in and see where we're at. So, that will be forthcoming. Any questions for Nanette? Chris, town attorney. No report. Any questions for Chris? Drew, town engineer. Uh, no additional reports unless you have any questions for me. All right. Commission committee reports. Air authority. No report. BZA an

next meeting is April 27th. Uh, at this time there are no submissions. Okay. Any questions for an fire?

Fire. Um Nick had planned to be here tonight, but something came up and he was unable to. He wanted me to let you know though that they currently have 25 volunteers. They have three applications to volunteer that are pending. They have a full roster of cadetses, eight cadetses, and two of those will be graduating this year. I don't know if he means they were graduating from the cadet program. I assume that's what that means. Uh they responded to 98 calls to date and don't forget if you haven't already made your reservation for the banquet next week. It's always a really nice event. It is going to be at the fire station this year instead of at preservation hall like it's been the last couple of years. Um I imagine that's because of the dedication of the truck. We need to keep it close to home.

And that's April 15th, next Wednesday. What time is that event? What time is that event? I'm sorry. What? What time is that event? We're getting to that. Oh, sorry. We got a whole list of times. Okay. It's next Wednesday, April 15th. The social hour begins at 6, the meal begins at 6:30 and the awards are at 7. Thank you. You're welcome. Did he uh mention the truck in I'm sorry, what? the trucks in for some warranty work. The the the dedication part that might have to be rescheduled next Wednesday. I don't know. He just told me within Yeah, I know about that, but

they don't they don't know if it's going to so that might not be a part of I Yeah, I know. I know. Okay. Any questions for an HPC? We have a meeting tomorrow night. Any questions for me? Do you know? Is there anything anything coming up? Uh there's one COA for a commercial business sign at 512 West Main. Okay. And that's it. And then I have a few things just to go over with them on some historic properties. Okay. Thank you, Paul. Parks.

Yeah. No report. The parks board meeting uh is tomorrow evening at 6 PM at Lud Dennis. And uh Andrea told us about the uh the groundbreaking event, so that's perfect. Okay, good. I had a question, but I Well, it went out of my head. I should have jumped up when it came through my head because now it's out of my head. Okay. If it comes back in, let me know. Uh plan, no meeting, no report. police Paul

uh we that we're in the second quarter so we'll be uh the next police commission meeting is going to be scheduled to be determined but soon and the chief's here if he wants to add anything u for the record unless you have any questions no all right Steve storm water storm water met March 30th and Drew went through our projects list and what's going on and what uh financially we can do and we can't do and and gave us good overview. We hadn't met for a while. But the biggest thing with storm water is I'm pleased to announce tonight that Bill Griezbacher has accepted our

Oh, good. invitation to serve on the storm water board, which would fill out the storm water board, and I'll get with Andrea to get the package to him. And and I don't I think he's got about two I think term is about two years, give or take. I'll have to wait out

because he was going to he was filling a spot, but Andrea and I get it worked out. The big thing is I don't know whether we need to do a another motion or not because we made a motion back in 2025 in December I think that indicated if if he would we would offer him a position based on his acceptance. So I don't know do we need to I wouldn't hurt to move the pointing to Okay. I would make a motion that um the council appoint Bill Griezbacher to the storm water uh board. All right. Do I have a second?

Second. All right. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Good. I'm glad that's board's full. I have a question now. Can I ask? This is back to Paul. It came back in my head now. Um, do you know what's going on so far as the lock and damn park? Uh, if it's all done now with the internet all in there. I don't know. Do you know? So, yeah. So, everything's been been um updated. So, um they cut a line through. So, the amphitheater should have that Wi-Fi and everything. Everything should be up and running.

Okay. Well, I was just down at the amphitheater sitting in the parking lot typing some notes and I have no internet connection down there at all. Okay, I'll get So, I don't know. And then the other thing is what about the electric that's supposed to run from east to west on the north side? From east to west on the north side. remember we encountered this last year during another Earth Day and now we're almost ready for another another Earth Day and um we kind of needed Wanted to So to the gazebo area.

Yeah. From the whole strip along there was supposed to be from the amphitheater all the way down to the log cabin. That was never voted on. We talked about pricing and it it wasn't budgeted and I recall um I'd have to look at the but yeah have to go back because I don't think we have that in the budget for this year. So we're going to go another event without Well, we can get with Noah. We can definitely run some um cords, extension cords.

Well, we talked about that last year, but they told me that wasn't possible. I mean the only electricity that we have is in the little red brick building. So it happens from there. There's no electricity at the gazebo. Well, see there used to be there used to be and then it somehow got cut. There was always like there was electricity at the log cabin but never at the gazebo. So the log cabin got cut when the log cabin came down and then we didn't feel like there was a need for electricity at the log cabin. So when we went back up we didn't put any in there. Well, I was all over it last year and now here we are again. I just thought it was being done.

Not that I was aware of. It didn't get brought up during any of the uh finance committee stuff. It was brought up up here because I kept bringing it up. I I know at least twice, maybe three times. I'll we'll pull I I don't know if we have the quote. We'll pull the quote, but we'll get back with it. I'll get with Noah and see if there's anything we can do. I do know I feel like they did run electricity last year. I remember Gerald pulling a bunch of cords. So, I'll double check with we have Noah in this year, so I'll double check with him to get something up front. They were worried about having a cord that would go that far, number one. And number two, they said that the safety factor of a cord being on the grass like that,

you lose if you ran from like the brick house all the way to the log cabin. To run a cord that long, it would depend on what you're running off of it on if you have enough load. Well, it would be minimal like those little amplifi amplifiers just for like one speaker at each spot. I mean, what what is it going to be? Like a band or something? Oh, no, no, no. Just a like one lone speaker at the log cabin for someone to conduct a little workshop. And then the gazebo, the same thing. Not a big not a big deal, but still,

you know, this would be one of those things where while we have that special event policy, we never got one for another Earth Day. So, one of these things where it keeps us in line, right? What because I can't remember everything of every event, right? So, we get them every year for events so that we can then go out, you know, six, seven weeks out and make sure that we have all this stuff lined up. But I'll get with Noah. We'll see if we can get it work. Maybe we can even get a temporary a temporary pull out there or something. We'll work with Center. We have contact. So, let let us work. I know it's what in two weeks, I think. Yeah. 25th. It'd be like two and a half weeks. Yeah. So, let us we'll work on that. I'll put it on top of my notes and we'll get we'll get working on it. Okay.

Le if you need a a speaker with a microphone or I have wireless that I use for gigs when I don't have um electricity available. Oh, really? I have a wireless Bose speaker. It's very It's very good. Okay. You could use it, but it doesn't require electricity. It was several thousand to do these runs. Hell, I could dig a little hole for that. In the short term, a battery powered option to get it like that while we budget. What I have is nice. It was 500 maybe, but it's a it's one that I use when I can't when I don't have electricity available, but I can I can let you use that. Okay. Um, but it would probably

you would if that's what you're looking for. Yeah, because you're talking I mean does you want us to permanently I mean there's an expensive permanent. There are a lot of options though that you could get for like a like a small Yeah. amp amp that that could work. That's what I was planning on taking down there but without power. Mine has to have electric. Yeah. my little amplifier. I think it might be better economically while we budget for it because it's going to cost thousands

thousands. Yeah. to run these two lines and if we could get like a battery power unit there to temporarily get us through and then get some estimates with our vendors and I could even reach out to the uh because I think I was going to reach out to one of the apprentice programs because they're always looking for projects too and with the grant it through the u the park house or something you know they might be able to partner with that well chances are there may not be other needs for that right except during the another birthday. So, I don't want you to spend five, six, $7,000. I have I have a speaker like Chris has that fully that my daughter uses for backyard parties.

Okay. That can be charged swap them out. If if I recall, it was over my spending limit to run those runs. So, we would have been over 5,000 to do that. Okay. Well, I don't think it's worth it for that if we're just doing one event a year that needs it. So maybe I'll circle like because I know the apprentice programs here are sometimes looking for projects. Okay. Since that is in a park that a lot of nonprofits use. Yeah. I might be able to sell that but I'll I'll work on that. Okay. We can work together. Okay. That sounds good. Thank you. All right. Any other discussion or questions? Ann Street.

Yes. Um, this street report is from a street crew member, Richard Arthur. And if you got a report earlier today or last night that was um done that was created by voice and there were lots of errors. So, this is the cleaned up edition and if you got one last night, you should get a you should have gotten another one today. They replaced the stop sign and the sign post on State Street and Jefferson Street. took the salt spreaders and off the plows and off the trucks, cleaned and did prevent any maintenance for next season. That's always good news. They filled a shoulder on um Posie Street, cleaned up limbs on Middle Street that were left by Center Point, dug out drainage ditches on the north side of Outer Gray and west of Peach Tree. They fixed the trash can behind the town hall. They all attended the MS4 training. They cleaned downtown streets and sidewalks. They cleaned up a large limb on the walkway. They cleaned town properties and all town parking lots. They cleaned up trees at the overlook park. They mulched the flower beds, blew off the walkways, and cleaned off the boat ramp for emergency personnel access. I asked if there was a specific incident and that the boat ramp needed to be cleaned and they said no. That that's just something they routinely do. so that it's always ready if we need it. So that's it.

Any questions for an Steve? Utility motions. The utility committee met April 1st and everyone has the minutes and motions that were were submitted to them. Uh item number six required an ordinance which we have dealt with and item number eight we approved separately. Uh so I would make a motion to approve items two, three, four, five, and seven on the utility motion report. All right. And that was a motion. Correct. Yes. All right. Do I have a second? Second.

Any discussion? I am glad to have the addresses where they pertain to the motions. That's something that I always ask about and so I'm glad that those addresses are included so we know where these places are. We address we addressed the issue. All right. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries. Finance we have uh we'll have it next month. All right. next month personnel Paul

uh personnel committee met um last Thursday so I can't do this in my head but u last week and uh among the things that uh were discussed was the uh desire to hire Kyle Tennyson. So, let me make a motion to hire Kyle Tennyson to the collections O andM position at a rate of $22 per hour with a $1 increase after a sixmonth evaluation period. And I think that should be pending a negative drug screen.

All right. And I will second that. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. All right. Lyanna, Arts Commission.

Yes. Um, we've been meeting weekly at this point and we'll continue to do so until we get through the another Earth Day. Um, basically I have all the uh concerts covered with bands. Now, this the time that I could start getting cancellations, but otherwise if if I don't, that's all filled with with entertainment. Um, but the weekly meetings are strictly just for another Earth Day. And so we've got a couple more of those to go through. Okay. Are you going to be at the bank anytime this week? I mean, are they scheduled at the bank? Oh, we've been holding these individual ones, just the normal fourth

Monday, okay, of the bank for the bank. But otherwise, we've met all kinds of places, even down at Honeymoon Cafe. Okay, sounds good. Any questions for Lyanna? Then we have sidewalk committee. Uh sidewalk committee. Um let's see. We Help me, Drew. Should be. You weren't at the last meeting, were you? Sidewalks. Isn't that right? I wasn't there. Yeah, I know. Well, did you get I think we just had updates. We're getting ready to move forward with the Grey Street uh easement, the land acquisition phase. So, that should be Letters I believe went out, right? Oh, really? Getting ready to go out. So, we should be meeting with property owners.

So, as soon as we get those all the land acquisition complete, we'll be moving into uh the bidding. Thank you. Bidding. So, that's that's probably the biggest item I'd say we addressed. And boy, won't it be wonderful to actually get that going? My god. Absolutely. It's been on the books for a long time. Yep, it sure has. All right. Growth in progress, Lyanna. Um, we had a meeting uh at the first week of the month and we're scheduling another one coming up um because we're trying to catch up from March. Okay. Can you remind me when that meeting is so I don't mess I didn't bring my calendar. Always have it. Is it the last April 30th?

April 3rd. The last Thursday. Okay. And is it going to be at three or four? Do you know? We usually have it at three, but if you need four, we we actually normally have it at four. Okay. You just bump the last one up to three. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, did we? Is that why? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Four is good. Okay. Thank you. All right. Any questions for Lyanna on growth in progress? All right. Steve, do you have any miscellaneous? I do. I do not. Paul, do you I do not. An? No. Lyanna? Yes.

I knew you would, but that's okay. Um, actually, this is more like a a complaint. So, I'm sorry, but at least it's toward the end of the meeting. Uh, I've had three citizens, maybe that's not enough, but complain about never being able to get a hold of anybody here. I know I leave messages all the time and I know you guys are busy, but we just had a whole new phone system put in and we still don't have an extension for Andrea, which I talked about at least three times. And aside from that, the only person I ever am able to get a hold of when I call is either Nanette or Susan. Um, even Julie when you hit zero for reception, nobody comes on. So, this is not good, folks. This makes us look really bad. It was to the point that people are starting to complain. You know, people will just take something and not go ahead and complain, but I've had three complain to me.

Could you uh give me their name so I could personally follow up with them? Sure. because I this is the first this is the first I've heard of this and I return all my calls. Well, I know you return them, but to call town hall, it's like nobody's home. That's I I dis I be at me. I disagree with you on that because that is when you called the other day. I was on a conference call. Julie was helping a customer and she was at lunch

and it was in the noon hour and I mean I didn't get a message left from you that day and I I don't know if anybody else did. The last correspondence I had with you was a text that you texted me on Easter Sunday. So I mean I haven't heard from you all week and I would I would like to have the names if you're going to be here in a public meeting and make a statement like that. I would like to have the names and the phone numbers and the days that they called so I can personally call and address this with each and every one of them. Okay? Because I I just disagree with that. Okay. And I just don't feel like a public meeting is the place to bring something like that up with

with us because I just don't think it's fair. It's not a fair assessment of what we're doing day in and day out here in town hall. Okay. Well, I I know it was just this week that when I called again and then Julie called me back later and I was pretty upset. I mean, I wasn't yelling. She called you back the minute she was done with the resident that she was helping there in person. It just happens to me constantly. I know I can tell you one of the names. The other two I've got written down at home. Okay. Well, just email them to me or text me and I'll call them personally tomorrow.

Okay, that's great. Okay. Um, I do have one other subject. Okay. Can we talk about this deal? And I'm so thankful that Andrea was able to get us some help, but the banner down on the corner. I didn't know that the banner was not ever going to be able to be up again on the corner of State and Jennings. I didn't know that. I don't think that's not true. the so with the new poles going up um so banners were attached to the clock and to the old streets

so with the new street poles going in we didn't want anything attached to them to ruin them to damage them so the idea was to get decorative poles in one size so that we then moving forward could tell everyone okay if you need a banner it's going to be this x size right so we're still in the process of putting all of the poles up we're still in the process of getting all that done. So, those polls have not been put up yet. Um, in the meantime, Street's going to just put some temporary polls in for you, get that banner hung. So, it's never that it's not allowed to be up again. It's just that we're in that transition period. Okay.

Again, going back to that special events policy, which we we rely on so so heavily when we're doing these things. Um, banners have to can only go up two weeks in advance. I do know that there has been times when there's been multiple banners up. Sign committee has asked that there only be one banner up at a time. I agree with that.

So I think when we were in a transition with zoning and us and Christy and everyone kind of leaving last year kind of got a little hairy and there's been times been one or more banner up. Um but now that we're pretty much fully staffed and we have it, we're going to move moving forward and we're really going to be hitting hard on those special event policies, making sure people are fully aware that it's only two weeks up. So, okay. It's not that it's never going to be, but we're just in that with the polls still going in. We're still in that transition phase. And I'm sorry that I did not do Yeah. the special Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry I did not do the special event form. I mean, this is a town event. It's not like it's some organization. So, right.

The the event I mean, we've got to coordinate with law enforcement and everybody. That's why we have the packet so that we can get the proper resources whether it's a town event or not. We have to fill out these forms because there's a lot of behind thescenes work that goes into making these things successful.

So I fill out the forms even when I'm doing the Ohio River sweep. I fill it out so that then I can make sure that my street crew knows what day these are so they can do XYZ. So, it just really honestly is even though we know these events are coming up, it's just a great reminder for us because we do get so busy where we can make sure that Eric has it so he's aware of what's going on so that street knows they need these barricades at these times. And it's just a good reminder even though I mean I know it's a long form. I know it's a lot of information, but it's just good for us to also know who we need to contact when. And especially with the arts commission and like H&I, we're generally not at those meetings. So, we're not getting I mean, you give the information at the meeting, we don't have the details, right? Like, do you need a dumpster? Do you need trash cans? Do you need streets to put up? Like, all this stuff that we have to coordinate all comes down to that document. If I can have that document, then it just helps us out.

Okay. Okay. Um, and so in the future there will be decorative polls there just for the Y banner. Okay, that's nice. I didn't It'll be a set size. We had to wait to see because they were jockeying around the the position of some of the new poles. We weren't sure on how much wiggle room we were going to have. Sure. So, we're waiting for the new poles to go in so that we can then set the decorative poles and then we'll have a space that'll be or a size that'll be given out as the size going forward

because just just for uniform look because I don't know you guys have drove by that corner. I mean, sometimes the banner's this small and the bungee this long, right? So this way we can say and I want to get with H&I. I know they have the bulk of the banners, but we can be like here's the size, here's what'll fit and what's going to be moving forward. Well, and I I appreciate you making um sure that it's going to happen for this event. But also, you dropped it off today. Had we talked about it in here, then I would have known that. So not just me telling you, you need to tell us stuff too because that is something that was not covered. I would have picked up on that. That's all I have. All right.

Thank you. Another real quick item here. Just I just saw this on Facebook this afternoon. Todd Ringle from the Indiana State Police is retiring after 42 years. Wow. A lot of us here have had dealings with him one way or the other. Um had his kids at school in Booneville. He's very active at school. Um and I think everybody knows him. So he has a welldeserved retirement coming up after 42 years. He started when he was 21.

Well, actually started before that as a dispatcher because he was not old enough to be a state policeman, but as soon as he turned 21, he um applied and was accepted into the police academy. And so congratulations to him. That's great.

All right. I have just one quick item. the flags for the Freedom Trail. We are putting them back up again. First time will be uh near Memorial Day. Then we're going to leave them up through the 4th of July. Um it's still $50 the way it was last year. And I have applications if you want to honor a vet. If uh you don't have any vet that you want to honor, sometimes people just honor all vets and not a specific name. So, if you need an application, just uh come by and pick it up for me or you can go by the bank. And if you don't want to mail a check, you can always just give me a check and make it out to HNI.

Have they ch Have they changed from last year? I think we have some here. But yes, it's the 2026 dates. Okay. Okay. I'll give you a couple so you can I'll make Yeah, just give me one make some coffee. Okay. All right. And that's all I've got. All right, let's go on to approve approval of claims then at all claims have been provided to council 5 days prior to this council meeting for review. I'd like to request that these claims plus any sewer adjustments be approved for payment in the amounts of for civil town $317,6927 31706927 for sewer 1,75,51517550151

All right, I'll make a motion to approve all claims properly signed including any sewer adjustments to be paid. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed, I'll make a motion for adjournment. Do I have a second? Second discussion.