Common Council - Regular Meeting

open the common council meeting. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Carol's multitasking tonight. Okay, roll call. Carol, Steve Beardsley, present. Isaac Chavez, present. Taylor Krenshaw, present. John Large, present. Robert Stevens, present. Clarence Woren, present. Eric Woods, present. Okay. Next on the agenda, we have the minutes from the October 14th, 2025 regular meeting. I move we approve the minutes from October 14th, 2025. Second. Roll call, please. Steve Beardsley. Um, abstain. I had to see if I was Isaac Chavez.

Hi. Taylor Krenshaw. Hi. John Large. Hi. Robert Stevens. Clarence Woren. Hi. Eric Woods. Hi. Okay. Next, we have public comments. Did you leave? No. He's out there. Okay. Um, next we have the public hearing on ordinance number 25-25. I am going to recess the council meeting at 7:02 p.m. for the public hearing on ordinance 2525. Carol, do you want to talk to us about that?

Yes, that is an additional appropriation that we've requested to cover. I don't have my cheat sheet. I'm so sorry. for Yeah, it's for 123,000 and that's for the general fund to help cover um is it insurance? Yes, insurance cost through the rest of the year or liability workers cost. Yeah, liability. Thank you. My cheat sheet disappeared.

Is there any public comments or is there any comments or questions concerned? Okay, I'm going to dismiss a public hearing at 7:03 and reopen the council meeting. Next on the agenda, we have ordinance number 25-25. This is on second reading. Make a motion we pass number 2525. Second. Roll call, please. Steve Beardsley. Hi, Isaac Chavez. Hi, Taylor Crrenshaw. Hi, John Large. Hi, Robert Stevens. Hi, Clarence Warren. Hi, Eric Woods.

Hi. Okay. Ordinance number 25-25 passes on second reading. Uh, next we have a public hearing on the okra grant that we are um working on right now. And I'm going to go ahead and recess the council meeting at 7:04 and open the public hearing at this time. And I believe you're going to talk to us. Is that right, Tim Carson? Yes.

Okay. So, I have a spiel that I have to read for basically public record. Um, if you have questions, feel free to interrupt me, but I'll be glad to translate any of this to plain English once we're done. All right. So, my name is Tim Carson. I'm here from the North Central Indiana Regional Planning Council. Uh, regional planning council is essentially a nonprofit semi-governmental agency. So we function using county tiff funds and our board of directors is comprised of various elected officials uh from Clinton, Typton, Howard, Cass, Miami and Fulton counties. Um so we basically do grant writing and administration primarily for uh projects that are needed for local governments. Uh in this case, what we're working on is a comprehensive grant, which is basically um a way of taking a look at what your strengths and weaknesses are at a city and trying to focus on a 20-year plan and guide you through primarily the first three to five years of that 20-year plan. Um and also advise on a frequency of updating that plan and coming back and redoing um certain aspects of it as you go. So, here's my spiel. The planning grant is a grant program administered by the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs or OCRA. It is funded with federal community development block grant or CDBG dollars. These grants support a variety of projects that benefit either low to moderate income persons or eliminate slum or blighten communities. In order to be eligible for the community development block grant program, we need a lead applicant that is a unit of government, which would be a city, county, or incorporated town. In this case, the city of Frankfurt is serving as the lead applicant. Uh the project must meet one of the national objectives and be an eligible activity under the CDBG program. It must comply with applicable state and federal laws and regulations. Uh the eligible national objective for this program is a benefit to low and moderate income persons. Um the city of Frankfurt's low and moderate income percentage is 51%. Which is literally exactly where you need to be. If you were even a tenth of a point less, we would have to do an

income survey for you. Uh the total amount of CDBG funds available uh there are approximately $1.5 million available each year through this program. The maximum award for comprehensive planning for a municipality of more than 10,000 residents is $60,000. In this case, the city of Frankfurt is seeking the full $60,000. A local match of at least 8% of the tojo total project cost is required. Additional inind contributions can be counted as local match up to 5% of the project cost with a maximum of $25,000. In this case, the community development and housing needs of the applicant are comprehensive planning. Proposed activities for the project include the assessment at minimum of land use, government and fiscal capacity, public facilities and services, placemaking which includes community wellness, culture and education, economic development, housing, transportation, agriculture, natural resources, parks and recreation, broadband access, historic and archaeological resources, and hazard mitigation. uh proposed amount of funds that will be used to benefit low and moderate income persons. Uh the amount proposed will be used for activities uh is approximately $30,600 based on your most recent HUD census data. Uh local funds to be used for the project total $40,000 to be derived from the local general fund. Uh there will be no displacement of any persons or businesses associated with this activity. Uh the grantee must also respond to any written comments that are received during public hearing process. Um, at a minimum, the grantee must indicate that comments will be considered and provide an explanation of how comments will be resolved.

Kimberly, did your office get any written comments? As usual, I didn't get any phone calls. Nobody called to check in. Um, the application is due this Friday, November 14th, and award announcements are uh estimated for January of 2026. Uh, we have a sign-in sheet. If anyone got missed, I will pass it around before I leave. That's the end of the spiel. I'm now free for questions. I have any questions for him? Kimberly and Tim have been working very hard on this, haven't you? It's And I presume since all of you knew OCR or OKRA, you've already been briefed on what the process is and what the planning is. Yeah. Um

we had a committee put together and we met was it one time, two times? So, we had a selection committee that was created to review uh potential engineering firms that uh sent us uh qualifications. Uh the city selected American Structure Point as the firm that would do the plan uh post award. You were on that right, Robert?

Yeah. So then um what the process will be is essentially um once you're awarded we'll have a few steps we need to get through to get to what's called release of funds where essentially they say okay the money is officially yours you can sign contracts at that point you'd sign a contract with American Structure point and they would come in and what uh what you probably do first off is uh form a comprehensive planning committee which could be comprised of the same people that worked in the selection committee. um you might want to consider branching it out a little bit more. Um typically you want to keep your selection committee on the small side. Um you want to get your comprehensive planning committee on the larger side just to make sure you're capturing everything that the city really needs and has to say. Um they would do an additional survey of the residents of Frankfurt. Uh they would also engage in some public engagement. Um anytime you have any kind of community event, they're going to go round up information, make it known that there's comprehensive planning. Essentially, the the goal is to find out what the residents of the city think needs to be done to ensure that Frankfurt is successful. Um, and then they're going to assess what you have that's unique to Frankfurt. It's kind of hard to describe a comprehensive plan because they're very individualized for the city. What one city has to bring to the table, another city might be completely different. And that's what they want to focus on is what your actual strengths are. They're not trying to mold you into something you're not. They're trying to take what you have and make it better. So, what you'll end up with is essentially a 200page document or so that's going to break down those 13 items that I listed plus any additional ones. If there are additional items that you wish them to study in addition to the 13, that'll be part of that process when they work with the comprehensive plan and the residents and they may decide you need to incorporate another chapter into your plan. They'll give you, like I said, a 20-year very much course estimate of where you can focus on being in 20 years and then they'll dial it in for the next three to five years and they'll give you some kind of guidelines on how often you should be updating that plan, what steps you

should take to update that plan, etc. Um, if in five to seven years you get to the point where you feel like some of that information is outdated, we can always circle back around and update a plan with more OC money. So, and Kimberly, you did receive some letters of support, correct? I have one for Oh, okay. I got one from a Main Street organization and one from Shan Sheridan. Yes. Okay. So, more incoming. Okay. I think some department heads and Yeah. So, we have some Okay. Did you have anything you wanted to add to this? I'm excited for Friday.

Okay. As far as the second committee you was talking about, what size is average town our size? Pardon? For the larger committee, what what would be the normal for town our size?

I mean, there is no normal. I would recommend um you try and identify at least certain subgroups of the city to make sure they're all represented. So, for example, um if you feel like you can bring one person for first responders that can speak for fire and police, you can make that one person. If you feel like both of those agencies need to be represented separately, bring them both. Um again, it's going to depend on what you think you need to do. Um the harder part besides your department heads or various groups within the city is trying to identify community resident leaders. Um, you want to look for what we call your champions. Uh, your people that are going to help you engage the community. Um, your people that are going to basically help funnel the voice of thousands of people down into one person. That way you can get what you need to get from the residents without necessarily having, you know, 10,000 person meetings. That's your harder part.

Okay. Is there any other questions, comments? To more directly answer your question, I would say a dozen to 15 is probably a good minimum for you to focus on. I wouldn't I wouldn't want to take it too far above 20 to 25 because again, you're going to have to wrangle those people for fairly regular meetings. So,

good. Okay. Anybody else have any questions or comments? All right. Thanks, guys. Okay. Thank you, Tim. I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing at 713 and reopen the council meeting. So, is there anything else, Kimberly, we need to do on this? Before you leave, get your signatures.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, is there any unfinished business anyone has tonight? I think we do have some visitors here tonight. Are you from Crash? Good. I'm glad you came here this evening. I think I come out there on Thursday afternoon. I'm going to come out and talk with you. I think at the high school. So glad to have you this evening. What day are you going? Thursday. Thursday. Thursday. Yeah. Is that okay?

Yeah. I was just wonder I think that's what was on my schedule. I think I'm going Thursday for crash and then I'm going Friday for um I don't what is it a leadership or it's a senior class, right? Something. Yeah. Yeah. On government. Yeah. Okay. Next we have new business and we have the 2026 meeting schedule. Carol, do you want to talk to us about that?

Yes. This follows our our normal pattern of meeting the second Monday of each month. I think there's one exception for 2026 in October. As usual, it conflicts with the Columbus Day holiday. So, we move the meeting to a Tuesday, but that's reflected on this schedule. Other than that, it's the uh standard procedures. Is everyone okay with that schedule? Do we need to approve this? I think we can just do it by consensus. Yeah, you can do it by consensus.

I'm good with it. Thank you. Okay. Is everyone in favor? Anybody opposed? Okay. Okay. I'll get that sent to the media. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Is there anything else that we have this evening? Yes. The habitat. Yes, please.

Okay. Um, so Kim Deck from Habitat for Humanity approached the city a couple of months ago and wanted to talk about the possibility of um some of the empty vacant lots in Frankfurt. Uh, she reached out to the board of works and the board of works um worked with her uh and kind of vetted the viability of the lots and things like that. Um, they looked at um whether or not they could build properties on those lots. They looked at what the proposed structures would look like. They looked at the um way that the city acquired the lots, both of which were from tax sale. And they determined that it was their recommendation that um you all have the opportunity to determine whether or not those lots be donated or sold for a a more affordable price to Habitat for Humanity. There are two lots that they are seeking. Uh, one is 509 Deli Avenue and one is 758 Magnolia Avenue. Um, both of those lots they would be able to build on. Um, they had uh at one point shown the board of works their plans and things like that. So, they had different houses that they could put on them and they are seeking um either donation or they are seeking uh purchase at a lower price. the board of works after hearing what Kim had to say recommends um donation, but ultimately that is the council's decision. So, I recommended that Kim go to the board of works and kind of get their uh vetting, have them vet it, and then bring it to the council for your decision. Um you don't need to make a decision tonight on that if you don't want to. If you have questions for Kim, we can certainly invite her to a future meeting. Um but those are two lots that are presently available in the city. um they've been vacant for some time and um so that's the information.

Okay, this is Habitat, but that would they be actually personally owned? So they're added to the tax role? Yeah, so uh Habitat would build the houses and then they would be um owned by private residences and 455 East Washington's on there, but there is no there's no easement, so they can't access the property for appropriate off- streetet parking. So that one they have taken off the list. So, it would just be the two uh the 509 deli and the 758 Magnolia. Would this serve as some inind donation? I know they were looking for something. Um I think their organization had to show skin in the game from the city last time we had the conversation about North John Street.

I'm not sure. That would be a question that Kim would have to answer. Um whether or not that had anything to do with that. They had just identified they went through and looked at all of the vacant lots in the city and they looked at viability for um construction on those lots and those were the ones that they were looking into. So I can't answer that question. Sorry, Eric. But but if they need it at the assessed value would qualify. Okay. I make the motion we go ahead and donate these two properties to Habitat. I second. Roll call, please. Steve Beardsley. I. Isaac Chavez. Hi, Taylor Krenshaw. Hi, John Large. Hi, Robert Stevens. Hi, Clarence Warren. Hi, Eric Woods. Hi.

And then, can I also please have a motion to allow the mayor to sign any necessary documents, including the deeds. So, move. Thank you. Second. Roll call, please. Steve Beardsley. Hi. Isaac Chavez. Hi. Taylor Crrenshaw. Hi, John Large. Hi, Robert Stevens. Clarence Worvin. Hi, Eric Woods. Hi. Thank you. I'll let Kim know. Thank you. I'm sure they appreciate it. And then they're also having the ribbon cutting on Baldwin Court the 17th. Is it 1:00? One o'clock. Mhm. One o'clock. Yes. So, that's on North John, right? Yes. Off of North John. North end of

one o'clock. What day? 17th. So that should be for good for our community with some extra housing now that we're going to be able to get. So okay, anything else in your in that? Oh, just really quickly in your packet I put um council members seminar paperwork. You may have received that on your own as well, but if you need to register for this, let me know. I'll be glad to help you with that. Where where's this held at? I think it's virtual. It doesn't specifically say. I was just looking, but I

I believe it is virtual. There was uh an email that said that there was a virtual option at least to attend. So, yeah, cuz I was looking for an address. They typically send you an email with a link in it that that you can access, okay, the classes that way. Okay. And it's only a 20 minute lunch, so that's kind of a sign that it's virtual, too. Okay. Any other questions on that? Okay. Matt, what do you have for us?

All right. Good evening, everybody. Just real quick, I want to kind of give everybody an update on station 4. Um, I know there hasn't been a lot of updates because there hasn't been a lot of things going on, but kind of give you uh kind of an idea where we're at today. Obviously, we know in July we did a groundbreaking. It's taken them up until literally the last couple weeks to get the ground um to where they can start to do the footers. They had to lift the ground 4 feet just in case anybody did not know that. That was something they had to do out there is actually lift the level the ground up 4T. They got a lot of the drainage done and installed. But the biggest thing and news is that they actually have poured concrete um last week and we're hoping to get some more of that concrete poured over the next few days, especially with the weather changing again later this week. um some timelines. We're still working on some timelines with Envoy, try to find out where we're at um where we're looking at this project being completed, but one of the things is they have a new uh project manager that's on the site um out there by the name of Mr. Our and he seems very dedicated in trying to get this project back up on uh back up and running on schedule like it needs to be. So, we did have a talk with envoy um last week about, you know, some of our concerns um some of our delays we've had and I I believe this individual really is motivated to kind of get some things put together and and get it back on track.

Matt, was the uh the ground grading? Did that get into our contingency funding?

It did not. It it has not. Um the only thing that they're looking at right now, um there's two things that's they're kind of working on, it's been in every single planet we've had, we've we have a meeting the first Thursday of every month. So every month they come in, they talk about some of it, and the same two um issues are on there still is one is the hydrant location. Um per our uh code, fire code, there has to be a hydrant um on another location. That wasn't in the plan. So we expressed to them that that needed to be taken care of. They did they did identify that was a problem of the architects that they did not find that code. So due to that I think they're going to cover that cost. The only other thing that was there about the contingency was the driveway being moved. And I think we all knew that about there was originally two driveways. They had to take one out because INDOT wanted us to be at least a uh I think it was 100 ft off of State Road 28 for a drive and um we've we got that accomplished. So, I talked to them about that this this past Thursday. They explained to me that there was just a the reason it's still on there every month is based only on the fact that they've just been working on getting the two plans mixed together to get it back on track with the plans. Um, I have seen the new plans. If you guys want to visit, you guys are welcome to visit out there um at the site at any time. They're obviously there Monday through Friday. He says he gets there around 7:00 a.m. Usually leaves around 4:00 depending on what um project they're doing that day. But the only thing I they do ask is that you please stop by the white trailer. Um there is a signage sheet hanging up there beside the door. Sign your name there and then uh somebody will escort you out to kind of walk you around, but you're always welcome to stop out there as a counsel and take a look at it.

Any questions about it? Thanks for the information. I will give you the information as it as it comes this way. So, every council meeting if I got some additional information, I'll be more than happy to present it to you. Anything about when it's going to be under roof? Um, so everything's optimistic right now. I do know that this new individual out there, his goal is to have this under roof by Christmas. Um, I don't build these types of facilities, so I don't know how plausible that's going to be, but the truth is is that's what his goal is.

Good luck. Um, I do know that they're planning on doing the pad sometime after the week after Thanksgiving is their plan to do it. So, sounds like they're going to move. And I've been out there all week and there there's quite a few people out there working. So, okay. Okay. Thank you for the update. Appreciate it. Is there anything else? Motion made. Good. Do I have a second? Okay. So, we're going to go ahead and close the meeting and then we'll have a few minutes break here and then we'll go into the work session. So,