Town Council - Regular Meeting

Everyone, please rise for the pledge. 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. Thank you. Let the record reflect that uh Councilman Calhoun is absent this evening. All other council members are present and pastor Brown is here. Would you like to start us off with sir?

Be right. Our heavenly father we thanks for another day and father we have so many blessings and be thankful for our town and freedom that we have. Thank you for those who serve in so many different ways here in town. And father I want to thank you that we had a good Easter egg hunt recently. invites came and it was good time. Thank you for that. Ask for your guidance tonight in the town council meeting that you grant each member wisdom and especially if any important decisions need to be made. We thank you father for all this. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Uh our first order of business is a public hearing that was advertised for the cumulative what's it called? Cumotive capital capital fund. That ordinance has been available for review the public. Um and I don't see it in my packet actually. Okay, thank you.

Uh, ordinance number 2026-03-02, ordinance reestablishing cumul cumulative capital development fund under Indiana code 36-9-15.5. Uh, be it ordained and resolved by the Atlanta Town Council of Hamilton County, Indiana, that a need now exists for the reestablishment of a cumulative capital development fund for all uses as set out in Indiana code 36-9-15.5. Be it further ordained or resolved that this board will adhere to the provisions of Indiana code 36-9-15.5. The propo proposed fund will not exceed 0333 uh dollars on each $100 of assessed valuation for taxes payable in 2027 and 0.05 05 dollar on each $100 of assessed valuation for taxes payable in 2028 and thereafter continued until reduced or rescended. So that's 3 and a3 cents and 5 cents uh for 28. Uh be it further ordained and resolved that a certified copy of this ordinance or resolution shall be submitted to the department of local government finance of 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 duly adopted by the following vote of the members of said council said Atlanta town council this the 13th day of April 2026. So this is the uh ordinance that's uh been up for review and uh this is a public hearing. So are there any questions or comments from anybody tonight? said that on the 27 taxes payable on 27

taxes is it for the year 27 taxes payable? So the question is uh on the 2027 taxes is that when it would start? Yeah. Uh it says uh assess valuation for taxes payable in 2027. assessment year 26. So starting now is

it's already um we we approved the last one and so for like 2026 it's where our estimated um revenue that we'll get is like 4,000. So this is just reestablishing it at a little bit of a higher rate. You can only go up to 5 cents um is the um be established. So this is is establishing it up to like the 3 cents and then the 5 cents. So the 3 cents will be payable in 2027 for 2026. Okay. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Any other questions tonight? Okay. Does anybody uh have a motion for ordinance 2026-3-2?

I'll make that motion. I'll second. All in favor? I

I just use mine here. Yeah. All right. All right. Is there a motion to uh close our public hearing and continue with our regularly scheduled meeting?

We'll make that motion. Second. Second. All in favor? All right. Uh we have prior meeting minutes from council meeting on March 23rd. The only thing I saw in here is under uh the clerk treasury report is just a a comma in the wrong place on the $59,000 number. Yes. Oh, that's the only thing I saw. Any other additions or corrections? No. I'll make a motion we accept the minutes. Second. Okay. All in favor? I

I. And then we have uh minutes from the festival meeting the same night. Move that we approve these minutes. Festival meeting. I'll second. All in favor? I I All right, we'll proceed with reports. Oh, yes, we should have executive session and

Oh, I'm out of out of order here. Uh, we had an executive session um on March 24th at 4 p.m. that was advertised. Uh, no decisions were made in the executive session. uh it all occurred uh pursuant to the Indiana code and we have minutes for that. Move that we approve those. Second. All in favor? I I and then we had a special meeting uh the same day at 6 p.m. March 24th. Move that we approve those. Second.

All in favor? I I now we'll proceed with reports starting with Mr. Nicolo.

I don't really have much to say about the water utilities. Um me and Luke have been going over a lot of stuff. He's a big help. Uh we've been talking about flushing and when we're going to do that and um basically just getting in the routine of doing the daily rounds and collecting samples, getting that done. I was kind of wondering if the council's made any decision on the peerless inspections and cleaning of the wells or anything. Has everybody had a chance to examine those a little bit further since our we last discussed it? I have not but that as I recall the worst of the three was well poor and that one also has a a transducer has a transducer out in it too

but it's it's reduced capacity the most of the I think it was down to 27% efficiency or or loss 27% loss of efficiency how much was it to fix those I think 124 in my mind and it like 41,000 44 something like that. So that's they're going to pull the What are they going to do? They're going to pull the well. They're going to do the double disc scrubbing of the casing. Yeah. Probably ask to clean the casing and the screen and everything. And then uh put a new motor a new new pump. Sorry. New pump in since the pumps are Yeah, the motor is fairly new. 20 years old,

right? The pump itself is old. So, this is something that's going to have to be done eventually anyway, no matter what. It's just going to be nice to do one a year since all three of them are basically in the same shape. Well, for was $44,310. Isn't it going to be the season where we use the water the most in the upcoming next six months and would need people would be watering more for sure. Yeah. And would need more water capacity in the summer months than we would in the winter months. Is that true? Really how it works. But

people use more water in the summer than in the winter. We don't. But my question is too, sorry D interrupt here. If we did a cleaning, would that make it more efficient or proficient? Yes. What if we just did a cleaning and not replace the bump? Or if we would that be helpful at all and and what would the cost be or would it be would it not be worth it for them to come out do a clean pull the well? You know, they got to pull the motor and the pump. So, they don't want to do the pump if they are claiming that just makes sense to do it at the same time. I don't know what the cost is on the pump.

It's about 10,000. But their equipment, their rig coming out, pulling it up. I think it's 91 ft deep. I think the well is or 120 I think. I might have the wrong well in my head then. Yeah, one of the other ones I think is but that's I mean, they use a big crane and how long would they take to do it? When could they do it? Do you know? No, I don't I don't have that information. I know Tim Hill's just waiting to hear from me. Jennifer, do we have

Well, we would have to use We could use our depreciation. That's what that depreciation fund is for is for stuff like this. We have a balance of 95,157.

How much does that Which one is that?

It's the top one on the second page. So, we put in there about uh about $2,100 a month. So, about $24,000 a year. Um, is that accurate that that's how it gets fun? So we could do one this year, one next year, and skip a year and do one in the fourth year just out of that plan.

That makes sense. Or is it going to need quicker action than that? I think that's a fair judgment. Probably a good start. It's probably a good good plan. Spread it out over a few years. It's not something that needs to be done all at once. while they're here. I mean, I mean, obviously it would be best to do all three, but they were they're more efficient from reading that whole uh write up they did. The other two wells are more efficient. They've lost less than the other one.

Depreciation fund is too also where like we got our new trucks, you know, the new trucks came out of the depreciation fund. We don't want to have to,

right? be cutting it in half. I don't know as much about the water gen. So, if it needs to be done, I would say do it. If it doesn't need to be done, it's not that big a deal and save the money. Wait for next year. Say a 27% reduction currently. Yeah, if I understand it correct, the efficiency rate is 27% down. Yeah. So

due to that could be the age of the pump, that could be the screens being plugged, that could be a little bit of everything adding up to that. So if we were to wait, could he get information just on clean just to have information so you get to have something to think about? I mean, and Tim Tim Hill will Tim Hill can come to meetings and explain some of this stuff to you guys, too. and he's really good at uh like budget time working this stuff in then too. I know we kind of missed the deadline for that, but um there's

alternating cycle.

Two and four are basically producers main number three half the volume of that. usually get pushed back to a middle or last leg. Usually we rotate once a month. Yeah.

So if I hear you right, the primary is used four is used as a primary four times a year. Uh four and two. Yes. That would be our lead lead wells. Yes. six about half the time. Half the time it's not a third, right? So, we have one low producing well. We did a bunch of work to well 2 a few years ago that upgraded its efficiency. Three is the worst one. It's just a smaller smaller smaller Yeah. smaller smaller wall. But when we when Andy was talking about something, I thought he said it was like it went 2 3 4 2 3 4. That's not the way.

Two and three used to be paired because they were each a little bit less than half the production of well four. So you run both of them at the same time and then well four by itself and alternate that way. Okay. But since that production on two went up so much I think it's been operated with well 34 2 3 4 something like that. There's a lead mid lag and it's just while it's filling the tower. It's just when it's pulling water into the plant, filtering it, pushing it to the to our tower. There's never a time our our our tower has been like we need we need water. We can't keep up. Our plant runs twice a day and few hours a day.

I mean, if we're going to have to do it sometime, is there something more pressing to do that money now than I don't think so. The other thing is our water operating has $235,000 in it. What's that your month for anything? The operation of the water utility. I mean, so to pay for it or partially from there if we didn't want to deplete the depreciation fund or something like that, you know,

it was just the report. Is it is is the well um not running properly to the naked eye? Like are we No, it's running fine. Your wells your wells are good. They're in great shape. It's just they're the pumps are getting old. I mean the pump pumps based off of a 10 year lifespan. A submersible pump and these pumps are 23 24 years old, right? Uh your wells are good. It's it it's just, you know, they're getting wore out. It's like a refrigerator that's 25 years old. All your pop don't stay as cold. The efficiency rates going down.

Yeah. So, for every minute that motor's running too, you're producing a third less water almost. So I would if we could I would like to balance the payment between the depreciation and the the water department money. We have a quote on that right here. Yes. You guys had it in your packet last night. Do you want me to make you a copy real quick?

That's fine. Oh, these are the three.

Yeah. Is there is there well number one? Nope. It's buried. Yeah, there is. It's already been abandoned and and taken care of. But there was I I guess a long time ago. It was inside the original water plant building. Yep. Inside a building. Well, number four. Then do that one next year. Yes. You want to make a motion? I make a motion we go ahead with well four. Second. All in favor? I

I uh moving on to the wastewater utilities. Um Indie softener came in. Um put a new iron filter in. Uh had a bunch of problems with a lot lot of the water lines because of the freeze. Got a lot of fine cracks. Had to replace a lot of valves and plumbing in there. Um but I believe it's all taken care of now. We'll probably be turning it on tomorrow. Um the next thing comes to is um I got a quote price on some NX Max that we need to add to the lagoons, get the bugs thriving. Something we did last year, I guess, and the year before. And uh something we do annually and they're holding the price right now at 4,400 up for us because they're changing their website and going to raise the price up. And since we're a repeat buyer, they're going to honor what we paid last year if we can get this passed and through to pick it up.

Is this what we did for the the milkweed or the This is not that. This is But it will help with duckweed, won't it? I know. No, it basically adds as aation for your lagoon to feed the bugs and get them thriving more and working harder. Um because they're the hardest working employees out there. We got And we've done this year after year after year. We've done this. Yes. How many years, but at least two that I know of.

I remember doing it when we when I worked here, but that was before we I know some quantities. I I think it's probably been continuous, but we probably adjusted quantity over time. Um, so we have that dosing system now that helps with some of that. But I saw I saw a big difference in in the health of our ponds when we applied it last time. They're just what would you say? Almost like a yeast. Mhm. Be a good way to think of it. But it's in a biodegradable bag. Looks like salt.

Equally distribute them across the ponds and then they go to work. You ever seen an aation digtor? You're basically giving them all that fuel except not the air, not the bubbles, but you're giving them all that thrive to work. I would assume would that would come out of sage operating. Okay. Fairly hopey there as well. I move that we uh purchase the bugs.

I second. All in favor? I I Okay. And finally on that utility wastewater, we've been uh working on the building down there getting ready to rough it all in and um do all that and I just want your approval that we can plummet and do all the stuff we want to do to get the bathroom going. Have you all been over to the library, the basement of the library? No, we have not. There's quite a bit of material there. So you're looking for some 2x4s. We were just talking about that today. There's probably some down there. 2x4s, insulation, drywall. There's a lot of stuff down there. Okay. Is that all free to use for that building? Yes, it's ours. Yep.

Okay. Do we have any plans on that building or do we have any ideas on that building? I asked Luke how big he wanted the restroom. Uh we kind of went with some stuff and I I I think I psyched it up pretty good. Two six door can go in there and open fine, not hitting the toilet or anything like that. and and um I was going to run the plumbing along the floor since they're 2 by six walls and keep it inside the wall, but I didn't know if it was just for the bathroom or are we setting it up for anything else in there.

I mean, I know it's been discussed in the past the possibility of doing a a lab, but I don't know how useful that is to us or not. if that's even been I mean that the building was kind of sized with that in mind of potentially building the lab in there as well but it could be done in stages. We could do that at a later time. We could, you know, I do think it's important to get it closed in, get a bathroom there, get some heat in there.

That's what we've been doing. We we got uh the scuttle hole roughed in, you know, and got everything. Luke's been a great help with everything cuz he know he knows everything about this town already. So, it's been a big help. And um uh we'll get it all roughed in and um then we'll find out what kind of heaters we want and we'll go from there. I mean, it's got to be electric heaters. We got no gas or anything out there. Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you. Any questions for John?

All right. Uh we'll move on to uh Luke. I don't have a report. I worked till the last second tonight, but I have the um my option to a bed replacement for the 2013 that is I don't know if you guys gone and looked at it. It's the one that's rusting out. So, basically, this is a flatbed. Um it's aluminum. It is the the talk quote if everybody has it in front of them. The top quote is a number to uh basically take our truck to this company, drop it off and then pick it up when it's done. They do everything in between. That is $6,222. And then the bottom is if we go pick the flat bed up and do it ourselves, replace it. Pull the old bed off, replace it with this bed. Um, and then you said you found some 2013.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I I think that it would behoove us to either buy a new truck, say, in 2027, or fix this one. And my vote would be to fix this one, but it can't stay the way it is. It's It looks terrible. It's rusting away. We've done really good job at maintaining the truck mechanically, and it's, in my opinion, probably has, you know, easily five, maybe even 10 years of life left in it. if we continue to maintain it. Well, it just it looks terrible and the bed's rusting really bad. So, I did find uh a company that sells rust-free southern beds. They go down to uh down south, you know, and they'll get trucks off of or bed parts off of wreck trucks and things like that. And I found one for $3,000. The truck would also need a new back bumper. And then it needs some paint work on the hood. The hood needs to be repainted and then just some little touch-ups and stuff. So, I don't know what the total would end up being, but that would fix the truck basically back in its current state, but you know, its current configuration, but but have it be looking uh you know, like a a nice well taken care of truck again, have the looks match the how it's actually been taken care of, I guess you'll say.

So, so for $3,000, we get a bed, the the southern bed he was talking about. For $2,000 more dollars, we get a bed that we can take off this truck and put on another truck we buy in the future that can be a cabin chassis option. Um, and buy a truck without a bed. It'll fit a Ford, Dodge, or Chevy. Um, so if we ever went with state bid option and bought a Ford or Dodge, that bed can come off and go onto that new truck when the 13 is on its way out. Do we need a flatbed truck? Would we have use for a flatbed truck? Yeah, we'd have use for it.

What would we how how would we use it? I mean, I I I can think of a few things, but what would you My thing would it be to buy the truck for the flatbed because we need to use it. It's a bed option. Just so I'm clear, is this the truck that that John's currently driving? Yes. Okay. Just want to make sure I'm clear. It it is way more versatile than a bed with side panels on it. That's what you're asking.

Do they have an 84 inch bed option? Because a 96inch bed is for a DY. Uh yes, they do. I I confirmed that. Yep. They have 7 86 and 94 and 114. I measured our truck and he said, "We have one for it." See? I said, "Is it aluminum?" He said, "Yes." Um, those are lengths. I was talking about the bed width. Oh, w sorry.

Looks like it makes more sense to fix it up. I'd like to keep the truck.

I think we should keep it. It's just whether or not we spend the extra money on a flat bed or put just put a regular bed on the back end of it. Well, it certainly can't stay the way it is because it's just going to it looks terrible and it's just going to continue to rust away. I mean, a couple more winners that won't have bed sites anymore, you know?

Can we have some time to think about this? And and are we going to to pick the s southern the if we buy a bed that is for a 2013 Chevy, are we picking that bed up? And yeah, we would have to, which I, you know, we can figure that out. I think the place I found was just over the state line in Ohio, I think, if memory serves. Okay. Isn't this bed that's on there? A replacement bed already from the original bed that purchased back some time ago. Yes. Yeah. And the second one that steel bumper rusted out. Yeah. Really surprised me. I think bumper fall.

That was a very heavy duty bumper and it was powder coated and I can't believe it looks like it does right now. Unbelievable. You say it's a third. It's a 13. So, we're looking at 13 years old. 13y old truck, which is hard to believe, too. It's hard to believe that. I think we purchased that. John, you and I were on the council together when we That might have been right before I came back on. Yeah. Since it was new, we got replaced. That's not the fact. So, if you got the flat Excuse me, John, I'm sorry. Go ahead. If you got the flat bed, would it longer than the other bed that you're putting on. It's aluminum

potentially. So, it is aluminum, but it's also looks like it's painted. So, it's not like it's bare aluminum. So, I don't know how good it's going to look in 10 years, but I would think it's not going to corrode, you know. And does it does it have places here? I noticed it says outside stake pockets. Yeah, you can put uh Yeah, you can make some little sides for it. Put steak like a steak bed. And as far as tie down, our highest speed was 30 miles per hour. So we have to tie right now not very regular. We'll be strapping things down to it. Well, if you went and picked something up, but a door or something went and picked a door up, you could strap it down.

Yeah. Or take the other trucks. I I like the idea of the aluminum because it's not going to it's going to outlive the rest of the truck. And like you said, we could take it off and put it on another truck if we had to.

And this is what the county does with their trucks when their beds go bad. They replace it with an aluminum flatbed. And then they pull the bed off that truck. When they get a new one in, they put this used bed on the new truck, cabin chassis. And it saves you quite a bit of money when you buy just a cabin chassis off u from the dealership. Auto commercial.

You want to check with Midstate and see if they've got a comparable? It was a little over $10,000. Okay. Never mind. Compared to four. And so, yes, they are. I called I called five people total and this was our way. And he was he this guy Xavier was um when it came to hey I'll I'll call you in a little bit or I'll send you a picture right away. It was literally right away. He he would get right back with me and I like that they give any turnaround time on if we went ahead and had them do the work versus us?

No, he didn't. Do you feel comfortable that you could do that work? Yeah.

Well, I mean, if you're looking at the $4,900 option, that's not that far away from a bed and a bumper for 3,000 and whatever the bumper's going to cost. I don't know. I I would I would support the the $4,900 one if you're if you're willing to do the work on it and you have time to do the work on it and it's not I mean there's has to be done right away but there's wiring involved and the other thing is I don't know how universal they are like they could say it'll work on any truck but how's what brackets are there you know they have to make something to bolt it to

yeah he when he asked what truck we're putting it on he I guess he sends you a kit with it so There is a vehicle specific, right? Okay. I know they've got nine hours list of this the install. You think we ought to just let them do it for nine for 1,200 bucks. I think so. My personal feeling is let the professionals do it. No, no, no. the way the way my week's been. Don't be uh I might not have time offended by that, but you take someone that that does that type of work every day. Yeah. Versus I agree. I messed a lot more up today. Just to give you an example.

Yeah. I mean, I was helping a neighbor out, stripped out a a spindle on his deck just because I don't do that every day, right? Th this would be the most expensive thing I've asked from you guys for sure. Besides my salary, I guess. And this can be taken out of water, sewer, storm, trash. Yeah, it can be taken out several different places. Sometimes you trip over pennies and it cost you dollars. Yeah, that is true. Well, I don't really I mean I I personally, again, if I was doing it, I'd probably just fix it like it is. However, I don't have strong feelings about that. What I do have strong feelings about is Yeah.

Let's fix our truck. Right. Well, I mean, if the money's there and the truck needs fixed, let's do it. I'll make a motion that we go with the $6,200 quote, let them do the work and get it done. I'll second that. All in favor? I I thank you guys. And then uh and then we reduce Luke's pay by figure to pay figure out uh somebody to paint the hood get prices for that too I guess and other paint touch-ups I guess. All right. Do you have anything else? So

uh what you want to say something about that water thing that happened on the corner or Oh yeah. Um, that's what I did today was uh the catch basin over here at Walnut in Maine. Um, I didn't locate it because I didn't know it was there. Uh, it's a storm drain and the inlets the catch basin's here. The inlets were over here and it's a waterfall type of of structure where it was just running across dirt into our catch basin. So, the contractor got into it. So, I replaced a catch basin. So, we have a new catch basin or a new

on the Yeah, it's got a It's got a one that had the Yeah, the one rectangular. Yeah. So, now it's got a lid and ring. It's going to go straight to the catch. Did you Did you lower that down a little bit? Not yet. Okay. I just wondered if everybody knew about that. I didn't know. I told

Yeah, I didn't. Um but uh this is loop business here which is the uh you know obviously sidewalks are going in um as part of our paving project and that would be uh something that Luke oversees and we've been working through some issues there uh with the contractor with placement of the sidewalk. So, we had the surveyor come out over here on Meridian Street and put points down where our property line is, where that stretch of sidewalk is on the north side. And then me and Luke came out and added additional stakes 2 feet off of those so they could measure off of that as a reference point because at the west end the sidewalk was actually over onto private property by about what 8 10 inches something like that. And so you couldn't he couldn't actually put a stake there. And so we put a our own stake two feet away. He told the contractor, "Hey, here's what the deal is. You measure 2 ft off of these stakes. That's what the sidewalk stakes are for." According to

they have uh on that half block located the sidewalk well onto private property. And so what I've been thinking about this a lot since we figured this out and I think that they need to move it. Make rip it up and do it again.

It sucks to tell somebody that uh you know the work they just did uh isn't right. But I I mean, Luke and I walked the job beforehand with the the main guy from the contractor uh and told him we were going to get it surveyed and there would be points there and it was very important to us that it be on our property. It could be, you know, an inch or two onto us, not necessarily right on the line, but it needs to be on our property and that's why we had the survey work done. And then he communicated with the foreman about all of this as well. And it's I mean you can go look at it. I don't know if the uh Can you still see where

my pins are? Yeah, I think they're still there. Yeah. So, you could see these rebar pins sticking up if the contractor didn't rip them out. But, um measuring two feet off of them close to alley. What was it? An inch or two. Even there, it was onto uh the private inch or two. There's one that was like 6 in. This one was like 8 in, I think. So, it's it's quite a bit besid and you can look down the sidewalk, too, and see it's got a bow in it. I mean, there were some there's a few other spots pointed out over in that area, same area that are going to need fixed, too. So, are you com comfortable or confident that he understood what you were telling him and that

Yeah, he knew. He knew. You explained it to him and he knew. I knew what what it meant. He sure should, I guess. Well, I mean, you told him you measure off 2 feet from this point and Yeah. Okay. Like that. Explain what the pens are for. You know, those are 24 in from the survey stake. Knows what a survey stake is, you know. Well, if they should have known and we're explaining, we explained it to them, then yeah, they're going to move it. And it shouldn't cost us a dime.

I don't think so either. Um, our survey for that section of the street was I just forwarded it to Jennifer's $930. So why do that and then just about it, you know, I I I'm confident in the communication that we did when we were here with the the guy that the whoever I don't know if it's the owner or Yeah. some higher up in their company and then he communicated directly with the foreman throughout the project. So, and and the stakes were there. Yeah, it's pretty frustrating. Stakes are there.

So, anyway, if if nobody has strong feelings to the contrary, that's probably the discussion that's going to happen. Uh I have work tomorrow, but I'm going to call Justin and call the owner of that company and tell him we've got a problem. And then hopefully I can meet with with Luke on Wednesday. if they if they decide they're not just going to go over there and do it, you know? Um, but that's kind of where that's at. Other than that, how are they doing? What did Luke Well, they hit I don't know if that's worth saying in a public meeting. They they hit the We're ending up with a nice sidewalk. Okay. But

everybody has a different definition of really good high-end work. I would say this. I don't think this is very high in I think we're ending up with a good sidewalk that will honest but it ain't perfect. Okay. I guess stand at the south end of Walnut and and look north and then go look at those. Are we pretty confident that that's all on us based on those property line markers? This Nick Harris work? No. Oh, this walnut. Yeah, I was talking about go look at Nick Harris. But yeah,

I mean it just it just does some movement on our property

and they dig, you know, they dig there's a stake, they dig to the stake and then the steak has to go away and they keep digging to the next stake and then that steak's got to move for their form boards, you know. So, I don't know. It's it's a bummer to have to ask that of them. That's something I've never had had to do before. If you guys want me to do it, though. I mean, I think that I think they need to do something. But to me, it's not acceptable. All the communication happened and and that was our intent from the beginning. It's our sidewalk goes on our property. It seems like a a pretty big miss on their part. So, okay. We'll be in touch with them, I guess, and keep going for what's going on there.

Uh, any other questions for Luke? All right. Do you have any ordinance stuff? No. No. I have to till the last minute. No, you're good. I have my vote for this on this that Oh, we'll do that. Yeah, we'll do that at the end. If you got to get out of here, you can list them. One, two, three. I don't I mean, I don't want to keep you. Well, they're in order. So, okay. If you need to leave, go ahead and leave. Uh, what are these? What are those stickers there? Is that a golf cart permit? Oh, yeah. We owe AJ with him $10. These are our new golf cart permits. Okay. They're pretty cool. His lanyards in the past. I'm going to go stick.

Oh, it's been paid for. All right. Well, thank you. All right. I I was just thinking he wasn't going to let any sticker go on his golf cart. No, I put it on the vehicle sign. You will if you want to drive it, I guess. All right. Uh Jennifer, do you have anything for us tonight?

Um just very quickly, um Indiana Landmarks did their inspection. They do a yearly inspection of their library. Um so I put that in your packet. Um things I told them that we are in the process of of what we're doing. So that was fine. Um, also the RDC tip report was um uploaded to Gateway. That's in there. As of right now, we haven't, you know, we don't actually report any money at this point. And then, um, just keep it on your radar in the policy handbook. So, um, and that is all I got for Oh, one other thing. Uh, Lee and Shel France donated a thousand Easter eggs for next year. They're pre-filled with um toys.

Oh, wow. Yeah. So, that was so nice. That's very nice. Thank you for asking. Well, thank you to the Frances. Okay. Any questions for Jennifer? All right. Uh attorney, obviously, they're not attending meetings anymore. I have

Wait, can I say anything about the attorneys? Um I talked to um John today and actually um Hunter with the He came here on the one meeting. We got to meet him. He is available by phone. meeting that we want to be and they said if if you know if they want if you guys want them here they'll definitely be here. So, but he said feel free to give Hunter a call during the meeting if we have a question about something. Okay. Well, uh I talked to Craig a few days ago on the phone and we went over six or seven uh kind of outstanding issues and so they're working on all that. He sent me a follow-up email. Um, so hopefully at the next meeting we'll have the ordinance for the park board and then we're trying to resolve a couple other uh things. They're trying to find us somebody, for example, who can update our zoning map and zoning ordinances. Uh, because I've tried contacting the company that originally did it that says they're still in business twice and have not heard anything back from it. That's called ground rules, I believe. Uh, American Legal Publishing can host it for us online, which is, I think, something that needs to happen, but they said they won't update it. Is that what the deal is?

Yeah, they don't.

So, um, so that may be an option and maybe they can do something with the map. I don't know because I do think they have some digital map capabilities. Um, but we've also made some little changes to the zoning ordinances like for example with fences and sheds. think that may not necessarily be reflective in the we've done ordinances to pass that, but I don't know if the zoning ordinance itself got updated because American Legal Publishing isn't updating our zoning ordinance. Um, so we're trying to fix fix that, figure that out. Um, so I just wanted to give that little update there. Um, and uh, we'll segue that right into let's talk 296th Street. Um, I talked to them, uh, Craig a little bit about that as well and let them know that you all were looking into it. I know you and Jennifer have been talking to it or uh, INDOT

INDOT. Uh, it sounds like it's confirmed that it is on Typton County's road inventory and they are receiving tax money for it and we are not. So, their constant assertion, anybody that calls and complains to them, they they forcefully tell them that's Atlanta's problem. go talk to Atlanta and it absolutely is not and you can see it right there. Yes, they did.

So, um I wanted to make sure of that because John and I and I should have talked about this when John was talking. We met with our engineers the other day to talk about uh some sewer related uh issues. But we also touched on this road deal. And there's a potential because our bids came in so low for this current work we're doing that we could apply for round two. Are we going to need to do 296th Street or can we do other segments in town that you know even though they were paid fairly recently have started to fail and if the money's available let's just go ahead and mill them up and fix them and we can do the sidewalk that runs right next to them or whatever. I guess it's confirmed it isn't ours. Here's the email end.

I put that in there. Did you see that? I did. I did. Um, and I mean it they've even attached a section of state statute. It's Indiana code 8-17-1-45. Counties responsible for roadways on southern and eastern boundaries and there's a state statute about that. When I talked to um John today, he wondered if maybe the the not where some of the problem lies is like when I talked to um INDOT, she sent me their map versus what Tipton is looking at is the GIS. So he the GIS is their own county steel though that doesn't mean anything. Yeah. So he kind of was wondering what but he did tell me that they were going to respond to Typton today.

Okay. And that um once they heard back or whatever they got so their street is it their street commissioner that keeps saying uh highway they have they have an attorney and a a

but they keep bringing up that we did annexation after 1996. What we annexed was basically is it the it's the house like two houses down from the west Hopkins drive to just short of the blacksmith. So we're talking like 500 ft or something like that. And they're saying because of that our whole, you know, every bit of 296 that we border is us is what they're trying to say. If they want to argue over that little strip, argue over that little strip. But don't say because you did some annexing at some time that now you are responsible for all of it. Especially when it's still on the road inventory and they're getting funding for it. So,

can I have a copy and I'll take it up there to show if you would like to do that? Sure. I would. Uh we we'll make sure you get it. Yeah. Yeah. Mrs. Knox come in today and she's she's pretty upset and I told her I said we're trying to get it all worked out and um I it's it's sad. It's got to be very frustrating for you and that was my concern. Yeah. I mean, if that is on ours, then we need to take care of if they if I don't know how that works. If there's a way to make it ours,

I'm open to that conversation. The thing is though, they've been receiving the money for it. So, before I would say yes to taking it, I think they need to fix it. It shouldn't if if it did become ours, it shouldn't be our financial responsibility to bring it back into reasonable condition. So anyway, that's where that is. I'm glad we're getting closer to resolving it. Hopefully we can make that happen. Even though it's not ours, can we just fill in the hugest ones? We can't touch it. I'm not going on somebody else's property to do repairs.

It's terrible. But I know, but just thinking we could start. Yeah, that's the other thing, too, is you're going to set a precedent that oh, it is our responsibility. I think I think they need to we need to assert our position, which is also apparently the state's position. And if they want a different arrangement, they need to use some sort of a legal channel to for us to get there. But as it stands right now, it's it's on them and they need to take care of it. Take video of it down and send it to the county commission. The commissioners, that's probably a good idea. The counties, you know, city don't have anything to do with county.

That probably is a good idea to make contact with the county council or the county commissioners. Yeah,

I like that idea. Uh, also on old business is library. So, the the report that Jennifer mentioned from Indiana Landmark and uh uh beyond that, the masonry work is done. They did a great job. Everybody go over there and look at that if you haven't already. But they tuck pointed the whole building and then they uh shortened they removed the sill and shortened an upper window up opening and then uh turned a window opening into a door opening. Uh and it all looks really really good. They even did a really good job matching the original mortar and use the same methods for creating mortar that they would have done back then. And I'm I'm pretty happy with the results.

I'm waiting on So, we have the quote that you obtained, the one quote I'm I was talked to the contractor that I had walked through the building with uh a few days ago and he said he's currently working on a quote for us as well. So, hopefully we get some movement there here pretty soon. One more thing on the library. There's still a tile missing on the south side. Sure. We do need to figure out how to get a new roof tile and and somebody that can replace it for us. So, I'll see if I can find out where those tiles came from. I do remember them talking about that it was the original manufacturer of the tiles back in. Uh, we need some extras,

right? Maybe that makes sense. Can we get 20 of these things or something like that, you know? Um one start one fell off. Well, it was because of a tree that was there that I think a chunk of the tree fell out in a storm and broke just as we probably could. See if they've got any archives on on that. I can't remember when that was 2017 or 18. It's not been all that long ago. But anyway, there's that. Mike might know that too. Okay.

So, at our last council meeting, we introduced ordinance 2026-03-01, which is an ordinance amending chapter 92 of our ordinance book regarding animals. And basically what it does is it adds the reference to anywhere that talks about an animal at large, which is mostly referencing dogs in our book. It adds cat to that as well. Um, it's been available for review since our last meeting. Obviously, it's almost a going to be impossible to fully enforce this, but at least now there's a mechanism when there's a very problematic situation. Maybe we could actually do something about it. So, do we have any live traps on hand?

I think the town has one or two. I don't remember exactly. There's a couple out there. Problematic trapping them. Yeah, I believe there are a couple out there at the water plant. But in any case, we could buy a couple too if we need them. If it becomes problematic, do we are we who who are we calling about?

So, uh the way that um we had talked with the police about when the county were helping us with the police, they said, "We'll come help you trap an animal or catch an animal, but you know, the whole deal with the the humane society, they can't take it down there because we get charged a lot of money for that." And I believe that Arcadia Police Department is also willing to help us, but it would probably be a call the town hall and and complain issue a complaint like you normally would and then it'll make it through Luke and then if he needs help, he'll get in touch with the police. Something like that. Well, I move that we adopt ordinance 2026-03-01 amending the chapter 92 the animal ordinance.

Can I ask a question before we second? Then is there a way we can amend this to not be specific about what the animal is? just a nuisance animal. Uh, I suppose we could. I do think that it's there's probably other areas of our ordinance that could use some review as well. So, I don't know if that you want to I'm all in favor of this, don't get me wrong. I just don't know that it goes far enough because there's chickens running all over the place. Well, that would be under an ordinance we already have.

Oh, what? Okay. The chicken ordinance specifies how they must be contained and uh you know how their their pen and their run and their food must be it's not it's not horrible. It's every once in a while which my dogs get out every once in a while so I understand. I just want to know if we have you know somebody's ferret gets out and tears something up you know is there more than just dogs and cats that we're worried about? You know that's a fair question. Um, it might be worth examining the ordinance as as a whole and and see if it needs to become more uh comprehensive. You know, we can beef it up a little bit.

I'm all in favor of this one. Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. Just any other discussion here? Fred made a motion. Oh, I'll second. All in favor? All right. All right. Pass that on down the line. Thanks. All right. Uh, any other bold business from the council anybody can think of? Is the attorney still working on the planning commission ordinance? Yes, that was another thing we talked about and um he's assured me that they're going to get us one. So,

Okay. It's about eight months late, but we'll get there, of course. Um Okay. Uh any new business from the council tonight? Yeah. I've got one thing I'd like to I guess discuss or propose. Sure. With a part-time person, uh Matt Stringer. Matt's been helping us what? Since October. October. Yeah. I wonder uh if it would be beneficial for us to hang on to him on a part-time basis, at least through the summer while they're mowing and everything.

Mowing. And I know we haven't moved on the park yet, but eventually we're going to uh obviously make some improvements at our park. I don't know. I just uh Matt's uh and he's a excellent worker and uh I've worked with him on couple different occasions and uh I know he's got a strong desire to stay here. Uh I have talked with him about that and And if we do let him go, uh, I think he's probably going to seek employment elsewhere, which, you know, that's his business. I just hate to lose it.

Hate to lose it. I mean, he's here every day. He's very cordial. Just How often does he work now, Freddy? I think he's working 29 hours. Okay. 29 to 30. I know. Uh, so I do remember I think Luke saying and this been a few months ago that he was doing like two and a half days a week or something like that. Trying to stay under that threshold of because I know you get into some fulltime sure things if you work more than that you know you become eligible for for vacation days insurance and

well I think I agree with you. I think Matt's an excellent worker and an excellent person and I and I foresee him being needed more once the park is really going um whether it's overseeing the building of things or maintaining that it and that might be a year away but I think he's valuable enough to if we have to limit his hours even more to make it work if he's okay with that. I mean, I I would like to keep him if we could if there's money. I mean, I part of John's uh salary is to be that kind of person too to be mowing. But if we at all possible, if we can make it work, I I would like to keep him as well.

I mean, doesn't have any time limit over his head right now. No 30 days ticking on like that. No.

Another thing too guys think about is have one of the fulltime guys going on vacation. You're going to have one man here for a week or whatever the vacation is. And if there's an emergency, whatever, you need two guys to emergency water leaks. situations like that. You know, like say I've seen him get out and stop at the job. He's an excellent worker. He does what he's sold. Like I said, he's there every day. I I hate to see him, you know, go somewhere else and then find out guy. So, it's just a salary for the hour. split his salary amongst four or five different department one would take a hit for the full amount pretty good asset to I'm not disputing the need for extra work, especially when we have extra projects going on. This is historically how we've operated forever is when there's a utility project or a paving project or a building project of some kind going on. Other things we get behind on other things. And so that's where historically certain council members have come and help with things just to try to make up some of that difference. Um so I don't I don't know that it's a bad thing. I don't know. Uh I do think maybe uh some kind of a reasonable limit or at least a guideline

for that might be um in order. Uh because we did just again make a hire uh Mr. Nicolov here and so um you know obviously there's um that's a huge uh weight off of the that helps us distribute our workload a ton. Uh but at the same time as you know we've got extra stuff going on. We've got a library project and we got a the paving and all that. So we got the water plant build going on too over there or aren't they putting in or is that at the sewer plant? Oh yeah, the work that they're doing. Sewer plant. Yep.

Yeah. So I Yeah. Again, I'm I'm not uh personally uh anti- third person as a part-time employee. I do think though that some sort of a hours guideline would be useful to to impose. So, would we need him more in the summertime, do you think, or in the winter time? Or do you think it's pretty much it? It depends. I mean summertime definitely you know with the mowing and with park and but winter time depending on the type of winter you have. Yeah. He have a bad one. He worked,

you know, obviously we didn't have John at the time, but but he and he and Luke worked together this winter trying to maintain the streets maintain.

He does have some mechanical skills. Yeah. Does it make sense to say 24 hours? That'd be three full days or just as needed or how do we I think we need to have something there. Yeah, I think the 29 hours, you know, think that's what he's currently been working. Am I correct, Jennifer? Is that what I mean? You do I know it may vary from sometimes it goes over does it

like I know

I think three full days is fair. Okay. He could work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or or whatever eight hour days or you could even 24 hours I guess four sixes. Yeah, you could say three days and then if he's needed for you if we got water flying out of the ground or something with the approval of somebody. I think that's fair. Uh, does somebody want a uh motion to allow for him to be regularly scheduled for 24 hours a week? We'll say it that way.

I'll make that motion that I have his has a regular schedule of 24 hours a week to be uh increased in an emergency situation. I'll second that. All in favor? Oh,

okay. Any other new business? Any questions or comments from anybody in attendance tonight? Mrs. Steel. Never disappoint.

I've done so much in front of the post office and I think needs recognition. You can really tell a difference to the kind of time. Well, thank you. Thank you, Neil. I mean, that doesn't really affect in front of your place, but have you heard other residents who the two two blocks there all being done.

No, I mean I Well, they're not paving down by your house, right? I mean, but have you heard from the people who they are doing the sidewalk in front of whether they like it or not? Okay. I haven't heard from anybody other than you. I do know one, of course, I haven't talked to him since any of the work's been done, but they were thrilled this could be when they found out about it. So, okay. I believe that's probably going to be a consistent theme across a lot. I talked to one property owner that was was planning on putting one in and I said, "Well, just be patient. There's going to be one go in there and he was typical." I mean, it would look like the whole block just two lots. Yeah, I know.

You want those two lots to be done. We actually we talked about that. So we do have uh sidewalk money specifically set aside separate from whatever is being done right now for this year. So we just need to identify our next segment to do and and do that. So we'll we'll work on that. We'll look at page four. Are they doing the other side of walnut? No. No. It was uh left off. Yep. It was left off which disappoints me. Yeah. because we I walked it with the engineer and we talked about it several times after that and um but that's okay.

Can do it in the future, I guess. So, all right, Mr. Piper, you got something for us tonight? Yeah, sorry I'm late. That's all right. Granddaughter has practice. I'm trying to help coach. Well, the main thing was uh AJ with him. So, I wanted to kind of get opinions on how to proceed with that because he's he asked me about about the sign out here. I told him he could try to get a variance because he to use both sides and to exceed the square footage. Yeah. The area. So, he actually talked to Ray Adler and Ray Adler sent us the package, but I think at this point it's not something I make a decision on.

No. So, Where should it go? Because I think BCA Yeah, I guess he talked to the BCA about it. Yeah. Well, we we talked to I think Kevin said that he doesn't do signs, but so it'd be a variance, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For use variance. So, we'll just I there's been other people get them, right? Am I thinking wrong? I think that well I think the the uh dollar store or whatever got a variance for that sign. That was part of the whole deal out there that they need a variance for what for whatever reason. I'm not sure.

That's the whole purpose of the BZA I thought was to so well just if I'm missing something okay uh I guess I'll try to make contact with Kevin and and then we've got see what's going on there. I think what's her name? I can't think of her name. Your lady lives on Lisa Watkins. Yeah, I I think that's pretty cut and dry. They're wanting to put a her son's wanting to put a small home on that property, but again, he'd probably need a variance so he can help take care of his mom. His dad passed away. So,

where where is that in town? What road is that? Uh this is down from is that green side or green green slide? Just the next property east. It's right there back side of the the Okay. Yeah. Right there on that newer is it that newer house? Yeah, probably. It's not the newer house. It's the um one down right before you go to the railro. Okay. But again, there bearings for that. Yeah. I don't even know if there's That would be a good BCA question. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And then Chris Davis, I need to get a few more details from him, but he's got somebody wants you to use his garage to run I can't even remember what kind of businesses out of there. And he is his own special character. But even even with that, it says permitted. It has permitted uses and special exception uses. So is it one of the permitted uses? I don't think so. Okay. If it's a special exception use, that'd be a variance as well. But otherwise, he's would be good to go cuz he he's out of his garage. Yeah. But still, as far as I'm aware, commercial property, operate a business. So, can you go in and out of his garage though without being What's that?

Going in and out of his garage. Can you The north side is a or excuse me, the south side is onto an alley. That is an alley there right next to the park. Half of it's been vacated. This half has been vacated uh and is continuous with the park. And then his half is still a passable alley. But the west side it comes into the street there. Oh yeah. Into the post office alley. Yeah. I mean I don't know. Is that an issue? I don't think so. I mean, if his business is inside the building, I don't I don't think we can prevent somebody from accessing that building.

Talking about parking in the alley and block. There are some rules that different things. Yeah. But other than that, you can see what we got. We got the barn out there at the old Walt property.

We got pole barn going up here at Danny Bozelle's business. So they they meet the requirements. So I I think then one of the things there is they're going to have to move they're going to move the gas line once they get the building up. Building the gas line can't go underneath the building. So they'll reroute it. A few other things going on. I think the Broadway property is ready for final inspection. Somebody else is ready for a final I think who it is off the top. I don't know if there's anything else or not. We heard anyone on the trailer trailer park renovations there any

I was just curious. I need to figure out where they're at and in that process as far as what else they need to do what else they don't need to do. I'm sure they'd have to get some stuff from the county for the drainage and all that. But I don't know that's what they have. I had a resident approach me about how bad that road is. And I said, "Well, that's that's not on our unfortunately." I said, "That's your landlord. You talking to him down by me?" Uhhuh. That's gravel. It's pavement.

Clean up some of that, but I feel Yeah, that's probably why it' be nice if they did develop it the rest of them because they were talking about developing it. They were improve the whole thing. They were going to put a bunch of new ones in and then do a bunch of work to the existing lots. So, I don't know. Hopefully, they do that someday. All right. Any questions for Rick? Well, thanks for coming. Let me know if you need anything. I'll I'll talk to Kevin and then probably talk to you after I do, but we'll figure that out.

I I think there's a reason that's not I'm not part of the process from this point forward. I just conflict of interest probably. Well, I mean, that's citizens deciding what's what they think is acceptable in town. So the BCA exists for a reason and I think that's all these issues are on to them. I might point out that there has been variances for other signs. Yeah, I'll talk to you. We'll figure it out. That's something I guess that's something I wish you could put a sign up to say this sign has a variance or this this has a variance. We could require that a little so or something. Yeah.

Yeah. Little ID card. Yeah. That's why I asked the guy out at uh the Walls property said, "Could you please put that building permit on that post out there so people drive by and see you got a permit?" And he did that. I've seen that. All right. Well, is there any other business to discuss? Uh do you want to wrap festival into this? Let's let's adjourn and let's start our festival meeting. Is there a motion to sign claims and agenda? I'll make go ahead. I'll make that motion to sign adjourn the sign claims. All

in favor? Are