Board of Public Works and Safety and Common Council - Regular Meeting

Meeting for redevelopment and commission to order for Tuesday, September 15th, 2026. Would you all please stand for the pledge?

I point my greetings to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic which stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you all.

Len, would you please call the roll?

Mr. O'Malley?

Here.

Paul? Here. Davis?

Here.

Pappal? Here. Steele? Here. Kopka? Here.

Okay, thank you. First item is approval of minutes of our last meeting for August 18th. Do we have a motion to approve?

I motion.

Do we have a second?

I'll second.

Any discussion on the minutes? Changes? Questions? Hearing none, all in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion is carried. Jeff, your hands are empty, so I'm assuming.

I do not have any updates for you tonight. What I do have is a special guest, Gary Neidegg. Gary, can you talk about one Marshall County?

Welcome back. Well, thank you. I'm really getting old, and time is going by so fast that I feel like I was just here, but I know it's been a long time, so I appreciate it. It was a couple months ago, wasn't it? I can't keep track anymore, so yeah, it probably was just a couple months ago. Tonight, I just want to give you an update, and of course, this is our time of year to be requesting appropriation, so I want to make sure that we cover that at the end, but basically perfect you got me right where I want to be Marshall County is obviously standing in a good position but at the same time we still have a lot of challenges so one of them of course is the housing demand is exceeding the supply although we've had some really good movements in the housing market with the new developments the infrastructure investment You know, it's not something that each community can do by itself, including Plymouth. It's something that we all have to sort of work together on because there's so many interwoven connections. The employees, of course, are all competing for quality talent. It seems like there's. There's talent, but it's necessarily, it's not necessarily quality talent. And, of course, as you guys are already big believers in the communities are stronger when they work together. So I really thank you for number 1, giving me the opportunity to be able to speak. And I love to see the friendly faces. I see you occasionally when we're out and about in the public. And so I appreciate the opportunity to be able to talk to you tonight. We're really looking for. the things that we're doing, not only within Plymouth, but within the county and the other communities, for Marshall County to be a destination for families, to be a magnet for employers, a leader in the quality of place, and of course, a model for regional collaboration. And that one is not a minor thing. You know, I've been involved for quite a few years with the regional development, and I'll tell you, Marshall County is not considered a second-class citizen. Marshall County is really becoming a place where people are understanding that we actually work together and we're a quiet community. You know, we don't have the boisterousness of some of the larger Elkhart and South Bend, but they know that we've got good quality down here. So I think we're making some good headway with that. Our mission, of course, hasn't really changed. We're collaboratively champion economic prosperity to try to elevate the quality of life. And it's to ensure a resilient and a sustainable future for every resident. We try to bring together the municipal leaders. The religious organizations, the people that are involved in the schools, you name it, we're trying to get everybody together. And at this point in time, you know, we've got almost 28 people that are on our board that represent all the communities throughout the county. The foundation, for those of you, I think everybody's been here. Sorry about that. For everybody that's been here before and heard me speak, we're basically the reinvention of Marshall County Crossroads that was founded with the Stellar grant. And so when that money began to get down to the last dollars that they had expended, they tried to figure out, well, what are we going to do? Are we going to go after it again? Well, right now, we can't go after the new Stellar Grant. I don't know, Jeff, I don't know if you were in on that or not, but there's a block grant or something that is blocking us. I'm not really sure what that means.

Yeah, and I don't remember the details, but the Stellar Grant is designed to be a regional grant now, and Because of some of the other things that we have been successful with. Sure. We're not eligible.

Yeah. So for some reason, we're not as eligible as what we were before. So we're examining that, trying to make sure that, you know, we're not leaving any stones unturned. I've already gone over the people that are involved in the communities, the businesses, the education, the health care and philanthropy. which doesn't go without merit. The Lilly Foundation has been very generous with the Marshall County Foundation to be able to help fund some of our initial times. So they have been heavily involved. We've got some really good early wins. We'll go to the next slide. We got set up. Utility assessments are in progress. The arts and culture projects were all proposed. Unfortunately, Marshall County didn't get any of them, but we now at least have the proposals. So we're standing there in the wings waiting for the next opportunity to be able to apply. And I think we've got some really good proposals. The one big thing then, and I think we have talked about maybe the potential, but it really is the thing that has happened, and that is the Rural Health Transformation Program. And that is Basically comes from the big, beautiful bill, the federal government gave is giving money to each 1 of the states and Indiana has deemed it. They have, like, 13 different initiatives and the local portion is what we were working on. So we actually funded a lot of the. work that was done by an organization called InFocus through One Marshall County to help the Marshall County Foundation and the other regional health care providers to help us write the application. So we've been successful. We were being awarded basically 12 to 13 million a year. It's a seven county area. It's not just Marshall County, but we're the largest county in that rural group. So I don't know, to be perfectly honest, if we wouldn't have gotten involved, and I don't want to beat my chest and talk about how great we are, because I would have just a very minimal part in it. But I don't think if Marshall County would have got really serious about it, I'm not sure it would have been successful. We had fantastic responses from the state on the way that we presented. And so basically, there's a lot of initiatives that are going to be funded and it's 12Million a year for that group of counties. So. I think you're going to be seeing some of those things. One of them is, if you guys are familiar with Todd Stillson and his ChatRx, he is able to get a grant through that process that's going to basically help all the hospitals in the area subscribe to his platform. And so it'll be free to the users. And that should be something that will really propel, I believe, infectious diseases, which is what his app does. So I think there's some really positive things to happen there. We're still looking for other outside investment. Part of the reason that we come to redevelopment, we come to the county, and I've got a little bit of traction at the county right now. We'll see how that all ends up in the budget process. But it really sets the right tone to the outside investors and you say who the outside investors well there's businesses so the businesses want to make sure that what we're doing the strategies that we're trying to put forth are being supported by the municipalities it's bottom line if they feel like you guys and others are you know willing to be part of the process then i think i can get quite a bit of other private funding to come in and help with some of the some of the burden um The local dollars, and I call it what you guys are putting in, are basically to help us stand up the organization. It's not to really do grants themselves. Now, we do have some money that we're putting forth into different arts and culture, the MCEDC, we're helping them. And primarily what's happened is that the community coordinator that we were able to hire through partly Your Money, partly the Lilly Foundation, is assisting these other nonprofit organizations and helping them up their game when it comes to communications and their websites and their media. And she is basically coordinating and communicating and getting all the different organizations to tell each other what's going on. So I think we're seeing some really positive things there. Her name is Taylor Wilson. I don't think she's been introduced here yet.

Is it at the county council meeting, maybe? Maybe it was. She was at the city council meeting.

City council. Okay. So she's a great gal. She's living up towards La Paz. So she moved from Noblesville, and she's doing a great job. Um, we still have a lot of work to be done with housing and infrastructure, the quality of life, our business growth, you know, whether it comes from the city through the chamber, or if it comes through, I think those are all things that they just have to work together. We're not in competition with each other. 1 Marshall county doesn't have any. You know, we have no desire to be a head organization or anything else. What we're trying to do is just bring everybody else together and fill in the gaps. If there is gaps, then we are willing to fill those gaps in temporarily until we can get another organization to take them over. Okay, so the hard part. I'm still asking for you guys to read this. consider again the application for $30,000 for investment in 2027. I think we had that in 2025, I believe. I don't believe there was anything for this year. So we're asking for that again. I don't know, Jeff, is there any color I should put on that? I think it's accurate, but I'm not sure there's any more to be added.

No, I mean, the budget... includes money for economic development initiatives in the tiff districts so that's where you have money available for the various things that you fund um it's in the 2027 budget so you wouldn't need to make a decision right now but in 2027 if you want to continue supporting one in marshall county you can decide to spend that money and contribute as you haven't passed

And I guess the only question I would have is, is how do we. Contact you who do we contact in order to either get the funding or to make sure that we understand where you guys stand on that position. So. I don't know if it's Lynn always Lynn.

She's just got money out of her pockets.

Yeah, I mean, you, you could, you can think about tonight to if you want to show your support. Um, the technical process is that one marsh county would submit an invoice and then you approve your, uh, your. Invoices at every meeting, so that would be the technical approval, but you can certainly get a vote tonight to show your support.

And I'm here to answer any questions. I. I know I talk fast, probably not clear, so I'm more than willing to be able to try to clarify things.

Well, I just want to say one thing. I've worked with Gary for quite a while. I was on PIDCO board and when we went through all the stellar stuff and everything, and he's worked tirelessly to get out in the public and try to grow our area. And like you say, it's not just Plymouth. It's the whole area. If the area thrives, we'll thrive too. And if we're not growing, we're dying. There's communities all over Indiana. You can drive around that were once flourishing communities and they're just drying up. I don't want Plymouth to be like that. So I'd be in favor of taking a vote or questions about supporting One Marshall County. uh uh tonight or and it's up to you guys whatever you want to do is discuss it a little bit i'd motion to to vote tonight on it a second exciting okay now any questions for gary well he got him here what they're doing and he did a good job with that and um a lot of things you're involved in for sure yeah

And if on an individual basis, any of you would like to meet, I've been really trying to get out like Mike said. He's accessible. And meet people where they are. Personally, I like coffee. So coffee shops are good. But it's amazing how much you find out about each other. And I hope that the people I've met with find out. yeah, what I'm about, and I'm sincere in what I believe in for the community. And likewise, it's great to meet you and learn a little bit more, although tennis, you know, I'm sort of getting to know you a little bit better, Craig. But it is a great thing. You know, if you want to take a half hour, hour, I'd be glad to meet with you.

Well, I think your intentionality shows through quite a lot. Thank you for what you do.

Anybody else? Okay, we've got a motion in a 2nd, all in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. All right. Oh, same sign motion is carried. Thank you. Thank you. Gary. We like having you come come in. Yes.

And what's going on to come in on. You know, if you want me to come in every 6 months, I can do that. I'll try to get.

That'd be good. 6 months. That'd be nice. Perfect.

Because it's a dynamic, it is, and there's lots of things that are happening. That's right. Thank you. And I try to regularly also in 1 March county, and I just want to add a couple of things just expand on what Gary talked about that are more timely, detailed updates. He mentioned the rural health grant and Gary knows a lot more about that than I do. So he could answer more questions about that. But 2 other initiatives that are ongoing right now. Gary kind of mentioned briefly want to support for the community development corporation that has been established here in Marshall County. They have been gathering information from communities around the county. Developing housing looks very different in the rural county than it does in South Bender Elkhart. so they can't just adopt the models in those counties and bring them here they have to create something new that's sort of what the initiative is all about but they've been gathering information they were holding a board workshop this week to finalize their proposals and we expect them to come back to us with a proposal of how we can work with them to primarily do target more infill housing developments Single family duplexes, smaller development projects within existing neighborhoods throughout the city. So we're really looking forward to seeing what they have to propose there and how that program will work. So we'll probably be back to you soon with some proposals there. The other initiative is the utility study, which is working closely with MCEDC. The idea there is to go across the county and gather data from each community specific to the utilities that are available, not just the public utilities. Of course, Plymouth has water and wastewater. Bremen and Argus have their own electric utilities as well. But also to catalog all of the telephone and cable and fiber and any of the utility connections, natural gas, electricity, where it's not provided by the municipality. The idea is that number 1, it's a marketing tool so that when businesses are looking at a place to locate, they have specific needs and they know what those needs are. And we need to be able to quickly answer their questions about this is what we have available or hear the locations throughout the county that would meet the needs that you have. The other thing is, it helps us identify where the gaps. You know, if a utilities need a certain amount of natural gas, and for some reason, we can't provide that anywhere in the county, then we can work with and try to establish the resources to provide those utilities. Maybe it's electricity. Maybe it's just water and wastewater capacity within the communities. So we. Look at what we have available now and identify what do we need to be able to offer to really entice some of these development opportunities. So that study is ongoing working with. I think it's Evan Marsh is I think Evan Marsh is the engineering firm that was engaged to work that study. And the idea is that Gary mentioned in focus. You guys are very familiar with that focus. They are working on gathering all of that data from the communities. and then having the expert engineers really sort through the data and tell us what it means and put together that report that is going to be at our fingertips, is going to be at Greg Hildebrand and MCDC's fingertips so that we can use it effectively. So those are some of the major things that One Marsh County is working on right now, and we'll continue to update you as those develop and other things come along.

Thank you, Jeff. Appreciate it. anybody got any questions any additional questions for jeff okay uh next item i believe is our approval of redevelopment invoices we have a motion to approve i'll make a motion we have a second removed in second do we have any discussion hearing none all in favor of the motion signify by saying aye aye Motion, excuse me, any objections? Hearing none, motion's carried. Okay, then acceptance of our communication, you all received in your packets. Do we have a motion to accept?

Motion.

Do we have a second? Second. Discussion, questions? Hearing none, all in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign, the motion's carried. All right, the last thing I have on here mayor, do you have anything you want to add or. Okay, do we have a motion to adjourn? We have a 2nd. 2nd, all in favor of the motion signify by saying, aye aye. Motion is carried. Thank you everybody.