Town Council - workshop

slide okay i'm going to start the meeting at 602 on september 17th for our work session we do have a few things that we do need to start out with and that would be our apds and our minutes from the last meeting last week um let's start with i'm just going to start with those for a moment um i'm going to ask for a motion to approve the minutes from September 9th, 2026. I'll make that motion. And I second the motion. All those in favor? Now we're moving on to accounts payable vouchers that we decided to table from last meeting. It is for $33,662.28. I need to ask for a motion to go ahead and pay the bills.

I will go ahead and approve that motion.

I second the motion. All those in favor?

Could we get a copy of the APDs on the morning or the day of our meeting so I have a chance to look at it at home.

We will. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right. Yeah. The wording on Jacqueline's I always mess up her name. Skirvitz. Skirvitz. Skirvitz. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, Jacqueline, if you're watching this.

Do we have that contract that was reworded that she sent us?

So that's the rewording.

Okay.

So I think we just have to...

sign that and then i can stick it in with her contract okay so i need to go ahead and ask um which we already did this once but we fixed it because it was something went off on it because it was an old one so this is for paying jacqueline for the time frame in between yes so we just need that i need a motion to go ahead and make that motion i don't want to second it all in favor all right And I'm just going to sign it since she's not here, just in case, just underneath her name. And then when you give her her leftist sign, eventually you can have her sign it too. Okay. I just feel better to have somebody sign it.

Yeah, so that way they'll just know it's signed. Yeah.

And I know that also... Cindy has requested that maybe add three or four hours to that because she was doing a lot. So originally, whatever was on here, she told me how many hours I already forgot. So, but she, you have her hours.

Yeah, 22.7.

Yeah, she was like, she did way over that amount, like helping her, like even on the phone and things like that recently. So anyways, I'm going to ask to go ahead and add three hours to her time sheet because she had helped Cindy considerably on the telephone. Okay. I will make that motion. I'll second. Yeah. That'll help. Let's see. So we went ahead and signed that. Where do we want to go next? Claire, what would you like to talk about next?

So I know that we have talked about IT. Yes. So I only have one bid so far. Okay. I will make copies of this as well. But just so that way you guys can look over it. What looks to look over?

I did talk with this guy.

He does all the IT for the company my husband works for. And so... That's how I kind of got hooked up with him. And if we decide to go further, they have a plan that they can do. And then it's like a bi-monthly check. And it's all included in their price.

Which is $850 annual service agreement. Yes. Got it. Which actually is not too much of that.

No. And they'll do everything. So I mentioned that we do have the cameras up at the park. Correct. They said they would check those.

Those are managed by FLOG. So that's a completely different system.

So it's an $850 annual service agreement, service and billing rates with service agreement. $150 for emergency responses after hours. For the first hour and with an hour minimum. After initial hour, $125 billable. and half-hour increments versus $200. $75 an hour for scheduled services versus $105 an hour. Minimum charge is a half-hour for scheduled service. Billing is done in quarter-hour segments for scheduled services. Free phone support consultation for three incidences per month. which is nice. And phone support is for quick fix issues and advice on best uses practices. Phone support is available at supplier's discretion and client will be informed before available time begins, which is nice also. Yes. Buy monthly checkout visits. So every two months, that's nice. Ensure proper network maintenance, foresee possible issues, spot check for potential problems. Scheduled service calls are added to the schedule in the next available appointment slot after hours as defined weekend Fridays after five before Monday at 8 a.m. Emergency services classified as needing immediate service and response within drive time for schedule does not charge unless otherwise stated. That's nice too. So it's kind of, I don't know if you want to look it over real quick, but that's a good start. Yes. Right. So at least give us like maybe two more and kind of get an idea about what IT, because we do know that in pubs even, our computers are not running up to grade and they're slow. And also, and I've been seeing this for a long time, our copier, eventually too, when you talk about that, printers, copiers, Basically, I feel the ladies would actually benefit from a dual screen because it really amplifies how quickly that you can actually work. I could never go back to just a single, like working at a big office or office, go back to just a single computer screen. It changes your world working with that because you don't have to flip back and forth to things. It helps you way less errors. Yeah, much, much better. So, anyways, thank you for that. Maybe you could, once you get a couple more, and then you can just send all of them to us at once, and then we can, like, even if it's just scanned and mail it to us or something. Yeah, that way we can look at it on personal time and stuff and just kind of go through it.

Yeah, I have to go. One more I'm supposed to be with tomorrow, and then I will see where it takes us.

Like, our computers are slow. Very slow. And It doesn't take long, right? And I can't remember when that, like it's been at least eight years since something's been, who's here? Shirley was here the last time we ever did anything. And I don't think we got new computers though.

I think Cindy got it.

Cindy might have gotten one, right?

Well, Cindy got a brand new one set.

Okay. So there might be something they can do to help her with the one she has too, to just get the speed up on it. Well, it's not set up yet. Oh. So it's a brand new one.

I got a brand new one, and she got a brand new one in the water project. Oh, nice. That's nice. It is sitting out there. She just has not had time to get it set up. So it's in a box right beside her. Okay, that's good to know.

Write that down that she has a unit.

And that's fairly new. It has never been hooked up.

Yeah, we got them, I think, a year ago, roughly.

I want to check that out to see what it is. Is there anything else that you want to go? Do we need to talk to you guys?

I don't think so. Do you have the information on the fire truck refurbish?

I don't have it with me, but yeah. Okay. Yeah.

That would be good for us to see and look over if somebody wants to email it to us. Okay. So we can look it over. Okay. And see exactly, word for word, what they believe, what they think, and go from there.

Yeah, when they did the quote, they went on the high end of everything because they would rather, because some of the stuff that necessarily may be needed, but they included it in there to be on the higher end of everything anyway, so. Okay. And then just in case we need it. Yes.

I think it was 200.

I think it was just under two. I think it was like 199, I think. I think, yeah, 199.

And I don't know if it was added on or two. Jason Fisher found transportation for the fire truck from Lakeville. and back, so from us to them and then to us for $6,500 to help her screw round trip. So I think that's probably kicked it up just over the $192 million.

But doesn't the fire territory, aren't they supposed to maintain that with their tax funds?

There's a whole discussion that you guys need to talk about with that.

Well, it wasn't on that. I didn't imagine that. Yeah.

So they've only given us information on what they would like to see and what do we want to do with the old truck because it's ours. So we're just mulling around what we want to do with it.

Yeah, because initially back when Andy was still chief and we had a meeting, they were voting on, they wanted to have us sell it. And then after talking to several of the firemen, They said, no, they actually wanted to keep it. They actually prefer that. And then it was only recently then that, um, uh, actually I think it was Jason was the one that started that conversation with far as, uh, um, doing a refurb just because especially with the depth system, there's no depth system on it. Um, and it's a solid truck. So the fire, then they thought it would be much more useful as far as through refurbing. Um, and so.

At first, they were like, hey, do you want to sell it and give us something that we really want? Then they were like, hey, do you want to sell it and use it for ambulance? Then it was like, no, we don't want to sell it. I think it's just a lot of people talking about what is the best thing to do. That's where we're at right now.

I will say, too, that if we refurbish they were talking about um using that for responses within the town since it's a town truck um not saying that they wouldn't take any of the other trucks out if needed but they were hoping that with if we go forward with the refurbishment um right that they would use that to respond okay Yeah, it's really outdated. Yeah.

It still works, doesn't it?

It does.

But there are some things on it that need to be up to standard standards.

Yes, I agree.

Where does it have to be transported to?

North Carolina. I think it was like Blue Ridge.

a long ways.

And they don't, the company doesn't arrange that, but Jason Fisher was able to Where's that at? North Carolina. So they were, when they talked to them, they were thinking it would probably end up coming in in the end closer to around 150. But again, some of the stuff was depending on what they needed to do once they started taking upgrading the lighting, everything to LEDs, updating all the council to make it more maneuverable, changing the tanker to a thousand gallons instead of 750. Those are the main things.

Is that a company that transports it or does a couple of firemen drive it down there? No. So it's a company that does it. So Jason has been talking with Aaron Black. And it looks like, so BMFA is the company that it goes to to be refurbished. That round trip would be $6,500. And then that would make the proposal $205,000 or $610.50.

Why can't a couple of our firemen drive it down there? No.

Why not?

Because when they got it delivered to us, they drove it to us, got in an accident, and then there was a big dispute over who's, we didn't have any insurance on it.

Why not? Why didn't they have insurance on it?

We didn't own it. We didn't own it until they were delivering it to us. So, right?

But that wasn't our fireman driving it, right?

No, it was the company that was the manufacturer representing it. They got in an accident, and then they created that big snafu, so... I don't think you want to put that truck on the road to drive to North Carolina. Right. It'd take two days.

It's probably cheaper.

Oh yeah.

To have it hauled down.

I kind of agree. I know my son-in-law's driven trucks to where they had to be recached already, so I just figured. And they've done that before when they went to Battle Creek, you know. Yeah, they went up to Michigan and put up a barge so they didn't have to drive through Chicago. Okay. Well, that's good.

I was trying to think of what else we need to talk about because this is a work session. Fall festival. Fall festival.

Oh, sorry. Yeah, go ahead. Anglers. Yes.

Yes. What we just talked about last meeting.

Well, are we going to incorporate that into our 2023 plan?

So I don't know if they can draw all that stuff up that quickly. We have what? When do we have? How long did you find out how long it was before we had to turn in budgets?

It has to be adopted before the end of October. And from the time that we submit it, it has to be advertised for 10 days, which is just going on through Gateway and submitting the forms Okay. So 10 days, and then I think it has to be as long as we have the public hearing, and then the adoption has to follow. But there has to be, I think Daniel said like two weeks in between.

Yeah, I think that 10 days is still the same program, right?

Okay. So I did have a discussion because Lori was in the hospital, and I basically said... This was at the end of last week, right? Right after our meeting. I was like, literally, what do you want to do? Like, do you want to go ahead? And she was like, I'll tell. She said that she was going to get with Kelly, but then she had a lot of stuff going on with the hospital stuff. So I don't know if that ever happened. Okay. Because she was like, I'll, she said, I will email Kelly to get around the things that they believe that we should be like all the numbers, right? So you might want to, like how much the tax levy, how much they want them raised, you know, that kind of thing, okay? So maybe we get also, we get our lawyer involved too. So let me make sure all that paperwork's right and get it ready.

Okay. I will say-

I'm meeting with Daniel tomorrow.

He's going to come sit with me and Vicki. So that way I have input from Vicki and then input from Daniel as well. Because Patrick and I had talked, they want to do the levy for the EMS. So I wrote Daniel an email and I'm like, what do I need to do? And he said, I would not do the levy on the taxes because we have such a small town. And everybody is usually at cap for their taxes.

Right, which I think we might be. But I don't know for certain what our actual cap is. So these are the numbers that we need. And let us know. Because we need to take care of whatever needs to be taken care of to hold the ambulance.

I have a question. So I know that Township would prefer 300-year taxes to run the ambulance. To help run the ambulance. Yes. Yeah. So does the town board have a say in that? I don't think you've discussed it much.

But it's been an ongoing discussion for a long time. Yeah, I know. Even within these guys and when Lori was on it. So it has been discussed a lot on fine territory meetings and stuff like that about what to do. Yes, we do have a save, but we also have to follow certain things like what the levy tells us.

Yeah.

Like we can't just do whatever we want. We got it. We can only go.

But I mean, whether Olivia, you either take the money right out of your budget or raise taxes to do it. Correct. Well, we're not taking it out of our budget. No. But that way. But even if we do raise it, Daniel told me that we would get less. FROM OUR TAXPAYERS BECAUSE WE WOULD HAVE TO MAKE UP THAT OF THE RATES.

15% IF THEY WANT YOU TO RELY WHENEVER THAT COMES OUT TO YOU. THEN YOU WOULD LOSE THAT OFF OF YOUR GENERAL.

YEAH. SO YOU MAY WANT TO LET THE TRUSTEE KNOW THAT HERE. BECAUSE WE HAVE TO BE ABLE TO RUN. RIGHT. AND WE'RE RUNNING ON FAIR BONES NOW. YEAH. SO WHAT DO WE DO THEN WHEN THEY TELL US WE CANNOT? And so, I mean, that was why that this was put into play, having the five territories, because the town couldn't afford it.

Yeah.

So that, I mean, there are reasons why all of that, so there were equal taxation. And then it also, because we could not run that financially because of changes in communities. There's just a lot of that going on. So, okay. Keep us included on some discussions, okay? I will.

The other option on that then is they dissolve the fire territory. Right. For one year. Yes. Which then you would probably have to confirm for fire protection.

Confirm for fire protection.

Correct.

And then... But what does that look like? You guys need to find out what that looks like.

Well, yeah. And then you reform it. the fire territory with PMS in it, they raise the tax.

It's very complicated. Yeah, it's not like we can just go in and raise it.

What would it boil down to per household tax-wise?

Well, if you have a $100,000 house of like $70, if you're at like $40,000. I think, what did she say for what she wanted to see was 40 cents on the whatever, but we're already bringing in 4 cents.

We only need 15% of that.

Yeah. Which then comes off of what we get as the town. So, if we, and if you want to have a substantial increase.

for us not to lose money to run the town. But if they already... What I got out of county was that we're taxed at 0.22 cents on the 100, okay?

And... Because that's what they're going to ask.

Yeah.

People with old houses here are going to ask, what's that going to... They don't care about anything else. They want to know what's going to cost them. Correct.

So if she's looking at .40 cents, okay, we would have to increase that because we also do 34 cents. Like altogether, we're at like 22 for them, right? And then we have like 12 cents on that or whatever. So Anyways, so we need numbers and we need to know what we can do and what we cannot do and what is the best route to do it right now. And that was my biggest concern is right now, is that the way to go, right? And that's why she brought it up at the last meeting. Like, this is the idea. And I'm kind of glad she presented it the way she did because it helps you understand why they have talked about dissolving the territory. Right. And then redoing it to make sure that EMS is inside of it. What's the guarantee they'll redo it?

Honor system, essentially. I don't know if you can have it in writing like that.

You have to say that within one year we will whatever until it's legally binding. I don't know if that's something that can be done or not.

Because there was a question for the attorney.

Yes. know so that's the thing because that's our main concern right in the back of our heads but i want to give people the benefit of the doubt and say yes but by dissolving the territory and waiting for a year and just adding ems to it is that qualifying to reform your territory

I don't know. I don't know.

In like 18 or 24 months, everything's going to change anyway.

You had to add another, you had to add another entity to it to change it. You could be wrong. I don't know. I don't know. We'll find out more.

I think because I know what Marcel was saying at the last meeting. It sounded like it was because then we were adding services to it that we couldn't just amend. what's already there, right? Right.

You have to earn that, what you're showing, what your money is going for.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Dean, do you have an opinion on all of this or anything or?

I, I, I've hated this conversation all the way from, from the start again and I don't, there's been not a lot of cooperation between the township and the town and I, I don't know. Um, I don't like splitting it up, who's in charge of what. It's just one building, and I think, you know, I mean, what did we have to do to get our water topics? We had to get, we had to find our own grant money and our own, you know, and what are they finding to get, are they looking for grant money or? Well, they did do a lot. Are we going to have the laws going to be changed anyway after what, after the November election? Politics is going to be changed.

I mean, what's, you know. This is how it should be.

Well, that's why I brought it up last week.

And I know it's always, it's always been in that way. I don't like that phrase. Just years and years. Old enough to know better.

There's other people that have been on that board, have been on this board. So I just kept my mouth shut, you know, and I see everybody. I'd see them arguing, and I'd keep my mouth shut. And it's a difficult thing.

I guess that's what bothers me the most is that they did take out a bond for this ambulance service. It wasn't enough. And now all of a sudden, they don't have enough. It wasn't enough. So they've either overspent.

No, that $300,000 was put somewhere else in a different account.

And that's where that stems from. And we're supposed to

fix that because it was put in a wrong account it is true that we have not raised our levy for this particular thing for a very long time when you bring in a whole another service there's going to be something that has to be done at some point and I told I mentioned to her already that it has been a very long time we have always been non-raisers of the levy Since we've been on here, we've barely done anything. So you're talking about 12 years, and now that we have such a financial difference from even five years ago, financially how everything works, at some point we're going to have to do it. And we don't want to. It doesn't mean we really want to, but in order to make our towns work and our fire services work, we're going to have to. because of, I won't say why we're in this financial predicament in the world right now. But anyways, it's unfortunate because we'll have to. But we are leaning on, because we want our services to, we want it to work. We don't want it to be.

So the contract we have with the county, Does that go away if we have our own ambulance? Or do we continue to pay it every year?

The only thing of what they were thinking, because that contract's done in another year. Yeah. And then, so then what they were talking about is then recapturing that money that would have been going to pay for that contract for everything down here to then fund the ambulance service down here as a larger township.

Because in two years we're The townships are merging. It's already done deal with the state. And they already have it.

But it's confirmation. The state is setting in.

The state has set it in play that by 2028 they have to do something. It's already in play. We already know. It's already legally in the The state, they've already put the paperwork out on it. They've already told everybody, yes, it will be happening. But the only thing is I have like, but it's not really my business is like which township we go with because right now there's a map and that map isn't what I would think for where we are, but maybe it would give us, capture us more money though because it is Penn and Madison is the other townships and they have money and that's the only thing that might be positive for us but we're the smallest one you know what i mean like i'm just like i hope they don't overlook us because we're small when they divide that money up and that's the main concern will that be an argument all the time about how much money we're getting getting That's the only thing where the other the other division, it's mostly center and up center and up. So it's urban. And that's how they have it labeled. So that's why we're not a part of that because we're a bedroom community, right? And then the other ones are bringing Liberty. What else is over there? I always forget about the one. Yeah, that's the one that's like, yeah, so. It is, but it's more like liberty. It's more like us. You know what I'm saying? So I always look at it like, well, maybe that would work better for us, but maybe the other one is because they're like, yeah, because of all the incomes that come in through that one. I don't know. That's the only thing I have that I'm like, I saw the map and I'm like, okay, I don't know how I feel about it, but probably the same as the people who didn't want to go with penn harris madison school system in 19 whatever 60 something no 30s whatever they wanted us to become a part of penn harris madison can you imagine that right here now like how long it would take to get to school how long it would take to get to every like school program ball game like whatever maybe that would have changed how many schools they had or something at this point but they were like no way jose because it was so far away so i don't know that's the only There's a lot of change coming. And that's why I brought up, well, if we split into that, into three super townships is basically what it is. And then what happens to fire territories when that happens? Do the fire territories become bigger and work within those super townships?

Well, I mean, yes. I'd be like, Our country roads, they get ignored now too.

Well, I know. Well, that's why I'm always like, I always worry, right?

Like, is that the best fit for us?

Like at least people over here understand what we're going through, right? The people who live in those communities and are going to be running them. I don't know how that's going to work. That's great township where they went to.

One. And they're going to be two.

Yeah.

They joined South Bend. Right, but it's kind of all like when you think about like the whole setup of it, everything's a little similar, right? Like you know in your head, like we fought for years to get attention to begin with, right? Like money and attention because

Either you had two different kinds of people down here. You have people that said, we don't want to have anything to do with county, or you had people fighting to get what we need from county. So it's, those are the things that I have. Like, I know it's coming. The state has already demanded it, mandated it. So it's just when, and is it the right time to raise taxes? Like right now, do we do it a different way until all of this? I don't know. So I need you guys to talk more to them because I want to feel, but start with finding out on the levy stuff.

Yes. Is this for the second ambulance?

Just one ambulance.

But you know, when you start raising taxes, just like when you raise money for the water tower, the water bill, people come into it.

Well, that's why I put it out last week exactly that we're taking it seriously, but we do know something has to happen. If my Uncle Bob is having a heart attack, I want somebody right here with an ambulance that can transport, that can do everything that needs to be done, right? And that's what our community members fought for for years to even have one. So I think it's important that we don't dismiss it because look how hard they fought to get the other one that we had, right? Because they did. They fought really hard to even have that, but then it was separated. Those days are gone. Most places that ambulances are in with the fire. So part of that is I think people seeing forward because what's going to happen is our super conscious. So we have to.

Is the ambulance is housed over there now? Yes, yes.

And so we have to stay at lab 24 seven Well, right now we're at three, right?

Four, but that's the fourth person, which is three different people.

Three shifts, right? So it's a total of six people that they added because it's one extra per shift. So that way they can always have two people to run the ambulance because you have to have one person drive, one person for care, and then two people for... truck went out of rescue same thing so so that's why they that's why they had said then the three just hiring one extra per ship which replaced the three wouldn't have been enough because then that would have pulled from the fires because you have to have two to operate so you have to have four yes yeah that's what created it it's more it's expensive anytime that you it's not like

The volunteer systems are falling away all over the place. Because we can't get, first off, we can't get people to do it. Right?

And it's like that. Well, that's true, but it's gotten over.

I can't change it.

I can't change it.

I cannot change it, and we need to move forward. So what do you do? And we want to be supportive of our... I'm looking at our people. I'm not looking at anything other than that. Our community more than anything. I'm looking at what's... That's what we need. So... And people can make decisions and be unhappy with those decisions even if you know it's for the right reasons. Like, why we're doing it. Doesn't mean I have to be happy that I have to do it. So... Townships already funded more out of their own funds. Right. So one of the things that I was worried about was when they moved to the super townships, like if we tax now, move to super townships, there's a tax base that's going to change again, I feel like. I feel like something's going to change. They're going to do something else. And then turn around, and then we're going to change the fire territory up. So you'll have a bigger fire territory in each township.

so my biggest concern was raising taxes and turn around and then raising taxes again right so i that's the biggest question i have in my mind is do i or if you do it other way when they all join together the taxes could possibly come down because you got more people right correct i'm just concerned very rarely but

Yeah, but I'm concerned, right? Like, I don't know, like, I don't know where they're going with it, because I'm not in with all the stuff, all the info. Okay, so, okay. So, I'm going to move on. Are we done talking about fire for now? I'm going to go to Fall Festival real quick. I had a quick... No, you don't want to talk about Fall Festival?

I just got a few things to bring up on the water side. Oh, okay. If you want to talk about that, you can. I wanted to ask how community crossings are going. I'm working on that.

Okay. I found previous ones that I'm kind of going to mirror so that way I have something to kind of follow.

And Marcia over at NDOT, have you seen her contact information in any of the e-mails? If not, I can get, she is, she is, she will help you and she will answer questions very quickly.

Okay.

Yeah. And the only, the only thing is if the sooner we get it in, she reviews it. And if there's any issues, she will let you know. So those are going to be fixed. Okay.

So I didn't mean her information.

I will forward an email that we've gotten from her before tomorrow. Okay. Just so you've got it.

Yep.

Because she's a good resource to get you in the right direction and stuff.

Yep. And next year, I feel like this. I know. You'll know what month everything comes up, when they do it, when it's supposed to be in. You'll know ahead of time and have discussions ahead of time.

And trust me, I start three months before. Yeah, he starts. Having my stuff. Okay. Yeah. And I know this, we need to look at our 401 case because Dave's been here a year and a half and it is not set up for him yet. Patrick and I, I'm sure mine didn't, so I'm guaranteeing Patrick's did not go in for 2025. That's what I was hoping for. I, I, I've been, like I said, it's nothing, but I've been, I've been asking this, David's been asking this for several months of getting this going. And I just, I think it's wrong. It needs to be, uh, it's wrong. Yes. Uh, and also, I don't know if you saw from Aaron this morning, the PLZ.

Yes.

Uh, Just we need those approved, so they can be they were pay apps that need to go to SRN for payment. Okay.

Yes, I just see those. Did I get those?

They were just sent this morning.

Yeah, I don't know. They checked mine.

So.

I don't know that you were on it because there were some that Cindy wasn't on, but then there were others that she was.

Basically, I think one was payout 26 and 27. 26, we signed last month.

So it can be paid because we are resigning.

It needs to be re-signed because when he sent it to SRF, there was a mistake that Phoenix had made on that that SRF caught. So it needs to be re-approved. I don't think it's a dollar amount or anything. But then there's not payout 27 that they would like to get sent also.

October 5 is our next meeting.

I don't know what to do about that. Unless we have another meeting. I don't want to have a meeting. Well, and I don't know if it's something you've been... Basically, it's the ones that you're going to have to sign. It's not the one that Lauren signs.

So can we say to go ahead and sign that?

I would say if you guys could... 26 and 27? If I remember correctly, they are 26 and 27.

I'm just going to ask for a motion for the new clerk to be able to go ahead and sign number DLZ, right?

No, they are Phoenix payouts. Phoenix payouts.

Okay, Phoenix payouts. Number 26 and 27.

26 and 27. That's pretty much it. This is for things that have already been... The one is, yes. The one is a... It's fixing something that Phoenix had put on the form wrong. The 27 is a new one for... I don't know if it should be this month. This month or last month. What's that?

He just sent them this morning. It was a 7,000-something that was supposed to be already planned and coming.

So they're asking for the resolution approving special purchase, which was approved by the board for record purposes.

No, that's just your stuff. Okay. There should be a couple more about them.

They need the bonds information. Let's see. Please see attached DLPs that invoice 611158 along with the associated SRF disbursement request form. Once the invoice has been approved, if you could please sign the bottom of page one of the disbursement request form and return, I can pass along the invoice to SRF. It is invoice 17, that looks like. Not prior to report 27. Okay, 27. Okay. Bill amount $7,495. Yes, I will propose that we do that. Okay.

All in favor, aye. Aye. And the 26 just needs to be read.

Just resign and resubmit it. Yes. Resign and submit it. Error on Phoenix side, right? Error.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

All right. Thank you. The last thing I got is I want to make a correction from last meeting. It was brought up that We had a 30% water loss last year. So I went through my, I didn't have the paperwork last week. I don't want to misspeak, but in 2025, this is my, off of my IFA water audit that is sent in, we pumped a total of 21 million, 21.208 million gallons of water in 2025. We had a loss of 1,584,100 gallons of water, which comes to a water loss of 7.47%. It is way off from 30%. Okay. So I... What's that? I'm sorry. What percentage? 7.47% was our water loss for 2025. And I... I did also call the Alliance and ask, I wanted to find out what, if there was a percentage rate that the state or IDAM or EPA gives us that is an allowable percentage for water loss. And I had told them we were, I was, it was brought up that we had 30% water loss. And he chatted from the Alliance told me, he goes, if you have a 25% water loss rate, When we turned in our audit, we would be under review right now.

Okay.

So we are, I just wanted, so you guys know that we are way under that.

Okay. Yay, that's a win. Yes. What does that mean, by the way?

Like a water loss? Basically, that's anything from flushing hybrids, basically, that you can't account for. Because Cynthia accounts for the meters, You know, in our system, there are little leaks everywhere. You know, nothing is 100%. But, you know, now we keep track of flushing. If we have main breaks, that's why fire-required water slips are so important.

Yeah. And that's why I brought up the whole water slip thing. Like, even also, here's the other thing. The training water. Training water. Mm-hmm. i believe we should give them training water are you getting water as long as but then there it'll be written out in an agreement that that training water there has to be water slips that go with that training water because we have to have that to account for that so we don't get audited okay well we get audited well i mean so they don't show up because they're like something's not right yeah um And this is something I've told over for a while. Water bills, I think, should be paid for, like actual water bills. But I believe that the training should be possibly something that we decide to go ahead and give them. I think that has been discussed with all of us before, with all of us, and with Lori being away all the time those are things i'm throwing at her as we're like passing each other right on a text or a telephone or whatever and she she is in a yes for that yeah so i agree i think something needs to be there needs to be a real piece of paper that states we are willing to do this but you have to do this and so that's where we're at with that so we need to talk to the lawyer about drawing something if I'm not mistaken I think it says in that ordinance excluding training water so yes we're moving forward on that I think I would rather make a decision, I'm tired of not making decisions. So we need, because we need to fix what's going on.

So does that mean she will pay for back water bills? That's a whole separate discussion.

Because she's not paying them now, and that's a whole separate item.

Well, I think things should be resolved before you move forward with any other decision. I don't know how you can let this slide. Well, it's my opinion.

She's also, she's working with utilities people and the water clerk and that's where I'm at on that one. Because this is like water bills that were a long time ago, some of them a very long time, even before her, some of them were.

Customers get shut off when they don't pay their water bills. Yes, I know. Right, Joe?

Yeah. Yeah. Is there anything else with water that anybody wants to talk about?

Nope, that's all I had to say. Okay. You're welcome.

Just pile more on me. Because now we're going to talk budgets after fall festival, so. Has everybody turned in their budgets to you? So we have police. We need utilities department. We need Carol. It's in process. Mine? I gave you mine. Yeah, but it won't let me do anything with it. It's like a JPEG.

It's just a picture I sent you. It's a picture of the...

I know. How am I supposed to print it all normal?

I can't even ask Cindy to print one. I can't print anything. I email Cindy because she's got to print it. I'm not allowed to send an email to her to print it. Daniel was supposed to send me a copy of that, and she didn't. Yeah, he printed my copy. He's got her copy. He's got my signed copy of it.

Or we could have made a copy of it, but she accidentally sent it to me. I'll see him tomorrow, so I will make sure I have him. I have it. I do have it so I can look at it while we're talking.

And honestly, the RDC doesn't have to send one in. That's true. We did discuss that before. It is nice to look at them. Peace, you guys.

Thanks for that. Thanks for teasing your favorite town vice president. Okay, so I have it. I do have that. I just can't read most of it, just except the numbers. So Fall Festival. Cindy said that everything is right on course right now with everybody getting in there. Thanks, Who's Coming. We still have a few people that have normally come, but have not. She's gonna contact them. I wanted to make sure that, because usually Lori's the one on top of that, because she's here during the day, and I never get to see or hear anything for meetings. So I heard there was a meeting today. Does anyone wanna talk about the meeting that was today?

Yeah, so we had a meeting today. We went through vendors. I think we're at 48 vendors currently. I think last year we had a little over 50, but a lot of them were last-minute turn-ins. Food vendor-wise, there was a lot more food vendors, and they're all varying than what we have. I think last year we had eight, and that's what I submitted for the health department. I submit the commit to the health department desk 30 days prior. with the vendors. Of course, that was already done. That was done two weeks ago. I always submit that every year. That just has to be in place. Then we can add vendors to it up to five days prior to the event. We have several more in the past week. I'll get those added tomorrow.

I think Jerry had two to call. They called one and they were

but I can't remember which one it was. So initially it was Ridgedale Ministries always says elephant ears, and they were not going to be able to do it this year, so then he recommended another gentleman to be able to do it, and Terry talked with him, and the way it sounded like he would be able to make the elephant ears.

As far as all the facilities that we've got to do, everything is pretty set up for the layout and marketing. out of the parking lot, let it out of the barn, the tent set up, the barricades for the streets. Let's see what else. There's about 12 different things on there we've got to do.

And the DJs are already set for during the day and then in the afternoon. I think it's around 3 o'clock that we do it, if I remember right, for changeover and then it goes to the black band.

We're having a more strong hayride instead of a tractor. That should be kind of cool.

That sounds fun. I like that. Um, one thing we did not decide was whether to do t-shirts again. We did, we decided. Nobody made a decision.

Yeah, I was going to check with Devin. I'll have him do a couple designs and then we can make a decision from there.

Okay.

But I think everything's on the go.

Is there anything that I need to do?

Nothing yet. Nothing yet.

I love that answer.

Yeah. I'm glad to know that makes me feel better because going into this week, I felt very lost about the Fall Festival. Because I hadn't really gotten to... Usually I get messages or emails from her, from Lori, telling me kind of where it's at and what's going on. And I haven't because of everything going on, so I feel better things. Because I was like, oh God, tell me what's going on because... I don't know what she's doing and what she doesn't do because she always just does it, right? It's been like that for a long time. So I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. If somebody needs something from me, let me know.

I think we're all right. We got the moms today. Okay. And we're playing next week. So I'm doing the festival.

But that's okay. That's good. I mean, we're in an open clock session, so it's fine. It's whatever.

It makes me sad that summer's coming here. Okay.

I do love a good fall, though. Hopefully we'll have a nice fall. With a little rain. Yeah.

I mean, there's been a lot of loudness here.

You put that into the universe. There have been times where it was 45 degrees when we showed up, and it was so cold. We don't want that this year.

No. I won't be here, but... Oh, that's of course going to be. I'll be in Alabama. No vacation. So I cannot work. Especially when the festivals are on.

You gotta work.

Yeah. So what? When? October 10th.

I'll be there. Yes. I'm still working on that.

Yeah. Yeah, no matter what, we'll be able to borrow one, but I'm still working on trying to get a 75.

Is there a door game that day for a game?

Yeah.

Got it. Is there a home game that day?

Yes. Okay.

Okay, good. There was something I just lost that I was going to ask about. So let's move to the budgets for a minute. I am used to being led by the clerk on the budgets. Because, and you're not used to it yet. So have you talked to Vicki at all about some things?

A little bit.

Because we are behind. We normally do this in the summer. And with Jacqueline leaving in July, we didn't do anything. And so we were stuck in limbo with that. So I'm used to it being led along about when we do what for budgets. So like how long does it take once we present the budgets and then how long do we have to wait legally to go ahead and adopt the budgets? That sort of thing.

That's the stuff I can't remember. 10 days.

So that's why I was hoping to have everybody's budgets tonight so that we could actually do that. But I don't have your budget.

Well, I will say this. Vicki and Daniel.

are coming tomorrow to help me with the budgets that I need to do like our salaries and all that other stuff and our raises and how long we're going from there.

Daniel did it last year. He just basically I think Jack just emailed him copies of our budgets. He put the numbers in and sent them right send them right back really quickly.

Yeah. So he was like, I'm free Friday afternoon.

And I'm like, so am I. So we wanted to go, yeah, we know what our, so they used to tell us there was only a percentage that we could raise like employee incomes per year or something weird. But I need to find out about all of that because, you know, you and I talked about the percentage that we discussed.

Yeah.

We're actually going to, oh, Usually we would only do 2 to 4%, but we wanted to ask for a 5% income for employees. Knowing that we're not going to get the 5% because it's very rare that we get what we asked for. So that's what we're trying to do.

Yes.

And town board, we just asked that we have a $500 raise on each of us. Only for the fact that, like, we're always doing this stuff, like, the parade meetings. You know what I mean? The parades and the 12th Festival and the Halloween and whatever. And I realize there's other people that do it. There's other people. There's no ways to be able to do it, right? Unless we make them employees or something. So we're looking at that. We'll see. Will they give it to us? We don't know. It's just a request. And we've never really, I think we raised ours once in the whole 12 years that we've been. So I think we did a percentage once.

Yeah, normally four percent is typically good.

Right. So we only went up like that because of the cost of living right now. And we know they're not going to give it to us. But we went, so we went above to see how far they would go. We were trying to push it, you know, to see how far they would go. Percentage was, so. On our end, that's our stuff. It's really nice that Carol provided me with the budgets for RDC. And they approved their budgets for $300,300. Is that right? And so that's $30,300 for debt. capital expenditures of $150,000, supplies and materials for $15,000, professional services for $100,000, and operating expenses for $5,000. Keep going $300,000, $300,000. Now, we all know they're also going to be doing a really great thing over here with the other barns.

We don't have enough money to do it, right?

Yeah, they're working on some of that. So that's where some of that stuff, I'm sure, right, comes in because you have your professional services.

So that is RDC. I have a couple. Yeah, I laid out for everybody.

Oh, that's very interesting.

So the Economic Development Commission projected budget is $92,000. They are willing to put away Leo's Hillside, the pocket park over here on the other side of the wetlands, $3,000. Newton Park Sports Complex project.

They're starting. So Newton Park is starting the three-phase project. It's close to, I think, total end of all three phases, almost $24 million. Okay, 14. I thought 24, but okay. Yeah.

Well, somewhere between 14 and 24.

So right now, they're actually getting ready to start phase one, which is going to be their senior field, which of course IU, Bethel, LaVille uses. That's going to be a turf field. And then the soccer field, they're They're doing a new soccer field, and that will all be turfed as well, which will actually be able to, between both of those, extend their season quite a bit longer. And then phase two, there's a lot more things where they want as far as getting more of the fields turfed, which as far as from an economic standpoint, again, lengthening that season, bringing more people in because they can do a lot more bring people in from, you know, much further distances, New York, California for these baseball tournaments. So then you're, you know, as far as economically bringing a lot more people in. I know the 10,000 wasn't much in the whole grand scheme of things, but it's enough to help with their planning and it helps showing for them, for them getting grant money as a basically in-kind

So that's $10,000. Are you giving that to them? Yeah, we put it just in case. Just in case. We can offer something to help. That's very nice. Okay. Fall Festival, $4,000. Thank you.

CULT PARK EXPENSES, $6,000. THANK YOU. BY THE WAY, WE ARE STILL LOOKING FOR PARK BOARD PRESIDENT WHO HAS TO LIVE IN TOWN IN ORDER FOR US TO UPDATE OUR PARKS PLANE IN ORDER TO GET GRANTS TO FIX OUR PARKS UP EVEN MORE. JUST PUTTING THAT OUT THERE INTO THE COMMUNITY.

SOME OF THAT MONEY FOR THE PARK IS WE'RE STILL LOOKING AT A WATER PARK.

YEAH, I REMEMBER. It would be nice to have a splash pad.

Yes. You forget you got, we have Christmas toilets and stuff. We have the Christmas in the park. We got a party in the park. Right. Any upgrades that we can do, hopefully, that actually we need new playground equipment to this benefit. Yes.

It has to start to fade out and look kind of rough. So. Yeah. We talked about how to do that before, but now we need a park's We need a board of five. Maybe that's one of my retirement plans.

We actually got to do a comprehensive park plan. We're supposed to do it every five years.

I think it went out two or four years ago. I can't remember how long ago. We had already hit our time frame, and then we can't update it without a parks board.

They would not let us legally. Right. So it's in there someplace, but I don't know the words I have. I can't tell you. Okay, I have it somewhere, I think, at my house. Keep an eye out. I have it.

If you have not seen my office.

It's probably in the room behind you.

So next is wages for the coordinator, which is Terry, who helps run the barn and the seasonal workers that are needed, $22,000. Town flowers, mulch, fertilizer, $4,000 to help beautify the downtown. Maintenance barn expenses, fuel, oil, electric, et cetera, $10,000. community center, maintenance equipment, landscaping, $8,000, and miscellaneous EDC projects as needed and needs as requested, $25,000, which I wholeheartedly agree with that also because if it wasn't for the EDC many, many times, we would not be able to do some of the things that we do. They generously pay for and offer help and income to run a lot of stuff or to buy things. Like, yeah, like they do the things that we can't do.

Over your window and the door and the mailbox. That storm that we had, it's still living. We need to get it pulled back up and safe. In front of the imposter's insurance.

that Tuesday it blew the tree over. That was a total of $92,000.

It says the above list of items are for

projections for projects slated to be accomplished and completed in 2027. A contingency fund should be set aside for projects that are not able to be identified going into the new year. The ADC continues to practice a progressive approach to funding projects for the future good and improvements for the town of Lakeville. So, thank you.

Well, we're, you know, sure like to do something new with carbon. We have no sense of bank in Nebraska or someplace home to it now.

The RDC could actually purchase it if we had money. I could legally purchase it and do something with it, but I don't have the cash to do it.

It would be nice if we could do that if it did go to tax and then we wait.

Is that correct? It's already gone to tax?

It's on the tax sale.

Can you do that without it being on your projected whatever?

Well, when you buy it, I think you could buy it from a dealer in Texas, but the owner has... Well, I said, but at least, well, and it depends on how much the tax is.

Sometimes you're not even that bad. You know what I mean? It's just they're letting you go. So they think it's the best way to do it, right? Just let it go, have somebody buy it, and then they don't do anything again. But maybe it... Would be worth it to do it anyways, but I don't know how your guys is. I remember, I just remember from a long time ago about your list. Does that have to be turned in when you do your budget?

I'm not sure. I'd have to find out. Okay. There's a new antique store opening up next door to

What was the name of the black building? Yeah, we discussed it. And she needs a sign, so we're probably going to take...

I deferred her to him. Yes, I'm actually really excited about this fall antique shop.

Okay, so when is it? The black building. 123 South Michigan. Right beside it.

Holiday Associates. And then next to it would be American Cafe.

Two from Jack's.

Two from Jack's.

I've lived here since 2017. So I'm really excited about it and I cannot wait. I cannot wait for it.

And I wish for it. Multitudes of success. We're definitely going to work on sign entrances for both things. Like Bill.

While we're talking about that, have we heard anything else about old Anna's building?

No, they haven't been there since before garage sale days. And I know people have contacted them still trying to buy it and mark them.

Oh, yeah. That's your friend, April?

Not my friend. It's my acquaintance.

The side looks really bad on this side.

We would love to paint a mural on that side. I know, we talked about that for years, right? That would be so cool.

Well, they never finished it. Well, now they have a... Yeah. They had... Breaking down. What do you call that?

Fall.

They had... Eventually...

construction, but he never finished the end of it because he was going to add on to that building. And so he never finished the, what do you call it? Drive-in system. Yeah, drive-in. There's other names for it, but never finished it. That looks really bad. You know, I was wondering, why can't we ask them to just remove that horrible

soffit on the front of that building because it just looks like it's the soffit on the front of the dilapidated building.

The building department already did that when we had it deemed a dangerous building.

Asked them to remove it?

Yeah. But they were having the same issue with what we were because of the owner. But no, building department, that was back in.

Well, how do they have all these things that they say we can do, but yet we really can't do anything about this? Like, I don't understand. Especially in a town center.

So we have building department is the one that has to condemn a building and label it as unsafe building and then go from there.

Like I feel like if we could just get the awning, the little awning thing that comes out off of it and fix that a little bit, at least it would look in the window. That's really all we're asking right now is to make it presentable, right? A little bit more presentable until they figure out what they're doing with the building. I just don't understand why that's so hard. In a town center, it's very important. Yeah, absolutely. And it's been driving me nuts for two years. Everybody.

Okay. Okay.

Enough about that. I'm going to get myself worked up. So I'm going on to the lease budget. So last year's proposed budget for 2026 was $115,243.27. No, $156,000. Oh, sorry. $156,000, that was just for your... That was just for staffing.

Your staffing. $156,778.20.

This year we're asking $183,458.20. So the only thing I changed this year compared to 2020

4% raise for employees. And then the fuel, I went up on fuel just because of the way fuel costs keep continually rising. And I only raised that $2,000. But the biggest thing of change in staffing would be to, right now, it was budgeted out for $20,000 for part-time deputy. And of that, corporation um so i'd like to actually double that twenty thousand up to forty thousand um which would actually give us then an average it breaks down to an average almost 40 hours a week for part-time hours for part-time coverage because it was really nice during the summer when i was able to actually ship just as ours and we were able to actually have somebody on um then in the evenings so so that was the only change that i made in everything i see that so

You asked for raises. So 2026, Marshall is at 25.33 per hour and you've raised it to 26.33, which is a dollar. And then the Deputy Marshall went up, it was at 20.88 per hour up to 21.71 per hour. So that's an increase. And then the part-time Marshalls, Increasing the 20,000 for extra coverage coverage and then the. Which I was surprised that he didn't actually add more for fuel than what you did, but he only added 2000 dollars from last year's fuel bill.

There's a lot of times we can start off with our lease funds as well.

color the car is doing, everything is fine, you don't need it. When's the next time you need a car?

We had already ordered one because we had gotten on this budget here.

Still nothing. Did you check on that?

Yes.

It was put in for its due, so it was supposed to be done. It was supposed to start being built after 4th of July, but I don't want to be saying this, but because they break the payment up into three payments, and then the final payment is a dollar.

Okay, thank you. Thank you for supplying that detailed list of budget forms, too. So all we're waiting for is our actual budget to be set up on paper, okay? And Joe, do you have any budget?

I just plugged in numbers. Yeah. Oh, I can go back and check those?

Right.

They can help you. I'm sure Vicki can help you with that. Oh, yeah.

And then I just want to make sure we have enough time to go ahead and adopt everything. So the next meeting, we have to do something. We have to do like the official presentation, right? Yeah. And then we can adopt it.

It just has to be, the adoption has to be done before the end of September or October. Got it. So we can do that on our second meeting.

Yeah. Okay. So next meeting, I want it so that we have everybody's everything. Yeah. And then we actually do the hearing, the budget hearing.

So I have to have all of the budget stuff in by next Friday for us to be able to do the hearing by October 5th. Got it. Okay. And then after that. Next year won't be so bad.

It'll be much better because we used to years ago, we literally had full budget meetings where we're just, we actually had meetings that were budget meetings at the old fire station upstairs. We used to do it and everybody was there. And, um, if we would start in June because we would have a couple of meetings to basically talk about everything and then actually have it in the We always like to do it sooner than later. I would rather be done with our budgets and everything by like August. Because by the end of August, then you have all that time before everything has to be in. And if there's any discussions that anybody's unhappy with or whatever.

Next year.

Next year. At least that's how we used to do it. But the last few have been kind of awesome. pushing it and I don't like that feeling no I would rather because I'm like I told you the other day I'm stressing over this yeah I understand I can only imagine because I'm and we're trying to throw things at her hey this this this to try to help her but yet a lot of stuff she has to do through Vicky so or so Is there anything else while we're here? Anybody have anything else?

You have our pay ready, or all figured out, right?

Oh, yeah, I did mention to her about our... Yeah, she knows. I told her about it. We're going to do... Yeah, the 500 for each. Oh, yeah, but he's talking about... Our quarterly pay. Our Anton coming, our check. Yes, because that gets done next week. Yes.

I mentioned to her that it's usually the last one.

It makes it easier. We do the last one of the quarter and then that quarter is closed out and we're done. We only wait until the next month, you know, to do it. And I will have Vicki help me with that. I mentioned it to her last week. And I figured that Laurie was probably wondering too. Anything else? I don't think there's anything. Good job on trying to figure things out. I know it's a lot. So thank you, everybody. I'm going to close the meeting.