City Council - Regular Meeting

At this time, I call to order the regular meeting of the Teroot City Council on Thursday, April 2nd, 2026. First item on the agenda is a moment of silence and pledge of allegiance to the flag. Tonight, the pledge will be led by Councilman Curtis Stone. I aliance 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. Michelle, will you please call the role? Council person Azar. Council person Bolan present. Council person Chaos. Council person Don here. Council person Dingle present. Council person Hinton present. Council person uh Lmill present. Council person Nation here. Council person Thompson here. Seven are present. Two are absent.

Council persons Azar and Shalos both notified us they had other engagements this evening. At this time, we reserve up to 30 minutes of time for public comment on items not on the agenda. We ask that you please limit your comments to three minutes and address your comments towards the council. We had a signup sheet and have no one signed up. If there's anybody from the public who wishes to make public comment, please approach the podium and state your name for the record. Okay, this time we will close public comment. Corrections to the journal of the proceeding meeting. There are none. Communication from the mayor. Sorry, Michelle. I thought I had to click one button here.

This is a monthly thing. And if you wouldn't have changed it right before the meeting. I know. 30. No, no, 14. Okay, it's not going to get

Yeah. So, uh uh we got we got that figured out, folks. Hey, uh good evening, Council President Dingle, members of the Terote City Council. Um, I did do a consolidated 7-minute version of this that we did put out on Facebook because I'm trying when we do these at city council meetings that screen is not shown uh with the slides. And so I've seen I've gotten a lot of feedback from individuals that they want to see the slides and that information. So I'm basically going to start doing a you know the presentation here and then a consolidated version for constituents and for those who who don't see the screen on YouTube. But why are we here today? Uh so tonight we're going to discuss one of the bigger state law changes. It's the second time that they've adjusted wheel taxes. However, this is a correction to the first time they really did it, which was two years ago. And so I really just to simplify all of this is we're going to talk about what you currently pay, what you'll pay now, who collects it, and why it matters for street and road funding. All right. So the bottom line is this does not create double taxation. That was the biggest problem when wheel taxes were first created several years ago. And when people hear new tax, they're going to assume that it's an added cost. Uh the intent here is not to stack a city tax on top of a county tax. This is a procedural change. What we're doing is we're routing money that used to go from BMV to state to county then to city just from BMV straight to the state straight back to the city. So we're taking one loop out of that circuit. This step helps Terote qualify for new state road funding tied to lane miles. What is LO Hood or the local option highway user tax? Um, basically state law treats this as a package. Locals adopt a low Hood to support transportation funding and now the biggest change is if you don't have a local option highway user tax, you are

not eligible for an additional pot of state road funding. It com it's comprised of two things. One the wheel tax and two the excise sir tax which is the same flat fee but for other items like trailers and uh like motorcycles. They just don't call it the wheel tax. They decided to separate it. What did the new state law does? So house enrolled act 1461 changes the community crossing funding formula. It used to be that we had community crossing that was matched with local dollars. Now, instead of one quote bucket that the state refers to, there's actually four. There's a community crossing grant program, and they reduced our eligible amount from 1.5 to 1 million, so you are able to get less. There is a bucket of funding from the state directly for the city of Indianapolis and the city of Indianapolis only. Then there's another funding called Lane Mile Direct Distribution. That's the LMDD funding stream. This is very important because for us to be eligible for the LMDD, we have to have the wheel tax. When we get the LMDD dollars, it's automatic because we have a wheel tax. And then the amount that we can apply for with community crossings goes down. So a lot of people are like, well, why wouldn't you just keep doing community crossings? because the total dollar amount in community crossings is slowly going down and the same amount of cities and counties in towns are applying for community crossings. So, the state essentially shifted money from this grant program to the LMDD to incentivize cities and counties to break out their local uh wheel taxes. And this really leads us to the question of why now. So basically what I'm going to propose to you all in July is a procedural change for how we

approach the loan. What is LMDD? So this gets even more confusing. I cannot promise a precise dollar figure to what the LMDD is because the LMDD which is calculated based off of lane mileage. It would change if every city in the state of Indiana adopted a wheel tax because now that bucket has more entities eligible for it. This is the best estimate. And even with this estimate, I think I found two or three issues with the funding formula. It jumps from year to year based off of how the funding is cut out. The 2029 number, frankly, is irrelevant because they're in a budget session next year in 2027. So, you can already start to see some of the challenges with how this new state change comes down here locally. It is a very well-intentioned program. I do want to add that, but there will probably be some cleanup state legislation that we'll be working on next uh winter. So, long story short, there's grant money, there's a new distribution program. This allows us to be eligible for it. Okay, this is kind of that double taxation Q&A slide. Um, you know, at the end of the day, you are not going to be double tax. And I'll cover this with a different graphic later. Used to be uh that if you lived in the county and your city had a wheel tax, you would pay both. That has gone away. We got that law struck from the books. So, what I do like about this is it allows for local control and eligibility. So, people want to know where all of these different street buckets are going to. This allows us to clearly articulate how many vehicles are in the city and what those exact dollars go to. The wheel tax dollars for our city that goes to the local road and street budget. Uh, and I'll cover that in a few slides, but the

bottom line is this actually goes for the support staff and the uh pothole repair and the equipment tied to our city streets. This just further summarizes how the community crossings program is still in effect, but basically the the amount changes. All right. So, what should residents expect, no double taxes, same wheel tax amount, city verse county. So, honestly, the only difference on their receipt would be city of Teroot instead of VO County. the money goes directed to the city and then we will continue to publish our items in our paving plan and on Gateway. Uh and that's the easiest way for us to clearly present those documents. Okay, here's what we did uh this morning on the video. As you can see um on the you know your right, my left used to be city population in blue, county population in white. The arrow shows a change. Now, our Vego County proper residents, so folks in the county, not in the city, pay X, and our city population still pays that same X amount, which for us is $15. Where does road funding come from? So, the first two squares show what we are doing this year and what we've done in previous years. You have community crossings, which used to be 1.5, now it's 1 million. And then you have your local funding match. The bulk of our local funding match is the motor vehicle highway restricted funds. That is the city's uh percentage of some of these state taxes and fees as well as our chance to get some fuel taxes back. However, that amount never adds up to a perfect match for community crossings dollars. So, if we just did motor vehicle highway and community crossings, basically we would pay $2 million a year. But as you guys heard us announce

a few weeks ago, we're doing 3.1. So, how did we get that additional $1.1 million? That comes from a mixture of edit economic development income tax, gaming revenue, uh, in some limited situations, HUD funding through the CBDG program goes to infrastructure. So, in a example I'll use is along the 13th corridor. Some of those infrastructure projects do include paving. So, that's why I list HUD there. uh ride-of-way fees. A portion of our rideway fees gets recycled into the paving budget. So that way when utilities are pulling permits to work in the ride ofway, we feed some of those dollars towards more street paving. All right, so follow the arrow with me. And now we have our change community crossing. The amount that we would be eligible for is 1 million subtracted by the total amount of LMD that we receive. We should know that amount um next fiscal year. So, probably July of 2027. Local lane mile distribution. I put the estimates earlier in the presentation, but like I would not really look at that too much because those numbers will change based off how many people change their laws. And then our local funding, which the sources would stay the same. Uh so there's no change there. Couple of common questions. Is this a new tax? again for the fifth time today. No, it is not. It is simply different routing. This is a procedural conversation. Why are we doing it? To qualify for the lane mile distribution funding. When does it start? So July 1st, 2026 starts the legislative fiscal year. Our plan is to file it in July for the August city council meeting and it would take into effect 2027 with the first batch of LMDD funding coming um June 30th, 2027. And that's what they're saying today. I will go ahead and stop there and stand by if you guys have any questions on this specific topic and then I'll roll

into the rest of the mayor's update for this evening. Council person Lauder. Um, mayor, I know that it used to be when it came through, it was distributed by mileage because it came in as a total. The state had the road miles that you paved and so it was distributed for the county, the city, and then the towns small. How will it be? I mean, how are they going to know you're living in the city? I mean, who's going to take care of that state, BMV?

That's a really good question. So that question honestly exposes some of the local frustration still around this program. Right? It sounds very clean, right? You go up to the BMV, hand them your license, start registering your vehicles. We have to coordinate now all of your local units of government in the state now have an additional step and that's clarifying that the BMV maps and what they're tracking for city limits is correct which you would assume is done but I'm not going to assume that because we have annexed over the last 20 years and if you miss out a section of that all of a sudden the numbers are thrown off. So we do have a lot of fault one we need to follow up with BMV and confirm everything is set up before 1 January 2027. Uh, and then the second conversation is we need to continue to follow up with INDOT to try to get refined numbers. We won't do that every month because as more and more cities do this, it would just kind of be annoying from from INDOT's perspective. But I think every 3 months, we're going to touch base with them to try to get our estimates and our estimates will will likely change. Um, and then here's what's also interesting. If the city of Indianapolis can't use all their funding because they're required to match it as well and this year's proposed budget was not the full amount they could have received, that money now rolls into the LMD bucket. So, there's different changes built in to where if Indianapolis doesn't take advantage of what they're eligible for, the rest of the cities around the state could then receive some of the that benefit. Thank you for that, Cornell. Okay, good. Sounds like we're good with that topic. Now, we're going to switch to something more interesting than state and local tax policy, and that's parks, parks in the city of Terote. So, Kylie's here with us today. Um May 1st

Herz.

All right. May 1st. May 1st, we're going to need you guys. We're going to do the Herz Rose ribbon cutting. Of course, the playground itself has been complete for a while now, but the Indiana Pacers, the grant that we got with them will be closed out by then. That court will be fully painted. The goals will go back up. Uh, some of the Pacers staff and and their cheerleading team, I believe, will be in town that day. I am trying to get Caitlyn Clark still. No promises, and I highly doubt it happens. Uh, but we'll take TJ McConnell or Tyrese Hallebertton if it doesn't work out. Uh, and then we're going to do a block party that night down at Herz Rose Park just to celebrate with that neighborhood. The YMCA bids, those bids came in and wow, great news. They came in under budget. Knock on wood, no change orders, right? Uh, so that project is starting. We've already done phase one, which was the pool. So, the pool is now open. The natiatorum has been fixed at the Y. Now, we're going to move into the addition phase, and we're still looking at some additional financing opportunities to do some more renovations there. But bottom line, that 11.45 million project continues to move forward, and you're going to see more construction activity in and around YMCA, which is in Fairbanks Park. That leads me to my next conversation. When it comes to Fairbanks Park, I am going to put some funding in next year's budget. uh not too much mostly though in the 2028 budget for the LWCF program. So that's a federal grant distributed to the state and then cities apply to the state. Uh basically uh that's a program we've used several times in the city, but we're going to try to get some funding there to start redoing Fairbanks Park. Uh and we're required to match it one. So you're going to start to see some of those dollars in uh edit. You'll see the bulk of that in 2028, but a little bit in 2027. to continue on parks. Um, we still feel pretty comfortable with our Deming Park Oakley playground renovation. We are still on track to when this park season closes. We start construction

there and we are optimistic. It's about July 2027 when that one would be done. Uh, the Deming Park pool is continuing. Uh, we are get we are applying for some other grants there to to shore up some of the funding and and make sure that's airtight and it doesn't bleed into next uh calendar year. So, lot going on with some of our major parks, some of our smaller parks. Uh, last time we celebrated Kallet Park being open and complete. I'm hoping uh either next week or by May, we can celebrate Spencer Ballpark being completed and finished. And then after that, for the rest of the season, you're going to see some of the smaller projects be done. Things like shelters, the outdoor shelters as well. And those projects aren't, you know, as big or grandios, but they're still key components of keeping a strong parks and recreation department. Last thing I'll hit on is trails. Uh trails have been a very good program, not just here, but across the state of Indiana. The state cut their funding, which is interesting. Uh and we're going to finish the Ray and Riley Park Trail combination. We are looking at the Thompson Ditch Trail. uh we have reached out to a private foundation and we're going to submit an application for that. So hopefully our next project will be the Thompson Ditch portion and then that rolls us into our conversation with Rose Hullman and all they've got going on with Innovation Grove and the Rose Hullman Ventures project and some trails out there. So we're continuing to find outside funding for that. Uh we acknowledge that we're in a property tax interesting conversation. So, we will pursue outside dollars to keep our our dream of trails alive and we've seen good progress there and we want to see more. I'll pause there for any questions on parks. Yep. Council person Bond,

not a question so much, but I just want to say I I love the effort we're putting into our parks and I took my daughter to call Park and she approves of the new playground. Oh, good. Thank you. Thank you. That's only the nod of approval you need. Good. Good. I yield. Thank counc mayor you mentioned an acronym LWCF. Can you tell us what that means? Land water conservation fund. The land water conservation fund. Thank you. And that's a is that state or federal money? Technically it's federal with state involvement. So it's not necessarily a clean federal or state.

Okay. Thanks. It's it's great that you're pursuing uh pulling down those dollars. Um, you know, we're still a a donor state in so many ways when it comes to federal stuff. So, keep up the good work. Thank you. Last thing I'll have is our housing update. So, the Liberty Oh, sorry. Yes, Councilwoman. Council, I just want to ask a question about the about Fairbanks Park in conjunction with the riverfront

planning. Uh, are you working I know you're working with that team, but will will there be some coordination with them as it relates to Yes, that that's actually why we're going to do Fairbanks Park because there is a lot of momentum there and there's the LWCF as well as a private grant. So, we're basically trying to consolidate the riverscape vision with the city's parks and recreation opportunities on the river and it's just a lot easier if we all do it at the same time in in conversation. So, I think that's a cleaner project to apply for state funding for because it looks better seeing so many people involved than like a one-off park. Like a lot of times I see cities submit proposals and I'm like, "Hey, that that is really good playground equipment, but how does it play into the overall development of that portion of the community?" And so I think Fairbanks Park answers that only because we brought in Rivercape, we brought in Lori Danielson, and we're really pushing to tie that into a full revitalization development conversation, not just a park conversation. That was a long-winded answer to your question, but yes.

Thank you. Thank you. So, quickly to hit housing and then I will be done for the day. Uh, we are starting to clear a lot of those lots on Liberty and our partnership with Thrive West Central. Uh, we do have two applications in that Thrive's handling for the ISU lots and then we're working with a third developer also along Locust Street. Uh, so basically in a five block by five block area. We are seeing plans finally be submitted. We hope they'll be approved here in the coming weeks and we'll start to see some construction. And if you've been around those neighborhoods, it's been very hard to get development there. And I think we're we're really moving on the right track. Uh in terms of housing, because I've talked about housing for 2 and a half years now, uh our population is going up. We had years and years of population decline. And from 2024, 2023 to 2024, we we had a good jump. From 2024 to 2025, we don't have the city data yet, but the county data shows a 380% increase. Why is that important? Because last year the city grew by 155 and the county only grew by four. So as you can see we are usually responsible for the majority if not all of the county's growth. And if the county's already gone up by 380 from 2024 to 2025 I'm interested to see uh the US census data that comes out May 2026 about the 2025 growth for the city. Uh it did show continued increase in our median income and that's something you've all chatted with me about. It's something we've all publicly stated we want to do and so it's good to see that median income slowly continue to rise. Our unemployment rate is still at about 2.8%. Which is really good for our our portion of the state. Um and then the last thing I apologize one more update. I might need to come see you guys in June with some appropriations for gas or some in series transfer. I think if we if we have another two months of these gas

prices because of the war in the Middle East, something is going to have to I mean, we always add a percentage buffer, but I don't think anyone in their right mind was going to add for that huge increase that we've seen at the pump. So, we do have vendors that work with the city that have tried to add fuel charges to bills that we will dispute every single time. Uh so, just know that the gas conversation uh we are not immune to that. Uh, and we are we are having challenges here at local government, but I I think we'll we'll find a path forward and make it out. So, thank you guys. That's all I have. Yes, Councilman Nations.

One quick question about uh fuel prices. Um, under the well, for the last few years, uh, we participated in some kind of a a fuel program that stabilized the prices. Are are we still doing that? We are still in that program. That is basically like think of a Sam's Club for fuel. So it's bulk pricing. Um that's why you'll see you know certain fuel stations that the city goes to and uses. We are still members of that program. Yes. For those of us who've served longer. Um well I guess I should ask you is it the same program that we had that we participated in under the Bennett administration?

Yep. The country mark. You'll see him at those fuel stations. I was thinking that there was something a little bit beyond um that that guaranteed a certain price uh in you know to level out the prices. Uh it's basically a 10% is how I I view the program. So if you know the majority of our vehicles, which almost all of our vehicles use those fuel stations, uh I'm sure there's there's one-off situations, the price that we pay is 10% less than the advertised price.

Okay. Well, thanks. uh you know for a long time um those considerations weren't really top of mind uh but now they are for everybody. Thanks. I yield. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. Reports from city officials.

Good evening, President Dinkl, members of the city council. at Ryan, director of the human relations commission. Per the city code, the human relations commission is responsible for preparing an annual report and sharing it with the mayor and the city council. I want to just briefly explain the timing of this presentation. As I note, 2025 has been over for a few months now. As you all know, January and February are the biggest, busiest months for the Human Relations Commission with MLK programming, Black History Month, warming center coordination. So because of that, the commission did not formally approve the annual report you have in front of you until our March meeting, which is why I'm here in April. I just want to quickly highlight a few key accomplishments from this past year. In 2025, we revitalized our Black History Month banner project. We continued our Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. programming. We launched our first ever human rights book club. We also significantly expanded our outreach across the community through events and partnerships. The report outlines detailed data, program summaries, and an overview of our work throughout the year. Um, I want to be respectful of your time tonight as I know many of us have the day off tomorrow. Don't want to be the reason we're here too late. Um, that is in front of you and it's also available on the human relations commission web page for you to peruse. Um, so I invite you to take some time um at your leisure to read through that report and of course the public can find that on the Human Relations Commission web page as well. I welcome any questions, feedback or follow-up conversations um after you review the report report. Don't hesitate to call, text, email me, or set up a meeting with comments, questions, or ideas for collaboration. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. This is great. Reports from board of public works and safety. I receive none. Reports from standing committees. There are none. Reports from non-standing committees. There are none. Items previously tabled. There are none. Tax abatements for confirmation. There are none. Items on second reading. There are none. Items on first reading. You have one. Appropriation 3 2026 $20,000 from other governmental. Number 0440096 to edit Riley Trail. number 04040096 04-445045. You must vote to take action. Petitioner.

Good evening, Mr. President, members of council. So, we're asking to transfer this $20,000. Uh you might wonder where this money came from. Uh since we're we're asking to appropriate it. This was part of the grant last year for the trail study in the Thompson Ditch Trail study. We got a grant for 50% of a $40,000 study. um which we've just finished up that study. We had a wonderful public hearing with great attendance and and it was received well um last week, but the money came back. The 50% was uh was sent back to the city and we're looking and asking to appropriate those funds to the the uh Ray Park and Riley Trail so that we can continue to use those same funds towards trail projects. Happy to answer any questions.

Is there anyone from the public who wishes to comment on appropriation 3 2022 hearing? None. Council, Mr. Brennett, Council Person Loudermilk. If there is no discussion, I'll make a motion that we vote to take action on appropriation 3, 2022. Second. It's been moved by Council Person Loudermilk, seconded by Council President Henden, that we take action on appropriation 3, 2026. All those in favor say I. I. Post say nay. Okay. We may now take action on appropriation 3 2026. Mr. Present. Council person Louder. Um, I'll make a motion that we approve appropriation 3, 2026. Second.

It's been moved by Council Person Laddermouth, seconded by Council President Hinton, that we approve appropriation 3 2026. All those in favor say I. Post say nay. Motion passes. Appropriation 3 2022 is adopted. Thank you. Thank you. Next item. Preparation for 2026, $4,500,000 from wastewater treatment plant number 06200061 to Park Avenue Lift Station number 0620061 044561. You must vote to take action. Petitioner,

good evening again. This is probably the first time I've ever been twice and wrote the start of a meeting, so I appreciate that. Um, so what we're asking here is appropriate some funds from the sanitary district to to complete a muchneeded sanitary sewer improvement. You may remember last year that there was some funds in the budget to do the Park Avenue lift station. There was $3 million um in the budget last year to do this project. We bid the project late last year and opened the bids in time to encumber the funds, but um the project came in above above estimate at about $5.2 million. Wait a second. Sorry. $6.2 million. And we were wanting to do the right thing. So rather than hurry up and approve a contract so we can encumber funds, we decided that we need to take our time and take the right steps here and and get the funding right and that you know we'll come back next year and ask for an appropriation of funds. So we did take the time. We took that $6.2 million bid and our lowest lowest bid contractor and we were able to negotiate that down to about $5.3 million. Um which is a significant savings. It's a much needed project and and we did vet that bid very hard to make sure that it was a good price and it was the best we were going to do and we feel comfortable with that. So we did award the bid. We went through with the process. Um the same appropriation was heard for recommendation from the sanitary commission at the previous meeting and and did pass. So tonight we're asking to appropriate those funds so that we can complete this project and and do a much needed improvement to the sanitary sewer system. Is there anyone from the public who wishes to comment on appropriation 4 2026 hearing? None. Council

Council President Poland, do do we have a local contractor? Um, so the contractor that won the bid is BNT uh drains next week. They're out of Marshall, Illinois, so fairly local. They do a lot of work here and do do a good job. So we have no control also over who the contractor is other than to award it to the lowest responsive responsible bidder. That's what I want to hear. Thank you. Council person Nation. Um thanks Marcus. Can you uh just briefly outline the area that the Park Avenue lift station serves?

That's a great question. Um, so our sanitary district goes beyond the limits of of Teroot and and you may recognize this location as being outside of city limits. So the Park Avenue lift station sits right around Lafayette Avenue and Park Avenue just a little bit to the west. Um, and it's going to serve everything north of uh of Park Avenue all the way up to uh where do we end? Um, there's a large factory up there. Can't think of the name. Um, that may be it. But so all the way it's going to take the northern boundary of the Santair district all the way to Park Avenue. And it's a pretty significant lift station. Um, and it's, you know, not only is it fairly significant flow, it's it's very deep. Um, about 30 ft deep. So that explains the the price increase. Um, you know, there's there's a lot of the the price increase when we got to talking and vetting the price came down to it's deep. There's a high water table and there's a lot of risk.

And this is replacement of an existing lift station. So, does it represent an expansion of service or is it just maintenance? Basically,

it's not necessarily expansion of service, although we do still have some capacity up there. It's it's typically maintenance. So, I think you'll probably recall last year there was a scenario on maybe not this lift station, but nearby where there was a a sewer discharge from the ground where the force man actually, you know, decayed to a point where it it corroded through and and spewed sewage onto the ground, which is a terrible situation. That started us looking into this and and this um it's no surprise this needs to be replaced. It is in our long-term control plan that we started putting together years ago. Um, so it is a planned replacement, maybe a little bit sooner than planned. Um, but as we started putting together the project to replace that force man, it started to make sense to do the lift station at the same time to get the best value for the public and the rate.

That's that's great. Uh, thank you for the explanation. Um, you're right. I did notice that this is outside of what we think of the footprint of the city of Teroot. That's why I asked about the the service area and all that. Um, and if there are no further questions, I uh Yeah, Mayor.

Sorry. Um, I I just want to add two quick things here because obviously the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission is coming uh April 22nd to talk about utilities and and rates and something that I I would ask, you know, you all to help us spread this message. With our private utilities, 10 to up to 20 cents of every dollar you pay them goes to profit. with us 100% has to go back into the system either through salaries or through improvements or through equipment or through maintenance and for bonds. So the long-term control plan, which I know you guys are very familiar, but whenever we talk sewage, I I people get frustrated. All right, why are we paying for sewage? We pay taxes. I hear that time and time again. Well, when the city or frankly government for that matter owns a utility system, uh they can put all their resources that they receive to maintaining it and at times upgrading it. So when we have companies that come in, they do help at times to upgrade the service in their area. We do have those conversations with our larger companies when they come in. Um but the long-term control plan in and of itself just to to be very specific on something just by delaying it you know about 15 years which which kind of happened in the past cost tripled right so we when we talk about bonding and projects and improving the entire city right now the city of Terraote need well the sanitary district which obviously includes portions of the county the sanitary district needs to do about $330 million of projects from now for the next 25 years. And so when when folks get frustrated, I just point to the list of projects that we are going to do. And a lot of the projects that we do are the same projects that people ask about. I'm looking at Councilwoman Thompson because I'm thinking of you for a second. Lingshshire, Woodshshire, and Woodridge. Why we cannot pave those streets?

Because the storm water and the drainage and the curb and gutter is so bad that if we fix the street next year, it'd be the same problem. That's looking to be I think seven million. Knock on wood. Hopefully I can get it to 6.5. Right. 25th Street, another great example. So, a lot of people are happy with the work that you guys helped us do at Brown, the Brown storm water project. There are so many examples of Brown storm water project that need to be done across the community which are tied to that long-term control plan. So when people get frustrated, I always remind them we are not the private utilities that take 10 to 20 cents of every dollar that you pay us and put it into some just pure profit. What we do is we reinvest that back into our community. And that's really, you know, this project is just one of the many examples of that. So I just like to add that because I know when we talk utilities and we talk prices, it's very frustrating. And I remind folks that this is the one utility that's not like the other guys that is trying to do everything to improve and upgrade our system. Thank you.

Thanks, Mayor. And uh you know, at four uh and a half million dollars, uh this will well, I guess the total cost is more like 5.1. At $5.1 million, that's uh what is like almost one a.5% of the uh $320ome million dollars that we have to spend over the next 25 years. Um anyway, um as I was saying, if there is no further discussion, I move that we take action on appropriation number 4, 2026. Second. It's been moved by council person Nation, seconded by council person Boland that we take action on appropriation 4, 2026. All those in favor say I. I. Post say nay.

Okay. We may now take action on appropriation 4 2026. Mr. Present. Council person Nation. If there's no further discussion, I move for approval of appropriation 4 2026. Second. It's been moved by council person Nation. Seconded by council person Boland that we approve appropriation 4206. All those in favor say I. I. Post say nay. Motion passes. Appropriation 4 2026 is adopted. Thank you. Next item.

Uh special ordinance 3 20226. Reszoning of property located at 3317 North 12th Street. area planning has not met. So you cannot take any action and um cause a little bit of confusion. So the petitioner's attorney is not here but we will hear it next week. So this first reading for special ordinance 3 2026. Is there anyone from the public who wishes to comment on special ordinance 3 2026? Hearing none council motion to take action. Okay. It will move to next week then. Thank you. Next item,

resolution 72026 supporting the conversion of South 8th Street into a city park and outdoor area for the Terote Children's Museum. Petitioner. Oh, I need a booster seat.

Good evening, um, Council President Dingle and Council members. It's a pleasure to be here and represent our partners for this resolution with the Teroot Children's Museum. I am thrilled to share our project that Susan Turner has been working very diligently on to develop a proposal for a city park that would be placed along 8th Street right across from the children's museum. This will be a really great opportunity for us to transform a road that has some dangers and um just may not be the most functional for our city and convert it into some muchneeded green space for that area. We are proposing this for this park to be a public private ownership with terms to be determined. The park board meeting for this evening that was scheduled for 4 pm has been cancelled and we have scheduled a special meeting for Monday, April 6th for the park board to uh review this item and get their letter of support. So, I was hoping to have that for you all today. Uh we do have that on our agenda for April 6. So, I'll be very excited to share that with the council once that has been reviewed by the Teroot Park and Recreation Board. Uh that said, we are seeking the resolution to get support to close off 8th Street for the development of the park if we get the funds to do so. We don't want to shut down the road by any means until we are able to have the um the the uh project fully funded. So if there are any questions, I'd be happy to answer. I know I'm joined here with the team, so we can certainly ask.

Yes, please. Perfect. So, I just want to quickly add the funding piece to to all of this. So, what we're doing here, you know, the special ordinance and and vacating the street that is contingent on the long awaited Lily Arts and Culture grant funding, which is tied to Ready 2.0. Uh it was announced under Governor Hulkcom's administration. There were some pauses, some some changes in that office and and now it is back. Uh and so that is the funding that the city will target to close out all the hard work that these folks have done. They have done probably 99% of of this work and their efforts. And so we are going to come in as the the folks who apply for the grant to bring that funding in and then we're going to work with them to build said city park and then transfer it to them for maintenance and ownership at that point. So, these are the folks who have put in all the great work. I'm going to we're going to call them up now so they can answer specific questions. I just wanted to talk that one funding piece.

Good evening. I'm Kyla Dal. I am the director of donor relations at the Teroot Children's Museum. Unfortunately, Susan could not be here tonight, but the entire leadership team from the museum has come and we are here. I'm here to answer any questions you have. Uh so, this project is a long time in the making. In fact, uh, CO was actually the, uh, spurring of the of looking at this opportunity. Um, the Children's Museum was started in a church basement by three science teachers and has been a part of this community for just shy of 40 years. Our current location at 727 Wabash Avenue is celebrating its sweet 16th birthday this year. And we see about 55,000 visitors a year which makes us one of the most visited attractions in terote and the entire Wabash Valley and that is why we have consistently need the seen the need to become a bigger part of the community by by working with the city on this park project. Um what many people may not realize is that we are completely landlocked at our location not on four sides but five. The we are three floors. The fourth floor of our building is actually hotel rooms for the adjoining hotel. So we have no other options for expansion even though we're seeing amazing numbers that continue to grow every year. This a street partnership with the city of Teroot and the Terote parks department will allow us to utilize an extremely underutilized section of downtown that eighth street section and turn it into something extraordinary for children and families. And not only will I say that it's underutilized, but our offices actually have windows overlooking the intersection of W Bash Street. And I can tell you if they are driving on it, half the time they're driving the wrong direction.

We have a great viewpoint of that. So we have vetted this project through a strategic plan, a master's facilities plan, a feasibility study. And now we obviously realize the city and the parks department, we still have lots of work to do with them, including um grant opportunities we have coming up and private donors. But what they really need to see is this resolution so that we can move forward and asking for that funding. So, if you have any questions for me or Kylie, we would love to answer.

Is there anyone from the public who wishes to comment on resolution 7 2026? Hearing none. Council, council person Nation,

thanks uh all of you who've um brought this forward and been working on this. Uh then thanks to the to Mayor Sackba and the parks department and the administration for uh your contributions too. Um this is a a as she intimated this is a a plan that's been years in the making. Um and you'll see that you know my name is on here in support of this and I am going to read the whole thing uh just so the community understands what we're doing at this stage. I do want to take this opportunity though to express my often voiced concern about this which the people who know me best or know exactly what I'm going to say. I want to see two-way traffic surrounding this museum so that the families who come here from out of town don't have to drive the wrong way on the adjoining streets. The closest of which will be 9inth Street uh and Ohio. Also, we've got uh this is just one instance of many that illustrates why our downtown needs to go back to two-way traffic on as many streets as possible. And I'll I'll stop on that because I don't want to beat this too hard, but we could make 9inth Street two-way south of Wabash Avenue. And that would help families navigate their way to this museum and to this wonderful facility that's planned on the former bed of 8th Street. Okay, I said I'd stop. I will. Um, so what's this actually doing? This is a non-binding

um expression of sentiment. It's a a resolution. That's what a resolution is. Resol It does not close 8th Street. It does not provide any funding. It is a resolution of the common council of the city of Teroot supporting the planned conversion of South 8th Street into a city park and outdoor area for the Teroot Children's Museum. Whereas the city of Teroot supports investments that enhance downtown vitality, quality of place, and safe, accessible public spaces for residents and visitors. And whereas the Teroot Children's Museum is a community asset that provides educational programming and family oriented activities that contribute to local workforce attraction and retention and community well-being. And whereas the planned conversion of South 8th Street into a city park and outdoor area to support the museum would expand opportunities for outdoor learning, recreation, and public gatherings in the downtown area. hand. Whereas the project is intended to improve pedestrian safety and comfort, increase public space amenities, and create a more inviting environment for families, students, and visitors. And whereas the city council desires to express its support for collaborative planning among the city, the museum, and other private and public stakeholders to advance the project in a matter consistent with public access, safety, and long-term maintenance needs. hand. Whereas, this resolution is intended to demonstrate policy support for the project concept and ongoing coordination

and does not by itself vacate right away or appropriate funds, each of which may require separate council action consistent with applicable law. Whereas the city council encourages city administration, relevant departments to continue coordination with the museum and stakeholders to refine the project scope and confirm operational responsibilities, address accessibility and safety requirements and evaluate impacts to traffic circulation cir utilities emergency access and adjacent property. ities. And whereas the city council supports the project's intent to provide a safe, welcoming, and accessible public space that advances downtown placemaking, outdoor education, and communityoriented programming. And whereas the city council acknowledges that subsequent actions, including but not limited to right-of-way actions, if any, and funding appropriations may be brought forward to council for council consideration as the project advances. Be it resolved by the Terode City Council that this resolution is hereby in support of the planned conversion of South 8th Street into a city park, an outdoor recreation area associated with the Terote Children's Museum. There's a whereas in there that talks about coordination. And to reread that, it says, "Whereas the city council desires to express its support for collaborative planning among the city, the museum, and other public

and private stakeholders to advance the project in a manner consistent with public access, safety, and long-term maintenance needs. To me, that's one of the key pieces of this. We need to see cooperation and coordination not just between u the city and the uh the city mayor's office and the council and the um children's museum. We also need to see coordination with the street department with the engineering department and with uh others our metropolitan planning organization that does transportation. We need to look hard at our downtown and figure out how to make a truly integrated grid that or remake our our grid in a way that supports the traffic uh that is headed toward the Children's Museum and other places downtown. On that note, if there's no further discussion, I'll shut up after I after I move for approval of resolution number seven, 2026.

Second Curtis second.

Oh, okay. Uh before we take a vote, I do want to make comment on this. Um, I probably have a unique perspective on this as a museum director myself. Um, and I sympathize with the Children's Museum. When you're seeing that many visitors per day and have nowhere else to expand, it takes some creative out of the box thinking. This plan has been talked about, I think, since my time on council. I think I met with Susan months into my my term on on the council and initially I was ready to sit down with her and say, "No, I'm against this." because my district line runs right up the middle of 8th Street and but after seeing the plan and hearing all the ideas uh she won me over and I think it's important and I don't know if it's been made clear that you half of this the northern half of 8th Street will be for the children children's museum but the southern half is a city public park and that will not just benefit visitors to the children's museum but people in downtown and across the city. Um, so I think it's a it's a really creative uh plan and uh voice is my support for that. So with that, it's been moved by council person louder, seconded by council person debonation.

Oh, it's been moved by council person Nation. Sorry. Seconded by council person Don that we approve resolution 72026. All those in favor say I. I. I. Post say nay. The motion passes. Resolution 72026 is adopted. Next item, we have our first CF1 form of the year. Yay.

Yes. Okay. Historic Walnut Score LLC, which was originally filed as 200 South 6th Street LLC. Um, the resolution number they list is resolution 3 of 2000. It's actually resolution 3 of 2020. I didn't want anybody to think we're having a 26-year abatement. um you have the copy in front of you um and they completed it. Other than a typo on the um name, they are showing one additional employee than originally estimated. As a reminder, a single employees salary is confidential information. um salary is higher uh than the single employee that was originally estimated and they actually completed section four. So in some ways they do get a gold star on that. As a reminder, your vote will be um in substantial compliance, not in substantial compliance. You need a motion in a second. If you excuse me, if you decide they're not in substantial compliance, we must set a hearing. questions. Mr.

President, Council Person Hinton, I move that Historic Walnut Square LLC is in compliance. Second. It's been moved by council person Hinton, seconded by council person Thompson that the CF is it one four CF1 form for historic Walnut Square LLC be found in substantial compliance. All those in favor say I. I. I. Post say no. CF1 form for historical nets where LLC is in substantial compliance. Mr. President.

Yes. Oh, okay. Make me. All right. Um, one of the projects I've been working on, uh, has been, um, well, Council, uh, Councilman Nation and I unfortunately have been here for many years. Uh, one of the big projects we did many, many years ago was just to put information online and then we, uh, started broadcasting and went through some changes. We have it on YouTube. Hopefully everybody is seeing that. One of the big changes that's going to be coming this year is the implementation of the council's YouTube page and uh we will start in May broadcasting live on that. I will put stuff on Facebook. I will also um have stuff on the council's page um and we will slowly start moving the uh older videos over to it. I have some on there now. It would be great if we could get people to subscribe. Let's get our numbers up above 20. I think we have 17

and I think nine of them are at the table here and yeah, we're recruiting. And I just want to remind everybody that when that change happens, you'll still be able to go to the city's website and find the link just as you are with all of our agenda and packet. So, that won't change. It's just the channel that it's being streamed on. And and we will um definitely be putting more on Facebook. We will definitely be uh putting more information on uh the city council's part of the city's website and there's always a link to the YouTube video um on the website for each agenda question. No, thank you Michelle.

I do have a quick question. Michelle, how far back into the past do those uh videos go? worried about what? Just curious. What are you worried about? Um I don't need a specific month. Uh just how many years? Um so I I have audio back to 2009 and I think I have video close to that year. So, it's a it's a huge project. So, if anybody has wants to watch all that.

Yep. And one other followup, are there um requirements uh as to how long those kinds of records are kept? Um as you know from our years of working together in the council, uh the rest of the council, we try and exceed any requirements. So, right now it's only 90 days. Oh, wow. Okay. So, we you you have to retain the information, but making it um on a public publicly accessible uh website 90 days. So, we kind of exceed that just a little.

I I think that you're really doing a great service to the public by making that available uh so we can people can reach back and try to figure out what happened when. Um, I know that you're always very accessible and helpful to us when we reach out to you individually and ask, "All right, so remind me of when this happened." Um, but, uh, for the public, I think having these tools out there is especially helpful.

One of the requirements with the new law that went into effect last July was you have to have a link to your agenda with the video and with the uh, agenda, you have to have a link. You know, it's back and forth. Well, I'd like to take that up a step. I've been doing that for a while, but I would like to also give a location of where the ordinances are on the website, but we wanted to wait till the new website is up and running and everything was moved before we did that. There's another project going on um and we have a a data archival software and it's going to be made public so that you can go look for an old ordinance yourself. General specials resolutions I don't know.

Uh yeah. Um we my first job when I came to the city was scanning these documents. That's how I started. And we have 1929 to current. Now 1929 to 1980 is minute books but 1984 where it is individual documents. It's a lot of documents, a lot of items scanned. So my office is going through and we're looking to make sure we've named it right. We got all the pages and everything. So, I will update you when that's ready for the public. So, if somebody was interested, they could go look and see when um Ray Park was established. They could go and and see when Demicking Park, all of that stuff.

And I know you're not sharing all of this to uh to blow your own horn. Um, but I'd like to just publicly thank you for going beyond the uh minimal requirements of the law to do these projects and to make this stuff available. This is our government. this is what our citizens have paid for and I over time and we all have the right to access it and celebrate it and do whatever level of scrutiny we want to do to understand it. So thanks. I mean you know the work of the clerk is pretty invisible to most people and I applaud you.

Well thank you. Thank you. Where's George when I need him? All right. George isn't here. Mr. President. Yes. Council person Louder. Go for it. I'm going to be George and make a motion to adjurnn. Second. It's been moved by Council Person Louderm. Seconded by Council Person Hinton enthusiastically that we adjourn. All those in favor say I. I. Both say nay. City council is adjourned. Thank you. How you doing?