Town Council - Regular Meeting

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 everyone. First item on the agenda is approval of the April 15 minutes. Any questions or comments on the not a move to approve Mr. Second by Mr. Chadam. All in favor zero. Thank you. Any public comments? Morgan, I've had no request to speak, sir. Thank you, sir.

Yes, sir. First item on the agenda is wishing to be heard regarding the street closer for good evening. The summer's best plary event sponsored by Rotary Club on Square and D takes place on August 8th 12:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. It was approved on February 4th. Uh they have additional street requests. North Washington Street between West Clinton Street and West Main Street. North Jud Street between West Clinton Street and the alley behind Fastrack as well as West Clinton Street between North Street and North Washington Street. Reason for the closure is they have other businesses that are want to participate in the event. Um Creation Cookie Cafe is one of them. They've already spoken to Mayberry Cafe as well as Kstand and they both support the the street closures. They plan on hiring offduty officers as well as sending letters to all the homeowners that are going to be affected by the street closures. question comments.

I I just have one comment and it wasn't maybe part of what was approved previously, but is it really necessary to close that one block of Columbia and that little section of Washington that goes north of Columbia because Columbia is a fairly good through traffic and a fair amount of traffic coming south of north and south on Washington and terminates there. That was my only question. Reason that there's homes that are want to participate in and post artists on their porches and that's why there's that street as well because of the homes that are wanting to participate in the event. You found that a issue from your perspective on that?

No sir. That's the only comment I had. I'll move to approve the street closer. Motion by Mr. Herby. Second. Second, Mr. Gerald. All in favor? I. All opposed. Motion carries 5. Thank you. Thank you. Uh policy update time usage.

Hello again. All right. This was what we uh struck out of the previous update. Um, all that this really is is just a little bit of additional clarity. Um, this doesn't change the current meaning of the sick time policy. So, nothing is being like taken away or anything. Um, in the red and the blue here, you can see I've kind of taken the current wording and broken it down a little more. I think it's really helpful for comprehension because I've noticed that with the handbook when I get questions, it's typically on policies where there's not like examples of things. So I've added a couple of examples under the um a doctor's note may be required for um periods of absence less than three days pattern of absenteeism so frequent Mondays Fridays before after holidays and then reasonable concern for regarding use of sick leave. Um this also helps out with having if if an issue does arise it helps managers to kind of remember and notice things. That's also going to help me because if someone is out a lot and they need something like FMLA, that raises the flag for the managers to come to me and say, "Hey, this person might need FMLA. Can you reach out?" Or I can just reach out and say, "Hey, is there a FMLA qualifying event?" So, that's what's mentioned down at the bottom there under interaction with other leave policies. The only other thing that I have updated is the incident reporting policy. I apologize. Um, I've added a specific no later than 24 hours just to make sure that again it's easier to remember. Um, the wording currently is as soon as possible. So again, that's by end of shift ideally. Sometimes that's not possible. We have, you know, employees that work 24 hours overnight. So no later than 24 hours. and that way everything is submitted at least to a supervisor um so that we have things on record if we need to report the incident

any further. So that's all that addition is but that's all I've got today. Thank you questions comments. I like the wording on this much better than the last round. So thank you for getting that updated

lot better. Motion move to approve the updated sick leave policy Mr. Do second by Mr. Chadam. All in favor I all opposed motion carries 5. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Next up is CF1 reporting. Mr. Jason.

Thank you counselors. Uh you should all have received a memo. There's only one little update that I need to uh address. Uh Mr. reporter pointed out that in bio response I had a typo because this is an adjusted memo from last year where I mentioned that bio response is on their last year of but in fact this is the first year as last year they finished one and then received a new one because of the additional work that they received. Uh on the memo, I go over what was reported in their CF1 when they received the abatement and what is currently reported on the CF1 uh document that they need to do for an annual check-in. Uh for each of these four abatements that the town currently has, all of them are in reasonable compliance. Uh there was a discussion last year about is there an additional degree of oversight or review that we need to do. Uh at this time we don't have document or procedure in place. That's something that as we've had some changes at HCP. I am open to having a discussion with for future years. Uh but for the moment the legal requirement is just for the CF1 form to be filled out. And based on what we see here, I would ask that uh all four payments be found in compliance com. Do we need to speak?

Yes, sir. If I spoke with legal counsel, we need to do Okay. First up is uh Wellspring. I'll move to approve well and PSL landlord LLC to be compliant by Mr. Irby. Second second by Mr. Gerald. All in favor I all motion carries 5. Thank you. Uh next up in bio response

move to approve the CF1 for bio response and find them. Motion by Mr. Herby second. Second Mr. Chadam. All in favor I. All opposed. Motion carry 5. Next up is pig lot. I'll move to approve pig lot CF1. Motion Mr. Chadam. Second. Second. Mr. Dod. All in favor I. All opposed. Motion carry 5-0 and last sparks engineering. Move to approve Sparks Engineering CF1. Motion by Mr. Chadam. Second. Second by Mr. Irby. All in favor? I motion carried by. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Uh ordinance 20 ordinance 4 2026. Miss Loftton. This is um an amendment to the salary ordinance to correct the percentages of funding from the different funds that we have. There was a typo on the original salary ordinance. I have it as 20% from general, 10% from water, 35 from waste water, and 10 from storm water. And for the past four years prior, it's been 75 in general, 10 in water, 10 in waste water, and five in storm water. I reached out to Financial to make sure they wanted it that way, and they asked that we get that corrected.

Any discussion on that? Uh to suspend the rules, we need to uh have a motion to suspend the rules. Move to suspend the rules. Motion by Mr. Irby. Second. Second, Mr. Chad. Roll call, please. Michael China. Hi. Fred D. Hi. Chris Gerald. Hi. Craig Gerby. Hi. Dan Potter. Hi. All right. Next day. Motion to approve. Motion to approve ordinance 4 2026. Motion. Mr. Gerald. Second. Second. Mr. Herby. Roll call, please. Michael Chad. Hi. Dav. Hi. Chris Gerald. Hi. Craig Herby. Hi. Dave Potter. Hi.

Motion carries 5. Thank you. Next up, ordinance 5 2026, super voluntary annexation. Mr. Trrenade, good evening. What you have before you is ordinance 5, which is introduction for super voluntary annexation. Uh, this was a piece of property that was owned by Double E Farms that was in inadvertently left out of the original uh super voluntary annexation. Um, it is located on the east side of 225 East, uh, between 100 South and 150 South. Happy to answer any questions.

Any question? All right. Thank you. Um, next up, the Duke Energy easement request. Hello. What you have in front of you is actually a red line strike line that the legal council provided uh for the last meeting that presented for big energy to take aerial lines and bury them underground. And this is just for your review to approve the language in here and then I will send this back. They're already aware that they've already got a copy of this and they're currently running that through their legal counsel. And I thought it would be a good idea to get your approval first to say, "Hey, we need to match this up with an exhibit. This is what we expect the language to be.

Question better. Thank you. Should you decide to approve this uh you can uh in the form of your motion request that I sign this on on your behalf once the Duke has the final approval done. We're still waiting on exhibit A too.

Yeah. Um, so I'm going to move to approve the easement subject to council's review of exhibit A and also authorize town manager Morgan to execute the easement on behalf of the town. Motion by Mr. Herby second Mr. Do any further discussion? All in favor? All opposed? Motion carries 5. Thank you. Uh next up, request been done for smoke testing. Mr. um

so for the last few months we've been looking at ways to reduce ini as well as looking at you know expansion of a water plant. Um this is the first step and many steps to reduce ini to try to get a good grasp of of the system condition. Um we sent out an RFQ. Uh we did send those to three different providers and I got three responses back. Um they were significantly different in price from bottom to top. Um we had the lowest I believe. The lowest was 124 124,000 at $1.75 a foot for manhole inspection and smoke testing. The next one was 171,315 which equal 243 square foot and then we had 281,000 um with inspection. So with with that being said, the lowest one we speced out a certain type of inspection on the manholes. um they did not list that inspection. So I reached out to them and said, "Hey, tell us the difference of why your inspection would be the same as what we expect." Uh they gave me some a list of things of how they do the inspections. Um but I I would still recommend that we stay with our level two NASCO inspection that we spec originally um which was the middle quote. So that's the one I recommend that we issue to CHA. questions. I've got a couple questions for you,

Gary. In general, uh on on the selection of the uh uh of the areas to be tested, I'm curious why my farm is being tested, but across the street, clear is because my farm is all new stuff. I wouldn't wouldn't think there would be issues there that would be worth testing. I'm glad you brought I'm glad you brought that up. It should be new. Yes, there's always going to be defects no matter what. But we will move to remove that portion out of this scope and do some flow monitoring in its place. If that happens, I will come back to you to present that. However, that will not exceed the amount that's on these quotes. Um, after looking at that, we can reduce by 14,000 linear feet. I feel like um and we've talked about this in turn. I feel like we could use this funds on flow monitoring to to prove that what the work that we've already done on the north interceptor, maybe the south interceptor that we tighten the system. I'm not going to say that we reduced ini, but I'm going to say that we've tightened the system up. So, very good point. We're looking at removing that out of the scope. I'm also curious if there were no testing along the north interceptor, the feeder lines coming into the north interceptor.

When you say feeder lines, do you mean later? Whatever the proper term is. So when we do the smoke testing, that that'll cover that area. Um the smoke testing is is on all of these basins. Um so you're talking about the line going two miles farm. No, I'm talking about the the line feeding into the north interceptor. So, that will be part of the smoke testing, but that that is part of the lateral inspection that will come at a later date.

Okay. Um I read through all three of the uh the proposal, but curious uh any explanation why he just is so far out of the ballpark with everyone else because that's almost double the efforts. you you know I I I can't answer that. Um I will say that all three of these companies are very highly regarded. I've worked with all three of them. They all complete can complete this task. Um but I can't answer that specifically because when you look at the dollar per foot, it is it kind of pops out. Uh but we had a low of 124, a middle of 171, and then a high of you know

280 or 30

281,000. So there is a discrepancy and that's one of the benefits of sending out an RFQ on professional services in this situation. I will say we continue to work towards that to try to save cost because at the end of the day the problem that we're about to tackle is going to create a lot of headache for municipal leaders. We're going to be doing school testing. This is going to be very exhausting. It's going to be inconvenient for almost every single homeowner if their system's not tight. We will get calls. The fire department will get calls. And a lot of this goes back to to to bring up your point is how well they explained how they were going to reach out to the public and notify them and inform them. Um as well as Madison on the town side, myself, all the the leaders in the town will be reaching out to the public saying, "Hey, this is going to be an inconvenience, but at the end of the day, this is what's going to save us from raising rates." Um we have a good plan in place. I do have some more information that'll be coming your way. Um, we want to get make sure that the information we have is going to be accurate. There are there are some steps we're going to take that may be able to push any kind of expansion maybe 15 years down the road and still give us the opportunity to expand uh commercially and residentially if we need to. Uh there there's some really good things in here if they can come true. I'm really excited about it. Not really excited about this because I know it's going to bring all of us a lot of headaches. You guys are going to get calls. Mark's going to get calls. We're all going to get calls. And we just got to stick our guns. We got to stay to the process because if we don't complete this this time, we are not going to solve or even have an idea how to solve our INI problem. We did this once before and I believe it was probably 13 or 14 years ago. It's been a long time. And once they started, uh, they were told to

stop because of of all the inconvenience that it created. Um, just wanted to bring that up that we need to be resolved in this and and get this completed and we're at a time now where we need to get some flow monitoring. If we're going to do flow water, we need to put those in the ground where we have high flow so we can see uh what those peaks are because the peaks are what's hurting our average and that's bringing our capacity down. I guess it's a discussion for another town, but at some point we need to have a discussion of what are we going to do with the funding, the closing who who pays for the fixes. So that that discussion separate from them. Uh, in my view, in reading the RFQ that you sent out and then reading the three ports we got back, uh, setting aside the setting aside the dollar issue, uh, the, uh, CHA proposal most closely parallel in your request and and I thought was by far more professionally written than the others. I would I'm inclined to go along with your recommendation for CHA.

This is another situation that when you do make your motion, if you'd like, I can sign on behalf of the further question. I think this type of work is is needed just period. Uh this is one of the reasons I wanted to run for council to be honest. Um we never did this during my time here and it's because shortly before I started they tried doing it for two days. Got a lot of phone calls down to the the fire department and then shut the door. I guess historically the thing that's kind of always driven me insane is we end up taking these large bonds out and we we do a little bit of work to increase the interceptor size, right? Which brings us back into compliance. We might be able to stop overflows that way, but we're not doing anything to get the water off the system. And these basins that are predominantly marked out are heavily on the south side, right? And we're locked in on the south side. So that's that's one area specifically where I know back in the 80s they did some studies and their solution was hey we're going to put a lift station in lift station did nothing but kind of a leaky input overflows for a while well fast forward to 2022 right before we ready to take off one of the last one overflow points was at the fenced area at that station it's because we've not done anything in those years to actually get the water off the system we just keep increasing the the size, which in theory is historically the the cheaper alternative, but we keep kicking the can down the road. And so to Dave's point, we're going to be able to find way more defects than we're going to be able to fix, right? But being able to put it in a platform that we go back and query and prioritize, I think will be huge. But I think this is definitely a step in the right direction. And just I want to point out one more

thing. This will tie closely to to storm water utility as well. I think our low hanging fruit will be some pump lines which those are relatively easy but it will take waste water and storm water working together to get that property owner replaced the discharge their groundwater. So we're working really hard on that. I'll be bringing something here real soon to present to you guys. To the best of my recollection at that time that that action was stopped, I don't believe the fire chief was responsible for it.

Any other comment? There motion. I'll move to approve the request to expend funds um for CHA testing. Motion by Mr. Irvy. Second. Second by Mr. Shadam. All in favor? I show 40 Mr. Dobain. And I assume you're okay with me saying yes.

Next up, utility truck. Mr. So, this this one was a little bit difficult because this was not a planned purchase at the beginning when we did when we did our budget back in July of 2025. Um, but I was fortunate enough to get a couple of employees that that really have good head on their shoulders. They're very capable. Uh, we have been spending more than usual. Uh, but it gives them the tools. In the long run, this will save the town money because we won't have to hire private contractors to do a lot of this work. Um, the reason this was difficult because this is a brand new 2024 uh one- ton truck that has a utility bed already on it. So, what I was able to do, I was able to get two other quotes. They are not apples to apples because one is a 2500. It's within $100 of the same price. Um, the other is has a flat bed on it. like it's hard for me to get exact quotes when you're talking a 2024 comparing them to 2025 2026. But um you have the numbers in front of you. It's a very responsible purchase because of the price. Uh and a lot of that is due to the timing of the age brand new 2024 with like 900 miles on it from going from dealer to dealer to try to sell it. And literally it is a pickup drop offload tools. Uh the benefit to this is the guys right now have to put all their tools in the boiler room. They'll be able to put these tools on this truck and when they get called out at 9:00 at the night like we did the other night, they'll be able to come and get the truck and not have to worry about loading it and things like that. So, it's a it's a good purchase. It's a smart purchase and it saves the town money in the long run. And a couple examples is uh with with the the Blandon Woods, we were able to help Will's sanitary sewer issue. We we did do a repair on a storm structure on Terry Kirby Boulevard, so it's already paying off. Um but we'll only see that

expand once they get more efficient and learn more about the entire system. Do you already get the truck? Absolutely not. Well, how's it paying off already? Well, what I mean is the guys hiring those two guys is paying off what they don't have right now. They have a trailer. Sorry if I clear. I did not buy a truck. It's paying off by having those two employees, but those two employees will be using this truck.

We have a mini excavator that you guys are gracious enough to to let us purchase. We have a trailer. We need a vehicle. We have a vehicle to pull it, but it's not really adequate. This will be the final piece of the large purchases to put this team together. I'm assuming you'll be able to use it for another plat. Yes, it's it's a single cab. It's not a really long truck.

So, I I hesitate. I'll tell you why. Because the bed on these utility utility beds on these trucks will rust out easy. They are not thick and if we get a lot of salt on them and they don't get maintained which we will maintain this truck. They can get you'll have to replace them pretty soon if we get a lot of salt on. Doesn't matter what you do. So we got to be it'll be we'll use it around town hall and stuff but we'll be precise how we use it. We'll use it to plow but we won't use it to to lay down material like salt and sand. So it'll be used strategically. Yes. Your question

I'll make motion to approve utility check for motion Mr. Shadow second Mr. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries 5. Thank you. Thank you. Very very uh proper disposal discussion. Mr. Morgan.

Good evening, council. If it's all right with you, I'd like to start with 252 South Tennessee. uh because it should be the easiest to discuss. Um this is a vacant piece of property that we've had. Um quite honestly, it goes back to when I was fire chief. We had two fires at that location. U the town paid to uh raise the uh structure and it went on tax sale and the town ended up with it. And so we've had it for a long time. it serves us absolutely no purpose. Um it I'd like to get it back on the tax rolls. I think there's some interest uh within that particular neighborhood. I think there's people there that would like to buy it. I I don't know that it wouldn't possibly even go up uh to be a good piece of property that somebody might buy and want to put a whole house on. Uh but I really would like to get it out from underneath our purview if that's all right. We have several options that are available to us. Uh we can do this at uh a public auction. Uh hire a real real estate company. Um I've never not talked with legal counsel, but one of the things we talked about with previous legal counsel was doing a sealed bid where legal counsel would be the um mediator, moderator, whatever you want to call, they would open the bids and and go that route. Um there's other options. Uh, I don't know that this is really a candidate for the RDC, but the RDC does have uh less restrictions on how they sell property. And then of course the CDC, which uh we've had in existence since uh 2019, I believe it is. So, um, but regardless of the method, uh, I really would like to get this property off of our, uh, taxes or off of our insurance and put it back on the tax roles.

I would say I very much agree with that. The only random thought that I just had now is well would this ever make sense for I think it's probably still too small but I know the thought of like a pocket park on the south side at some point is kind of been discussed. I don't it seems like it's probably still pretty small but yeah with parking it'd be pretty rough.

Yeah. Not much parking right there. I like the idea though. for we've got some thoughts on the north side at some point of maybe doing another community garden similar to what we have on Lincoln Street. We're not too sure if it might not glow though. We got to figure that out. So you guys are all good with me or should they vote? It's okay. Thank you. All right. The next one will probably be the next one to discuss would be the Kentucky and Main Street. Mr. Potter had this drawn up, kind of parcled it out, but if you're familiar with the area, uh this includes 302 West Main. Uh it includes U which is the house that we purchased for fire department expansion. uh fire department has advised they don't need that any longer. Um we also have as we're talking about these properties and I think the reason Mr. Potter has this brought up is that uh fire department has been given consideration to vacating that particular location as a fire station and moving out to the Miles Farm. Uh which again is what the property was originally designated for out there. Um, so you know that that could put that up. And I know I'll turn this over to Mr. Potter, but um we've also got the old fire headquarters uh there across from station 91 uh including the water tower. Not sure how that'll sell. Um I have thoughts, but nobody thinks they're as funny as I do. But um and then of course we've got the parking lot where the current trailer is where the

firefighters are housed. And then that little house uh there just uh west of uh the trailer uh we purchased that for expansion as well. So I'll turn it over and start. Well, what really drove drove me wanting to bring this up is in discussions with uh Chief Duncan on fire station. his current view is moving out the new station at Miles Farm and that seems to be going I think pretty well. Even even if that didn't work out and he were to remain on on Kentucky, uh he has said that he would not want the property that's on the 302 West Main, he'd be able to accommodate his needs on Kentucky without without that uh that property. So that that property can be disposed of. Now, as far as the fire department is concerned, uh the question in my mind is uh since Chief Duncan has uh at least verbally agreed to vacate uh all these properties once his new fire station is available. What's the best option for the town to take on this particular property? Is it better to put it on the market now and sell it now or is it better to hold it until uh the fire station is vacated and we put all these properties up for possible possible redevelopment area. I have had some discussions with Mr. Morgan on on the Jack Willard Park and and that possibly that could be relocated maybe to to the back or something. But anyway, I just wanted to bring it up for discussion on what do we do with the 302 Westb. Uh it have been empty for at

least two years now, if not more. Uh if we if we wait until that fire station vacated, it's going to be at least another two years or more probably. So houses tend to deteriorate when they set empty for extended period of time. So, uh, want to throw it out for discussion where do we go particularly with 302 West Main at this point?

I haven't had a chance to talk to the chief about selling it or not selling it. So, I'm kind of without that discussion pretty neutral at this point. I don't disbelieve that that's the route he's wanting to go. Um I would just like to talk to him about it before I say yeah sell this one and eliminate that option. Two weeks won't hurt us. No obviously

but I think the one thing that that would be the the thought obviously is as Mr. father brought up. Do you keep this house vacated for an extended period and then sell everything as a package deal? So, I don't know. As I said, that's really up to you. I can't imagine someone coming in to buy all those parcels at once. I think the house will sell separate. The other parcels are going to be more difficult to sell. We have a big large water tower full of lead.

What's currently in the old headquarters? I mean my two cents is after talking with Chief obviously and confirming that's good is I'd be okay with selling that the one right on 36. He says he doesn't need it in terms of the other one. Let's wait until we're done using them. So that's kind of my view as well. So defer that one till next meeting and maybe have Chief Duncan be here so we can comment on it personally. Thank you very much. You still have one more. Oh yeah, I sure do. I was really trying to get out escape.

I really did because this one's probably not going to be as easy to discuss. So this is the uh property that was uh dedicated to the town by Dr. Horton on Miles Farm property. Um is the clicker up here.

Oh, sorry. You know what? I'm just going to stand here. Um, in discussing with Chief Duncan, he has intention that he would like to put his fire station back here. Um, Will and I have not really had discussion, but they had a design to show some park amenities right here. And to be honest with you, um, because of how big this is, I would like to encourage you to think about selling the rest of the property and putting it up for sale. And I would say put it up for retail to sell it to be honest with you. I've talked with Will. I don't think he they gives him any hard part about that. Does it will or you tell me?

I don't know. I don't want to just own the valley, right? It's not functional if it's just the valley. Nobody's going to buy this. Nobody's going to want this. Be hard to maintain, right? But we've had interest in this location. Is that correct, Lisa? Uh we've had retail interest in this. Um we've currently got retail very interested in this and once we even mention this uh their ears perked up considerably when we said how would you feel about this site? So it's food for thought. I don't need a decision tonight.

So we as is sell the whole piece. Nope. We would keep we would keep the piece for the fire department and for the park. And like I said, we have to see basically front half.

Yeah. We can convince Will to help maintain that ditch. the uh one of the um companies that showed some interest in that corner at Mackie and Main. Uh we talked about it would be if we could see if they would build like a trail head coming off of their property to go into the park system. We thought that'd be kind of a neat feature we could probably ask them to build with if they were able to purchase that property. And again, I don't need a decision tonight on this. U but I really do think it's something to think about. Um it's uh I I did reach out, if I can expand while I have the podium, uh I did reach out to INDOT yesterday, uh to start the process to build uh the next roadway north of Warrior Way. And um so it would be right where the blue line on their left is that goes to the west, right? And so uh and not aware that we are ready to move forward. Uh Barry's going to start getting some estimates on the cost of the road. I've spoke with the redevelopment commission and they're very interested in assisting with the cost of that road. Um so we're we're moving forward. We got a lot of things going on. Obviously, we'll come to you when we get a final thing, but I end up not opposed to providing us a permit for that cut. Uh, but they've got some changes in their administration in Coffersville, and so they're wanting to have a secondary meeting with us, which I'm okay with. I just need to make sure I bring more than they bring because they're always out and numbering me. So, but I didn't answer any questions on this. Like I said, I know it's a a lot to be thrown at you all at once, but um you know, it's it's very possible that

um the sale of that property could help pay for some of the improvements we're trying to make in that area. I see no reason that we couldn't conclude on the South Tennessee property tonight and then defer the other to a later time. That'd be great with me. Anyone wish to make a motion on the South Town property?

I'll move to begin the disposal process for 252 South Tennessee Street and to authorize the town manager to move forward with the sale. Motion by Mr. Herby. Second. Second, Mr. Chadam. All in favor? All motion carries 5. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Council, we'll get started on the process. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Now, I'll be back in a minute. Okay. Next up, uh salary study. Uh are you taking that, Mr. J?

Sure. Hold on. Um, pretty much just what I wanted to hit on was why do we need a salary studing fairness, quality, competing for and retaining quality employees, responsible budget planning, ensuring compliance and reducing risk building public trust through the transparency preparing for our future growth and stage. Now companies are salary practical and necessary step towards ensuring fair compensation maintaining competitive workforce responsible taxpayer resources. Stand continues to grow and evolve, providing employees and compensation with both market conditions and community expectations is essential to sustaining the high quality municipal service. Fairness and quality salary study provides the town of Danville with a clear objective framework to evaluate whether employees are being compensated fairly across departments such as police, utilities, administration, public works, and fire department. uh by reviewing job classifications, responsibilities and qualifications, town can ensure that employees performing similar work are paid consistently. This not only strengthens morale and trust among staff but also reduces the risk of pay in inequities that could lead to employee dissatisfaction or legal concerns for and retaining quality employees. And

I know we have a lot of this when we come to hiring for police department, fire department. Um, I think sometimes some of the other departments here in town, but like many communities in central Indiana competes with neighboring municipalities and private sector for skilled employees without competitive comparison losing qualified staff or struggling to fill critical holes. Salary studies allows Dville to benchmark its pay structure against comparable communities, ensuring it remains competitive and attracting police officers, utility workers, administrative personnel, other key personnel. Maintaining competitive wages helps reduce turnover, lower training cost and preserves institutional knowledge. Support responsibility of budget planning. A salary study is not about immediate across the board increases. It's about making informed strategic decisions for Danville. The study will identify where compensation falls short of market standards and allow leadership to prioritize adjustments over time. This phased approach enables the town to address the most critical needs first while staying within budget budgetary constraints. It also provides a roadmap for future financial planning and helping elected officials make transparent data driven decisions, ensuring compliance, reducing risk. Municipal compensation must comply with state and federal labor laws. Formal salary study helps ensure handle pay practices align with applicable pay regul regulations and employment standards. Equal important documentation. The process and methodology behind compensation decisions provides protection to the event of audits or legal challenges. It demonstrates that the town is acting in good faith and following established best practices.

Building public trust through transparency. Residents of Danville expect accountability in how public funds are used. Conducting a salary study and communicating its purposes and results demonstrates the town is committed to transparency and responsible governance. By showing the employee compensation is based on objective data and market comparisons, the town can reinforce public confidence and reduce misconceptions about how salaries are determined, preparing for future growth. Danville is growing community and with that growth comes increased demand for services and skilled personnel. Salary study helps position the town for the future by aligning compensation with long-term organizational goals. It also supports workforce planning by identifying gaps creating clear career pathways and ensuring the town can develop and retain talent within the proactive approach strengthen the town's ability to serve residents effectively for years to come. So basically it kind of asking for support going forward with the compensation waves committed for town either by RFQ and RFP. I know Miss Loftton is very familiar with this from working from the county. Um the county does this. There are multiple municipalities across the state of Indiana that do this. Um this isn't about increasing pay. It's about making informed, responsible decisions and we need accurate data or we risk losing employees to neighboring towns struggling recruiting quality making sure that the internal equities that won't hurt morale or performance um with uncertainty what might be ahead of us with SP1 what might come out of the next legis legislation at the end of the day it's about protecting the investment we've already made in our workforce and ensuring now and for the future remain a strong competitive

employer that we are and we also have a duty to be transparent to our taxpayers on how we're spending their money. So, I'll take any questions or anything like that. I'm I can tell you that roughly what I've looked into a town our size um a salary study runs between the 30 and $45,000 mark roughly for the amount of employees because they have to take all the uh job descriptions everything that has to be done all that has to be turned into them. Rushville is a town that is roughly our size. I think they did one for $42,000. So, um, something to think about. Um, it'd be nice if we could get this going so that when we do make our decisions at budgetary time, we kind of know where we're at. And this is a this is a stepped approach. This roughly goes over three to five years. This isn't just instant. And it tells us whether we're underpaying or overpaying in every department. Question, comment, discussion. I see you got another sheet up here. I read through that. My knee-jerk reaction is still to to look at an internal process first. I think there's a lot of resources out there that we could pull from to compare, but you know, unless we're talking, you know, salary plus benefits, you know, what the other community is offering benefits that brings to that position across the board. You know, I could see paying for something like that. But if we're we're strictly

talking salary alone, I think there's enough resources out there that we could have Abigail look into an option that I would suggest potentially um and kind of go that route first. I think we've got a pretty good pulse on where we're at. you know, it's obviously every every employee is going to want more. You know, uh we have these discuss these discussions every year. Um you know, this last year, I feel like gave a pretty decent raise when above and beyond trying to knock down the premiums, etc. You know, those things aren't going to show in a salary study, but yet those are big benefits that were we took to try to keep money in their pocket, right? uh I'm not certain that that would show in a salary study. So unless they're able to I guess provide that type of detail, I think there's enough resources out there that we can try to take a stab at it internally. U as far as how we're structured again, you know, we're not broken down. We we don't have the the level of detail, I guess. you know, I mean, we've got water wastewater operators that are operating just under general labor status right now. So, how is that going to stack up to, you know, salary study as they start looking into that as well? I guess those are some of my initial thoughts. I guess open up to everybody else, but

I think K, can you speak on how they

Yeah, I I can say for the county it was only for salaries and um they take your job descriptions and then they rate them, rank them based on a grade and then they create a wage cell for you. Um I know AIM does a salary study and they just did a benefit study that we just got. Um, I know I've reached out to other I know last year during that time I reached out to other municipalities try to get information from them. My only concern is if we create a new position, how does the department head or myself or the council know what to pay that if it's a very a very new created position? So, we'd have to look at other municipalities if we did not do a salad. just I guess in might event or any other person that would do it. Um it's kind of like I explained in here you know if we do an internal there's always that kickback or scope that can go well she was a little bias over here this is over here. Um it it removes any fault that would fall back on an internal study because we're going by data. We're going by facts. We're going by what the third party comes. If something comes back, we can point to them and go. Tell us where you got this. Why is this different from what we're here? Show us where where this comes in. It's more I mean I kind of Sorry. you know protects counseling administration because it removes per perception bias allows decision makers to focus on policy

but um one of the things that you know you know who decided this well yeah we could get data we could but then we're still making a decision within one person in the town any of those questions that come up outside. I mean to me I kind of look at as the same thing as we hire a reading for a reason they're third party to do our financial reason kind of messed up fix this I hear what you're saying I guess

that's why I looked at it and I understand I understand you know we don't have a grading grading system here in Dandel yet at least I mean that's something we continue potentially kick the tires on a little bit. That said, so I mean again, it's not trying to jump wages immediately, but say what happens if we realize, hey, we got certain positions hypothetically $20,000 underpaid for communities our size. You know, that's something to work towards, but the money's not there. How do we

I guess, and my question is I don't necessarily think a salary study is a bad idea at some point. Um, I would like to know exactly kind of what is the issue that we're trying to address here. Are we do you think we're paying too little? Do you think we're paying too much? Are we not transparent enough? Like, what is this going to solve? I don't see, and I know it's a concern that we want to make sure that no one's leaving because we're not paying enough or the benefits are enough, but I haven't seen that happen yet. I haven't seen people leave because we're not paying enough or that the benefits aren't enough. So I guess I'm trying to find out why are we doing this?

Well, when I when it kind of goes back to Car's saying if a new position is created here, we don't exactly know where that where that pay scale is for. So that I mean that's one thing. And those positions come up every now. I mean, is a salary study going to tell us what to pay new positions as far as like what it's listed as? Yeah. That know where where that's going to fall. kind of like I'm going to use Barry for example. We just started just two guys. Well, those are two brand new positions. We've never had discount before. Those are two positions. We are paying those guys off of what? How do we know what to pay them?

Picked out a number based on his education experience. We had the budget and the people were willing to pay. Okay. So if we do a salary study, we go back and go that's way off on that one way or the other. So what do you want to pay more at the salary study? You're paying less because of that. Once the salary will take the job at the salary that we've offered them, right? And we're going to go spend money so we can prove to ourselves that we need to pay more. So if one of those guys leaves, do we hire a guy his salary? several factors to take into account when someone

we pay that new guy coming in that same price start unless salary was the issue that they left then that's probably where we start again or the lower end of that scale you obviously want to get labor and staff for the least amount as possible but you want to take care of the people that are here that is the goal that we have always try to do

is uh I just I think at some point we're going to have to go to that tier system realm. It sounds awful. I don't want to be a part of that. I don't like putting people in different tiers and saying you're the same as this. I think every department is unique and every department should have its own salad structure way to do it. And I think if I'm right, someone does that. Someone kind of not completely, but someone does give that structure to you. When the county did first person, we gave them all of the job descriptions and then they came back with us and told us what they ranked those as. I don't know what other ones do, but that's the only one I ever dealt with.

And also, as I as I started studying through some of this stuff and looking at this when you look at it. So a1 to3 $3 per hour can translate to two to $6,000 per year over. Now if you have five people or 10 people in town that you're doing that with do you think we're doing it? I guess we don't know. We have no idea because we don't know why. So we want to spend money to go address a problem that we don't know that if it

but we al we also sit and and you are paid every year on a budget not knowing where our baseline is for anything that Carrie always gets data provides it to us based on the other towns if we want to get more data I think that's an option I just don't think we're in place right now I kick him piggy back off of comment already made if I recall last year we had a fair amount of data that was accumulated on what some of our neighboring municipalities pay scales look like. Uh I know Mr. D made references to other data that's available. Mark what's available from AIM and other organizations from they do do studies do they not? Yes, they've done a uh benefit study just recently and they're in the process of doing a salary study. And then the town of Planefield every couple of years does a comprehensive salary and benefit study and they're in the process right now of gathering that data as well.

I tend to look at it that we're trying to find a solution for a problem we don't know we have. My my personal thought is we do have an HR department and this kind of falls into HR and my view that maybe we ask HR to take on a project of looking at all the publicly available data from main or other resources of neighboring municipalities and try to pull together uh some summaries for us for for consideration. I'm not opposed to doing a salary study at some point. I I'm going to agree with Mr. Herby that I I don't think we're at that point at this time. I'd rather pursue other other options I think for the next year or so.

Listen, I want to be as as transparent and open and honest to you. Like I I don't want to see anybody leave the town for for funds, right? And it seemed like we had that issue five, six years ago. And I feel like the council's done a good job kind of raining that in. And at least the pulse that I have on things now is I feel like it's kind of back under control. I'm not hearing about turnover because of these things consistently now. And until that becomes an issue again, you know, again, bumping up the benefits package, take tackling more on the health insurance premiums. again that's putting more back in their pocket on top of the increases that we've done the last handful of years. So, you know, I'm of the mindset right now that I think we're okay. Um I'm not opposed down the road, but I I just don't I don't see the turnover happening to justify at this point. I feel like there's enough resources externally that we can hopefully have, you know, if we wanted to pursue that dive into that. That would be my outake.

I don't have anything that hasn't already been said. Thanks. Thanks. In the right spot here. Yeah.

And you know, it's not this isn't about turnover or losing people. It's just about us making an informed decision off of that because once again, we're judging off of local municipalities. You're judging off of Brownsburg that their tax base is way more than ours. You're judging off of Planefield, their tax base is way more than ours. So, we're trying to pick a number between there to say here's where we feel comfortable. Salary study would tell you here's here's your hot spot. Here's your low, your medium, and your high. you know, and and we're trying we do we're trying to keep up and I know we did create raises for a lot of employees, but the problem is we're never being compared to salary municipalities that are operating around. I specifically remember looking at the town of Chesterton which is

last year uh it was there's another

last year I did a a quick salary I reached out to towns on our size well I got whatever data back I gave you that big spreadsheet that had every the towns the different positions is if they have it you what they have and you I think we're at a point that if anyone wishes to make a motion hearing none uh special thanks to citizen Mr. Good evening again. It's my honor to thank the citizens of the town of Danville. Over the last um month, month and a half roughly. Uh we've done several cleanup projects throughout the community. So, I'd like to highlight some of these. As you know, we had one large project on April 25th, but on March 21st, we had the BL Bland Woods cleanup hike. where 51 volunteers uh collected 11 bags of trash. On April the 11th, the Danville baseball team had 40 volunteers and collected 40 bags of trash. April 21st, the Hendrickx County Emergency Room employees, there were eight of them that volunteered and gathered six bags of trash. on our spring cleanup, April 25th, we had 73 volunteers show up uh at the Boston Gym and they uh brought in 56 bags of trash. Then uh on April 28th, the National Honor Society for the town or for the high school, they had 80 volunteers, 10 bags of

trash, they pulled weeds, they spread mulch, they cleaned and planted flowers. uh here in our community. And on May 1st, Sycamore Services had 50 volunteers that brought in 10 bags of trash and collected a lot of sticks from some of the storm damage that had occurred that weekend before. In total, we had 302 volunteers that collected 133 bags of trash out of our community. I think that's pretty amazing, and I just wanted to say thank you to our citizens for doing that. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for pointing that out. Great.

Okay, that gets us down to staff and council comments on this.

Yeah. No, I'm ready. I've got a few more. Uh, I sent you all an email. I forwarded it. Um it um I don't know if I want to say with heavy heart, but um it does uh concern me some that we are losing I think a a great uh leader in the uh Danville Downtown Partnership. Uh the community project coordinator, Tara Coburn, has turned in her resignation. Uh she'll be staying on till the end of this month. Um but I do believe that she has done exceptional things with that program, taken it to a new level. uh really really uh uh infused her professionalism into this and I think uh the other thing that she really did was uh u bring it with her enthusiasm. I think and it's going to carry on. I hope that and I did when I sent her a letter back. I did ask tell her that I hope that the torch that she was able to ignite will be carried on from by someone else. Uh so we will miss her. I think she's done a great job for the program. Lastly, I want to bring to your attention that this week is public service recogn recognition week uh recognizing public servants in uh in America May 3rd through the 9th and it also is clerk treasures week. So just want to bring that to your attention.

Thank you. Mr. Ley, anything to you? Mark and I attended IMMA uh last week. It was thank you for letting us go. We learned a lot of stuff. There's a lot of doom and gloom about the legislature right now. Um, but we learned a lot of stuff. And then also tomorrow the pool will be filled. So here comes summer. You have heater on. Yeah. You won't be able to swim for a while. Anything from Ben? Ner. Mr. Herby,

I just want to compliment you on your dressing today. Mr. D, I would like to just take a second to kind of reiterate a couple of Mark's points. You know, the uh the spring clean up, fall clean up. For one, Madison kudos for spearheading all that effort. Appreciate the other staff that participated and helped us work that day. Um said I couldn't make it ew and other obligations, but definitely I mean it's it's amazing to see. I mean the numbers there what uh the community can do when we come together. So thanks to that whole bunch of volunteers andor groups um and to Mark's point I am pretty sad to see and hear about Tara leaving um she is in large part one of the main reasons that we were able to you know acquire the inspiring Main Street status this year which is a huge step for us. So, somebody's going to have some pictures to fill. But outside of that, appreciate everybody by us on the daily. Mr. Ch, just thank you guys for everything you do dayto day.

Um, I concur with Mr. Morgan's comment on Sarah. I thought it was a real loss. I thought she's done a great job. She'll be hard to hard to replace. Uh, I want to congratulate Mr. Herby and Mr. girl for winning a hard calling and special appreciation that I drove around town this afternoon. I did not see a single one of your signs still out. So, thanks for getting those taken down too quickly. No further comments. Plan docket. Move to approve the plan docket. Do not have 1,48,528.13. Motion by Mr. Irby. Second. Second, Mr. Chad. All in favor?

I opposed. Motion carries 5. Payroll docket. Move to approve payroll docket. Well, two payroll dockets. Move to approve the first one. I'll move to approve the payroll docket from 417 2026. Motion by Mr. Cheryl. Second. Second. Mr. Herby. All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries 5. I will move to approve the payroll docket from 512026. Second Cheryl. Second, Mr. Irby. All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carry 5. Motion to adjourn.

Motion by everyone. Second. All in favor? I motion carry 5. Meeting a journ. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it.