Town Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, I'm going to call to order. We have a public hearing to start with, so I do not have a time frame, so I don't know what time it is at the moment. 6 o'clock.

Okay. Directly at 6:00. This is for ordinance number 202601. An ordinance of the town of Lakeville, St. Joseph County, Indiana, reestablishing the fire protection territory equipment replacement fund be ordained by the town of Lakeville Town Council of St. County, Indiana. That I a need now exists for the reestablishment of a fire protection territory equipment replacement fund for the following purposes. For all uses as set out in uh Indiana code 36-8-9-8.5. Be it further ordained that this council will adhere to the provisions of the Indiana code 36-8-9-8.5. The propo proposed pun fund will not exceed. 0333 cents on each 100 of assessed valuation. Said tax rate will be levied beginning with taxes for 2026 payable 2027 and will be a uniform tax rate. Be it further ordained that a copy certified copy of this ordinance shall be submitted to the department of local government finance to the state of Indiana as provided by law. The tax rate for this fund is subject to certification by the department of local government finance. Be it further ordained that Union Township is the provider unit of the Union Lakeville fire protection territory and the town of Lakeville is the participating unit of said fire protection territory. Union Township as provider unit is authorized to establish this fund. This ordinance contains or incorporates by reference the contents of the agreement to the establish the fund duly adopted today. Today is February 2nd. Okay. I have Andrew um on the phone and

he's going to kind of explain this. Um hopefully you guys can hear him. Um, go ahead, Andrew.

Yeah. Hi everyone. I'm not sure I'm hoping once again that you're able to hear me. Um, this is Andrew with Senator Doll Municipal Advisor. It sounded like um you guys maybe just read off the um ordinance um that we sent over and provided. Um, and I guess to give just a little quick context or explanation, um, the fire territory with Union Township, um, is requesting, um, that we reestablish the cumulative fund rate in the, um, equipment replacement fund. Right now, um the current rate is 0331 and um the township is hoping to raise it for the fire territory to 0333. Um which is a very very small increase to the tax rate. Um and I guess just to kind of explain maybe the impact, I'm not sure who's all at the meeting currently. Um but I guess to explain kind of the the tax impact or maybe for um residents, you know, what that looks like on their property tax bill. Um so with that increase, um that's going to be only 210,000 of a dollar per per $100 of assessed value. So, um, for example, if we take a home that's has an assessed value of $100,000, that is only going to be a 20% increase per year to your property tax bill. So, an increase per year to your property tax bill. So, once again, very, very minor. Um and for um the fire equipment fund, what that's going to do is it's going to provide um a little boost um in property tax revenue um which will then be able to be used for um just upgrades to to new equipment and then also will in turn just ensure um just better coverage and service to um the area. So that's kind of the purpose of this ordinance and why we wanted to bring it to the town's attention because the the

township and the town both have to be in agreeance for for this to pass. Okay, thank you Andrew. I I appreciate your explanation. I'm sure that helps people at home listening to the meeting also understand what is happening. So I am going to go ahead and push this ordinance through. Okay. I know I think statutoily I I think for this meeting um you know this is just we have to open up to public hearing and then I believe in your March meeting that's when we can move to so we have to we just open it and then we adopt it next month. Okay. Got it. Yep. Yep. All right. Okay. Thank you. Any questions?

No problem. Jacqueline, do you need me on the line for anything more? Uh anybody have any questions? I don't think so. I think that's it. Awesome. Sweet. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. Thanks. Take care. Bye. Bye. Okay. So, it is open. You have heard it. So, then next time we come in, we'll vote on it to go ahead and push it through. Okay. Yeah. I know. If you have any questions, just email, ask him. I don't I'm not convinced that so you know that we're not voting to

Okay. So at least you can think about it some further and we can talk about it next round. I'd rather I hope we have April or same. So okay. Yeah. All right. So since we talked about the all the fire stuff. So the town of Lakeville is involved with fire department. Let me close. Can we close the public hearing? Just to say just so Dean understands. So you are opening this because we'll open one in one of our meetings too for public comment and then the way I understood it is then we'll you'll sign your ordinance, we'll sign our resolution and then we'll take it to the DGF.

Right. So yeah, you do have I think you have like 30 days Yeah. to negotiate because I think our final meeting on it is March. Yeah, I think that's when you said we'll do it in March and just Okay, that's okay. Um, I'm going to go ahead and close this. Then we can talk more if you need to talk about anything. Okay, we can definitely do business. Okay. All right. So, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing for ordinance number 2026.01. What time is it? 607.

607. Okay. And now we're going to move on to the minutes from January 5th. Would you give a chance to read the minutes that she sent? Okay. I'm going to ask for a motion to pass the minutes for January 5th. I will. I will second the motion. All those in favor? I Don't you guys too?

Yes, please. The APVs. I'm going look at this real quick. Okay. because I think that I already This is the one that we talked about today. Yep. Okay. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and ask for a motion to pay the bills of 104,429 95.

I make that motion. I second the motion. All those in favor? I Do we want to go ahead? Do you have anything else for us? Uh, just the new business and old business, but we can go through. Do we want to do new business now or do we want to go ahead and do our stuff? Whatever you want.

I'd rather start with at least utilities. Let's go to utilities, please. Okay. Uh, we got our Christmas lights down on the 11th. We had uh two that we had to take in and get repaired that we've gotten back and it was like $280 to get them repaired if I remember right. I don't remember. Uh, but those are done. Yeah. Uh I I don't I know last year we had done a gift card for the boom truck. What's that?

Davis. Yes. And I I I forget what what's his Davis owner's name? John Davis. Yes. One of the owners, John Davis. I know we last year we got um a gift card for the the use of those trucks. I think we should if you want to go ahead and get with him take care of gift cards for that. See where they took it out last year. Uh we took out the Christmas tree lights that we had under the phone that we made. That's what we have. So just get with him on that and make sure those get out. I'll just It's already done. I know a little bit. this bill.

Okay. All right. And I since we're on Christmas lights, I know I brought up last year about, you know, if we had any money anywhere that we could, you know, $500 a year transfer into the Christmas fund light. So, we're kind of building that. So, we have that uh money there for repairs. Okay. I don't know if that's still an option. Uh you okay with that if we did that? I mean, I am, but I do want to talk about how we're going to do it and where it's going to come from. Okay. Okay. Um, some of the questions I have about that is where did we get it from before? Okay. It was always the fire department fix that for them.

So, one of the things I'm wondering if that is something that we should talk about like all of our Christmas funding in general, whether that's something we stash together or whether that's something, you know what I mean? Um, but yes, I agree. We need to do something. So, we'll talk more about this. Or if it's something we can do, you know, a budget time, look at that. Yes. Putting that in there also. Okay. Just so we build it so we always have something there to keep these things in good repair. Yep. I agree.

So, what do you have news about the community crossing? Yes, we did get funded for community crossing. So, our doing the the bidding the way we did it uh or in not having us, right, even though we were turned down for it in the original round, but they had contacted us to put our bids out and they got money coming back in from communities that got right. Uh and we must have been one of the first ones to have ready to sign a contract. And uh we got the letter today that uh we will we are funded for it this year.

I am happy to hear that. I was concerned about this. So uh one thing I know they Lori had forwarded uh the emails and stuff but we need to make sure we keep on getting this information back to INDOT. get uh and let's don't wait but you know we can get it done this week and if you can include us on you know the board and myself everything going right so just get on it as soon as possible so it's taken care of we don't have to worry about it everything's done tomorrow

and I talked to the pavers and I told him that we've been accepted and that we'll be getting a contract around for them because I believe we got to have that for INDOT also with our signatures and their signatures. So, thank you very much. I'm glad, very happy. And then also on the uh last year's community crossing, I know Jacqueline, I got over here after you left today. Uh but do you know the amount that you sent to Milestone? Because I think it's wrong. 64. It was on the stuff we just had. Okay. $6,400. It's actually $64,000. Okay.

We owe them. So, I don't know if you've gotten that check in the mail yet. Yeah. Redo it because that the amount that you did was the retainage. Yes. Retain. Okay. So, it was the total amount. Okay. And then uh just so the board's aware, I'm gonna probably probably start here pretty quick. I'm going to be getting some uh quotes for getting a roof on the maintenance garage. We're losing shingles like crazy. And

so I'll try to get those. may not be by next month, but just so you guys know that we'll get I'll get some quotes that we need to to get on that and Okay. And then tower progress is any questions or anything? Right now, our the last schedule we got is we're going to be trying to fill it the first part of March. Uh they've been haven't been there for just because of the weather and stuff, but that's kind of where we're at for that right now. Is there anything else we need to cover?

They would check back in their records. I know the town used to pay the fire department $350 a year for putting up and taking down the lights. So we did. Yeah, we did. So yeah, I say so you can check in your records, find out where that came from, right? Maybe use that money and Yeah, that's why I was like, we should find out where it was before because I can't remember. It's been a while. Okay. It's been a few years. The town used to be and that's all we got. Yeah, we would pay the firemen to do the lights and then they would take care of them. Well, there needs to break so the contractor can keep moving.

How long does it usually take to remove the old one after the other ones up? Well, we're going to we're going to get both of them filled. We're going to get the new one filled. Make sure everything So, both there's going to be a time where both of them have water in it. Okay. That way, we can test out all the sensors, electronics on the tower, make sure it's functioning. still have like a week or two on that and once we feel comfortable with it then we'll drain the old one and then they'll Yes.

I Well, I don't know if we've been in with the the valving that we're doing is we've been trying to figure out a way to the our filter plant is going to be offline. So, we're trying to figure out a way to when they're redo the valving of the filter plant and replace the media of using both towers of filling them both and then utilizing them for two days or a couple days where they can get a set of filters isolated and filtering again. And then once we do that, we have two filters going. We're gonna fill the towers back up again and then take the plant offline again and hopefully that couple days. So, it may go a little longer of demo of the old tower so we can

utilize it while we're doing improvements in the filter plant. Okay, that's a good plan. I didn't know if they told you that. I was just curious because people stop and ask us, you know, people stop and ask us questions all the time. So, it's nice to know. Yeah. Is it all through utilities? Surround yourself with Patrick's very short.

Okay. Uh, our activity for January 2026 had a total of 146 calls for service. Of that had 19 assist to St. County police uh domestic on Indian school road fire assist on new road suspicious person lake trail suspicious person on Locust motorist Kennaworth road a lot these are because of what the weather the assist motors were slide offs motorist on Stanton Road welfare check on Lake Trail assist motorists on New Road a welfare check on Leaper Road crash on new road crash on Shidley road crash on Stanton Road assist motor state road 4 assist motorists Miller road, assist motors lake trail, welfare check on Miller Road, had a theft in progress on Tyler Road. Um, right Tyler and Oak unwanted person Madison Road and then a domestic on New Road. Uh, had a total of four reports for the month. One crash report, one death investigation, one theft, one criminal information. Uh, two tickets written for the month, one local ordinance violation written. I did we had at their pipeline training um, St. County Emergency Management Agency was there, Jim Lopez. Um, I spoke with him just trying to inquire about as far as for the tornado siren to see where the county is at with that. So, they actually ended up, well, Andy would probably know this through DLC. They actually relocated the tornado siren. So, it's no longer going by 84 Lumber. They moved it onto Quinn Quinn Road just west of Quinn Trail. Um they said it was a little higher point and because of all the new construction that was going on there on Quinn Road um they made the decision to relocated relocate it there.

Okay. So he thought it should have already been somewhat in progress. So but I since the pipeline training I haven't driven down there to see whether or not how much they've gotten done. Yeah. Especially with this weather. I don't know what that Yeah. Okay. Anything else? No. And that's I can do the for the camper. Um the property owner, Mr. Anders, was issued a zoning violation for that. So they have until February 15th for fines start and as well as in the outdoor storage on the front porch. Would you like to type in? Sure.

Uh which codebook do we use? Do we use the new one that you guys fabricated that? The new one was never completed or we use both of them. No, we have to go up the newest one. We're on the newest one. Well, the newest one doesn't contain anything for your signage on stop signs or anything like that. So, is that enforceable? What are you asking directly instead of why are you asking so that I understand what you're asking me? Well, because we're going you say we're going by the new door. Yes. Uh, for instance, the greenhouse over here that is an improvement, but and I'd asked Patrick about, you know, off street parking and paving, which he said they would do, which

is not a ton. And the old code book tells you how many number of spots you need for apartments and laundry mats. There's also more going onto that property by the same people. There's also a Is it a house? Well, eventually it'll be a house. Yeah. A house off the back basically. Yeah. So there's no other under zoning. Yeah, it's coming.

But under zoning there's So under our code book, our code book doesn't uh specify any of that. Everything any improvements like that are all done under zoning for our end of it. Our zoning does not have any requirement for off street parking. It doesn't specify a number. Doesn't specify anything. And then as far as they do have to have a surface to park on, which they do, they have uh spacing there. Um, typically we do it, they typically the standard we do is they have to have at least one one one per unit because those are only one bedroom units. It just has to be a dustfree um hard dustfree surface which they can use rotomill for that which they did there. uh they use rotol and then it's actually water permeable. They cannot use limestone because it's a it's not a dustfree surface. So it can either be asphalt paved or concrete paved or um the road. Those are the options for the surface there.

Also do I do have a question that is still zoned commercial up front, right? No, it's that's all town center. That's town center which is a requirement. It has to have the business up front. So that's why the laundromat is there. Yeah. Okay. No. And it was specifically even put on um it's recorded with the D it to work with the requirement for that as well because Has that actually been opened yet? The actual laundry? No, they still haven't gotten all their machines. Okay. Their lights are on though. Yeah, they have all the lights. Everything's in. They just don't have their machines. So, they are in code by law right now for zoning. Yep. Yep. Any other you have some other things

by the old by the old code book it it specifies you know the number of slots needed and whatnot and it also details your streets like Patterson and Lake Street is designated fourway stop sign you don't have any of that language in your code book okay I will look into what you're saying yeah I think I think It's in there. But I think it is. What else that you had other things that you wanted to talk about with um code enforcement, right? Yeah. Like our trash cans that are out all the time.

We've had ordinances for years about those yard waste. We got two or three yard waste piles laying around town that Patrick, did you get those addresses that he mentioned in this? Yeah. Go ahead and give that to Patrick. So, we can look into that. Yeah. Just detailing what's wrong with my house. I was not detailing what's wrong. Yeah. Once the snow starts breaking, it'll be much easier to go around and start getting people to do what they need to do also. Yeah. Because I know some of the trash cans right now are snow, at least right now. Right. But they're

I understand. Thank you. Okay. So, what are the other? One of them was more Rain Lane, right? What was the other one? One was over by still the same house. It probably would be. That's the only one I can think of there. Sher. Yes. Yeah. Just we need to take care of some of that stuff. So, the bat patties quit coming back up. and he had he had come in and Cindy had told him that for his yard waste that's there that

we don't pick anything up like that that everybody else in town if they have a pile they want to get rid of we'll bring the truck over they can load it and we will get rid of it but myself have taken advantage of that with yard so yes so he had that same option okay I just think there's a whole lot of around town that needs to be okay addressed I will make sure that we get on that press harder. Just so you know, around that section, um, we need to do something with the building, the old forklift place that's ready to fall down. Can we send a letter?

That the car is behind the dairy bar, the old dairy bar, the old museum. Those cars evidently belong to that guy has a garage behind there. There's probably out there, I would think. So, those are the two things that I know that Jennifer Boswell said those cars need to go. Yeah. She has to be the property owner, then she has to let us know. Yep. Okay. And the other is we waited long enough for the building next to Jack Bar. I have requested several times on record that he needs to be contacted. So, if you can start contacting me again with letters because we are all tired of looking at the broken windows and it needs to be done.

He's had long enough. He's had long enough. That's what we were just talking about. It's on private property. So, if Yeah, I would appreciate it if Victor would even be able to sit down. Well, that's what we several times. Whatever he wants to do. He has some materials to the front. They're out there. I mean, the canopy is falling off it just about. Yeah, I think it's time because it's just going to get worse if we don't keep up on it. And it's already way too far behind for my comfort. It actually bothers me.

And I'm trying to be like not like horrible because this is a new business that isn't even finished yet. And I'm trying not to chase people away, but at the same time, it's it's horrible. It looks horrible. So, we got to do something. And if that's putting pressure on them, then put pressure on them. Okay. But we need to set write a letter. Yes. That's what I mean by pressure.

Start with the letters, work from there. Do everything labeling. Everything needs to be done to follow. But we got to follow through on this one. The last thing too we don't need is for the to fall down before it's fixed. And that's my biggest of losing buildings is bad enough because it's had a couple years already, has it? It's it's been 2 years and we have asked so we need to start applying more. What kind of leverage do we have on? Can we find I mean according to Brandy, Brandy said nothing. But that was that doesn't seem right. But

I don't know. There should be a way to find him for for code. I mean we used to charge the yard safety safety. Yeah. Yes. uh whatever whatever I would back then we hired whatever charge to clean up but we did see it was this is absolutely something that is in my stomach every time I go through town every day that we live every time we look at that I it needs to be done something needs to be done it really is a safety issue

and then our snow removal on our sidewalks you know not so much in a residential area because a lot of those are right at the curb line and they get snow thrilled right back on them. But our main ones out here in front of the business do used to used to Well, that should be up to the owner to do the own thing. Yeah, we still we still got you guys open the can said you' maintain all those. Well, we talked we would. Yeah, but didn't happen. So, they need to be notified. Well, it should be up to the owner. They need to be notified that they need to maintain because you got people out the highway now to get to Dollar General store and that's not safe by any means.

Yeah, last time we're walking down another road. Yeah, we don't have a utility department that takes care of sidewalks. I'm just saying we don't. Unfortunately, we do not have employees to take care of the sidewalks. No, but in your corner book, there's a article in there that Yes. rectifies back to the utilities department to find someone to do it in. You have something to say about that, Joe? Think you can find somebody to do that, Joe? I'm not good at office.

Is okay. Is there anything else you would like to discuss? No, just the main sidewalk. Like I said, I'm not talking about older cattle. Okay. But your main thoroughare here, I thought you guys made a commitment to maintain that grass. We take care of the grass. And that's not even ours to do, but we do it anyways. Okay. Thanks, Dan. Some things to talk about again. Thank you. What? So don't for which one? What else about? I found a list in there from 2020. Well, I'm sure

it's got the same issues on it. I'm sure because we don't have a very large employee base. So there are some things up. I know. I realize that. But there are some things that are much more difficult and snow removal will be one of them. Especially in a year like this. Especially when we have, you're not going to like when I say this, when we have other departments that have said yes, we will, but we have aging departments that can no longer do the things that they could do 10 years ago. That is very, very different. So, you've got to understand that some of this comes from, and I'm sorry I had to say it that way, but it's

Sorry. Don't be hurt by that. Please don't be hurt by that. I'm just saying we don't have a regular utility department that takes care of it. So extras are extras. So we'll do what we can to talk again about that snow removal thing. Okay. Especially down the We did say yes, but it gets Sorry, Kelly. I know. Kelly, I looked forward. She's like George has more now than I did.

Sorry for offending anyone. But it's just it's an obvious thing that we know that we have like happening like to try to keep up with some of the stuff that we did 10 12 years ago is a little different. So is there anything else you'd like to talk about? No. Some of the problem with the sidewalks is the snow plows. Yes. Pack all the snow. They really do. It's and it and it happens to be a super bad year this year. What are we at? like except uh 75 inches of snow already this year is what they estimated in South Bend. So I'm sure we're pretty close if not over. Yeah. Coming straight across from Leort. I'm sure we might even have more than that. Was 20 years ago or 30 years maybe 40 years ago. True. Yeah.

Just because we had some mild winters. We are still pretty high though. They made a list of it and we are still pretty high even for the bad years for 20 30 years ago even. So okay. Um, now do we want to go to RDC? Do you have anything? I can tell you a little bit. A little bit. I do have to be sworn in. We're going to have a meeting March 3rd. March 3rd.

Yeah. So, um, we still have an extra spot on the committee and we were at our last meeting, we discussed extending our tip area some again. So, we'll have to decide which place would be the best way to go. either up there at room four or we even talked about across the street but that's not really contiguous which has to be contiguous so so we have to discuss that but yeah we have to have our March sure will be our meeting for with all our overlapping units that we have to notify what we're doing with our tiff money okay so that's it for now that's it for now yep

it is winter I know you see no nothing this already. Oh, we are working on plans for the barn. The blue barn. Okay. West. Yes. We'll see how far that goes, too. Okay. Would you like to talk?

So, yeah. So, um, with the town being involved with the fire department, you know, we're all as one. You know, I want to talk about the water bill. You know, every time we do training, every time we go to a house fire, we get sent a water bill, which I understand we got to keep track of our water, you know. So, this last barnfire we was on a new road, we use approximately 100,000 gallon. We got a bill for 13, a little over $1,300. The most that we can bill for a house fire or any type of fire is $500. So if the town of Leto is then with the fire department, why did we get sent a bill?

Um, can you explain that to him about the water bill and the fire? Do you remember? I don't think Lori knows it backwards and forwards. I'm not the greatest at it, but I do know that there are I think when we did the I know trainingwise that used to be waved. I know. Yes. Yes. And then I think if I remember correctly, it was when they did the new ordinance and had to do the rate study is why Yeah. So the rate studies and stuff like that have told us that people have told us that every bit of water that we use has to be accounted for and paid for. I think that's for our water bond.

It's the water bond. So because we have loans out on the water, that's partially the issue. So whatever you're getting charged for is of course per unit of water. We hate the fact that we have to charge for certain things like that, but a lot of it has to do with what we have been told we have to do because of our violence.

Okay. So, can we just give you guys the information, the homeowner's name, the address, the approximate number of gallons that we use and you guys bill them? Let me talk to Lori about if that's something and talk to um our lawyer of course to make sure that everything's in order properly. The way that we can do something like that. If they legally tell us we can't do it that way. I don't know yet. I just don't want to say things that I don't know the full answers to. But I knew part I know that part of the reason why those bills originally what we were taught was that it was supposed to be whatever unit is using the water regardless of it being a homeowner because it's outside of town limits and because you are the other entity that is actually using the water. That was the way it was based off of. But I will see if there's any changes in the law with that with some of that to see if there's anything else that can be done on it. I mean, we could build up, you know, $500, but that don't mean we're getting the full $500.

I know. I've heard a lot of that about like homeowners or insurance things and then people just not paying. Couldn't we just write off that as a tax write off for like the end of the year? Well, I mean, like I don't know, you know how buy the water department. You might not have to pay for it. Well, we do that. We go every month and we pay hydro fees. You pay a hydro fee of $7, right? I have no idea. So hydro fees come off the water bills basically. They're on the water bills

on the maintenance that they got to pay about a $37,000 bill every year to fire hikers just for maintenance and for maintenance and repair. So there's some things, but when we're talking the maintenance and repairs, then then does that cover all the hydrant repairs and maintenance then? So then why would why would the water company charge the fire department for a water main break that you've had three or four times since then and put the blame back then on the fire department when it was a mile away? Good question. I can buy more out for you. We were told that we Pardon me. Did you have something? I was going to say, are your firefighters properly trained on operating?

So, yeah, there was a situation stuck open because they opened it too far and they didn't know how to close it. They had to call the water department to come fix it. Which one was this? Was that the United States came out and fix it? So, they cranked it open too far. Oh, okay. Then I'm talking about a fire that we were pulling from the corner down past the church, right? somewhere around that area. And then we I want to say we picked out the repair bill like $600 or something like that. Joe, do you remember the exact in and outs of that bill?

Uh yes, we split it basically. I don't have the exact numbers because I don't have it in front of me, but the and it wasn't a mile away. It was so to the attorneys, right? I know it is in front of the attorneys, right? But we can't get any response from Brandy as far as Bill's concerned. We just want to get it off the books. Basically, um, how it was explained to us was that,

you know, I mean, they they've had numerous water breaks there. And I mean, people have even taken videos of other water breaks that we had no fires that we would have connected to that. And I mean I guess when I had talked to you at that one time I just I had said you know I understand if we outright broke you but I mean we had a water man break up here at Tyler's and then we had one in front of Palmer's and my question was do you charge them for those water man breaks? Palmer's wasn't using hydrant at the time the main broke

but there was no guarantee that it was that it broke. See, you guys were the only ones using in that area. And like I said, I No, and I'm not I'm not arguing anything. You're right. We can't say that's what happened. That's why I took the bill and I brought it to the town. This is how much water we lost. This is what it cost the town to repair it. So, we split the cost. The town ate half and they agreed to go half and half on the bill. But it also feels I mean and I'm gonna say this because you guys are part of our we are part of our fire department and it just feels like we're getting price gouged. I mean you have to understand that the final breakdown that I did last year 85% of the township pays for the fire territory and and the town brings 15% of that. So when we're getting let's say a $1,400 bill I mean that is hitting our budget. I mean, we're on a very limited budget and I mean, I can discuss other things that are going to hit budgets here in the next year. They're going to be very detrimental to our community. And so, I think we need to be looking at our budgets and and fine-tuning them and quit gouging. I mean, even if the firemen, let's just say, were part of that.

You have to understand the amount of I want to say, didn't you guys put like 60,000 gallons on that fire that night on the new road? No. on Juniper Road. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. I mean, and I I don't understand it. I mean, the way it was explained to me from the chief was that would take a major force for them to shut that water down to cause that break. I don't know the ins and outs of it, but I just I mean, here we have attorneys now. Yes. And the only reason I and I'm only going to bring this up so that you understand that we run on skeletal money here. Absolutely skeletal. your budgets blow ours away. Okay.

So, if you if you understood I understand and we're not trying to price gouge anyone or we're not trying to hurt anybody's feelings. We're not trying to make things think that we're trying to do things on purpose because we're not. Okay. So, those are those are discussions where we know that we and we've been talking about water for years. Ask George. George is the one that we where we change the rate issues and everything trying to be more helpful and make it work out better than what it did before. Um, but here's something too. I mean, let's bring this up and I didn't come here to argue this, but you know, we used to So, the town used to donate the waters to train when it was

years. Okay. Okay. I mean, you guys had an ordinance that you signed that you would provide that training waters to them. And then when we went in the direction of bringing them in full-time and we are no longer contracted with Lake Inc., then all of a sudden we're being You saw a change after that because I was not aware of a change. No, there was there was and I went what was the first chief? I forget his name. Tony Tony. Tony Reese. Tony

and And I went and and basically when I went and talked to Tony uh this was when we were in the process of getting this loan for the water tower, applying for grants and everything. And I went and told Tony, I said, "If you guys will pay for your training water, at this time until we get all of the rate stuff done to where

I my feeling was, you're you're we're raising the the rate on the homeowners and then to see the fire department out just spraying water." To me, I thought we were gonna have more problems. So, it's like, let's get all of our tower online. It's going to take a couple years and then let's revisit it. And I had the same I after he left and uh Andy came in, I went and had the same talk with Andy and explained the same thing. Let us get all of our infrastructure done and everything and then let's revisit this. Okay. And and that's what I I went to both of them. Okay. So, but yes, it did change. We will talk more about this. No.

Okay. But we're not trying to go out of our way to harm anybody financially at all, but we're also trying to pay for the stuff that we got to pay for also due to water. We don't have any issues. We we establish it into our budget, but I just don't want it to be I mean, we have to move on. I mean, we have we have a phenomenal fire department. I think we're doing I think we're doing truthfully. I think we're starting to do well. Okay. I think it's improving. I think we're growing. I think it's getting better between people. I think it's going. It may not be as fast as we want it to be, but you know. Okay. So, I I I see changes. Okay.

No, I do too. So, these are just some of the concerns that they brought. I see changes and we value all of you in our community. So, and I I I need you guys to understand that.

Okay. I I want to say one more thing just for we had a one house in town for our meter reads that we just did uh I think it'll be a week ago this past Friday. They use 57 Now nobody's in this house. They use 57,000 gallons of water. So uh we read on a Friday Cindy didn't get our work orders done until Tuesday. I think when we did two, they used another 26,000 gallons in that house and there's no one in that house. No one in the house. We went and shut the water off and finally got a hold of somebody and it was their toilet running. They are responsible for that water, right? And plus sewer on top of that,

right? Because it went down the sewer. So I I I don't think we're gouging or targeting anybody. It's it's the way it is. If your if your stool leaks, you pay. It's It's not It's not my fault that your stool leaked. It's not my fault that you use the fire hydrant. And this all stems from our everything that we were told. And we like have to account for every unit that's out. And that's something that we have been told by them.

And I'm on a fire department that uses dry hydrants. Dry hydrants can be used. We don't have hydrant systems. we don't have a problem. So, put a dry hydrant down at the lake and use some lake water. It It takes money to produce this water. That's all I'm saying. And it's it's put on the town residents when we lose or 100,000 that's that's 2/3 of our water power on one fire. Yeah. So, that's my two cents.

Thank you. And thank you. and we'll talk more. Okay. I'll talk with Lori when she returns about some things and I just I don't know and we'll check with all the legalities of being able to do any and I I can't promise anything but at least you know that we're not purposefully out trying to gouge anybody. We're not. Um we're just trying to cover our buds too where it needs to be covered. Unfortunately, I wish that it was a wonderful world world where everything was paid for by the by other pieces, but it's not. So, well, while we're on new business, I do want to um swash maybe a little bit of misunderstanding from your last meeting. I I watched the end of it. Um, I know that it was brought up that that the township has been in conversations with this Liberty Green Center Township merge and that is incorrect. Um, just to clarify, um, there was a meeting back in December where all the trustees in the southern portion were invited. I mean, we had representatives from New Cari, Olive Township, Warren Center, Union, Lincoln, Liberty. Don't know if Madison was there, but there there was several of us. And really what it was was just to bring us to the table for them to tell us that they were going to form this larger territory and that possibly in a few years they would come and ask these other townships if we were interested to merge with them.

Right. So as of as we speak right now, we have not sat in these studies and part of their studies um to merge along with them. Um and I will tell you we don't at this time want to be part of this. I mean we're looking at substantial tax increases. I mean they are looking at like 6.4 million budgets and we sit on less than a million for what we do here, right? That would take and I know Dan was in this meeting. I don't know that they have I don't know that they have shared these financials. I just was privileged to get it from someone there and I looked at them. I'm not making them public until their next meeting. Exactly.

So I'm not making these public to anyone but I can tell you that it's a substantial it would it would take us out. Okay. What they're wanting to do tax. So just know if those conversations were to ever be had since the town is part of our territory, we would be having those conversations as we would not be the voice. Okay. So just I want to clarify that because I don't want anyone in the community I think there's just a lot of conversations at different restaurants and everybody pieces in a little bit of information and then if they see me sitting at a meeting just to get informed then they just assume that I'm there and I want to get this. No. Okay.

Um you Okay. Thanks for clearing that up. Yeah. Is there anything else fire would like to talk about? Anybody? It's nice to see you, George, by the way. It's been a long time. So, it's been a long time. What do you thought about getting older?

Oh, yes. Um, so Ryan is out of town right now, but um, I know we have been trying to get fire territory meetings more on a quarterly basis because we do feel that with the direction that we're going, we need to have these conversations because there's a lot of things that the chief needs to be purchasing and I feel that they need to be put in front of the territory and they're large purchases instead of him just bringing receipts and saying, "Hey, we need this or hey, we need that." And then it's I mean I know that I can look at the budget but it still needs to be approved. Um so I I guess I and I know right now Lori is not available. Is there anyone that can fill the position so that we could be having a meeting here like in the first part of February?

I don't know if can we do that actually? Yeah, you can. And as long as we have three of the four board members. Um, and I and I know Ryan is the one that always tries to put these meetings together. It just always seems like, you know, it's like they're like Patrick can come but Lori can't or Lori can't. It's just let me find out more. Let me talk to Patrick. Let me talk to Lori. Okay. And go from there. Okay. I don't want to step I'm not on the board so I don't want to step on anyone that's is not here and cannot answer for themselves at the moment. So, let me look into that and I will get back to you. I promise. I asked that last month and they told me no. I didn't I didn't think if somebody could sit in for Lori. Yeah.

Well, you can appoint someone. She would have to appoint somebody temporarily or something. I don't know how that would work, but let me look into it, find out how that works, if that's something that we can. And of course, you know, we always ask Brandy because she knows all that stuff inside and out. So, I'll just I'll I'll send her a question if I get home. I mean, I do know that as long as we have the form, as long as we've got three of the four sitting there, um, you know, it's just that we can't have like two of the four. Okay. So,

I am just going to make sure that I ask her. Okay. I don't want to. I just don't want to forget either. I had a lot of notes tonight. Okay. Okay. Anything else that you can think of while you guys were here? Not that I can think of. No. I did hear you. Okay. Just just so you know, I I hear you. Um, is there anybody else? Do we have anything else?

I don't know if it's a question, but it's you might be able to answer, but when Patrick was reading off his list of things he did this past month, I noticed he's in the county or township more often than he is in town. And I we just basically the town pays his wages, right? I mean, Right. I mean, you're all from the town, but that was 19 calls out of 146. And that was pretty much weather related. We normally only have around six or seven. But most a lot of your work is in the township as opposed to the town, isn't it? City, not necessarily. No,

not really. Because we that would have beenund all those out of those 146 calls, those would have all been town calls or or traffic stops. Then as far as actually being out of that that would have been inside our city limit. So but we also have a mutual aid agreement as far as with St. Joe County because if we don't have an officer on they come and cover for us. So that's all part of a mutual aid agreement with St. Joseph County. Yeah.

Curious. Anyone else have anything new they want to talk about or bring up? Andy, you know, the other thing I And I know the fire department guys know this, so I'm not. But I heard the attorney mention about it would take a lot of force to it's really not force. It's this you guys know this. It's the speed at which you open and close the hydrants is what creates that water hammer. So, I don't know, you know, I don't know the exact situation or anything like that, but it's really the the speed at which you're opening and closing those hybrids. It's not the the fast when you put your gain valves on. Yeah.

I know val used to, but still you turn a gate belt, but it's the sudden rush sudden stoppage that creates water hammer. It's not necessarily the force. So, so this is Andy. He's our engineer of course, but he also is a local resour.

No, interestingly enough, the person that go we were just talking about and I wasn't mean to be disrespectful at all because I could not do what you guys do. So please understand we were discussing at a table and someone who is very wellversed in me most of his life town resident was sitting there and said you know that he worked out on his jobs but there were many times that these lines broke and it's because there might have been a rock or there might have been this and he's the one that was just more questioning and I'm like I don't understand it and um

I know a lot of the things that we do pertaining to you guys is what we've been told because of our water bonds. So, just trying to cover what needs to be covered so that they can't come back on us and say that we're not doing what we were told to do. But I will bring up some things to see if anything has changed. If anything, we can find out for you. I will do that. I'll bring it up again. Okay. And I guess just I I have full you know respect for that. I could not do what what any fire or police do. So I appreciate everything. So no disrespect but it was just when if an attorney mentioned that that's why training I'm doing

so do we have any more new business or are we done for the night? No new business. What time is it? Sorry. 6:57. I'm going to end the meeting at 6:57. It was nice to see everyone. Thanks for coming. It really is nice to see that end. I don't know about you. Just kidding.