Town Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, good evening. Before we get started, I'd like to remind everyone that this meeting is being recorded and your participation is your consent to be recorded and broadcast on the town of Akran's YouTube channel. Roll call. Jim Ser here. Rich Solano here. Tony Ramirez here. Stand and have the pledge. 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. Me to order. And first item for business is the council minutes from February 9th, 2026. I have a motion to accept the minutes as presented. Move. I'll second it. All in favor?

I uh first order of business. Uh item business is utility adjustment requests. Hope we have three of them. Yeah. And which one are you? I'm sorry. Daniela's she's the one for Yeah.

And was there a leak involved or? Yeah. Okay. There was a uh at our house our laundry um pipe had like bursted and we were not aware of it until um the our house is dual click. So like on the side is like an apartment and on that apartment our tenant there hasn't my brother went over we were not aware of that. I have ran the the guys bringing the data log and it has been fixed. Okay. Oh, this is actually for two months.

So like the leak over like we just waited to do the adjustment um once it was fixed over the two-month period. So and um yeah, they had a major issue there. Um Mandy did text me last week and would have been here for last week's meeting. Um, we had to reschedu and then the same for Herardo Espinosa. He had a this is for his is for two months too and I don't know he was able to get off of work. His has been taken care of.

They're all Everybody's is fixed. Yes. Um, but you want to do them individually or as a group? I'd say is approved. Okay. I'll motion um that we approve the uh water and sewer rate adjustments uh as presented. Second it. All in favor? I I You're good to go if you'd like. I'll do the adjustment request and or the adjustment to the account and I'll let you know what the balances. Yeah. Thanks for coming.

Thanks. Hi, you're up. So, I had uh our water get or sewer one get clogged up. Um and the uh I did have Nelson P coming on. They were able to get cleared. I do have um the receipt for what I paid for uh getting it jetted out uh which is just a temporary until that tree gets removed out front

and uh once that trees are removed we do uh we are going to do trying to run a new line but I do have the receipt for what I possibly to get the jet their jet in there and get it cleared out. Okay. Then I do have a quote from him which I'm going to shop around for quotes for later on whenever they replace that sewer on the the uh receipt for repairing it originally is $350. Uh well that and then you know that code that I had for 6,000 they're running new line I'm going to shop around for

$6,000 said yeah but uh right now we're running we're open uh at least should hold us over till that tree gets removed and make things easier for so the request is to have a tree removed getting the tree removed I've seen about possible reimbursement for uh put it out there that I don't know what our policy is on that. I mean we generally are since it's

Yeah. So, the way I I'm the one that told him to come here and ask this and be transparent with you, but I explained he could try asking you guys to obviously say yes or no cuz we don't know. Was the sewer line there first? Was the tree there first? That's kind of the gray area. if the town planted a tree over top of his sewer line. I don't understand how that'd be his problem. But

well, but that's a great I don't know. I told him to come out. You guys could say no. I I just, you know, I just know that usually if it's on them, it's on if it's on their side, they're responsible for it. I know it's a town tree. Um, and the roots the problem. So, um, I don't mind. It's a It's a slippery slope. It is. It is. That's right. It's a gray area. It is. Um,

I think I think you stated it correctly in that if it was on our sewer line, that's what we clean out, right? your tie in from your house to our sewer line is your responsibility. Okay? And um how we got a lot of big trees in this town. There are some houses that have more problems than others, right?

And for whatever reason uh an old tile that cracks and breaks when the roots get in it, uh we battle it here in the town as a town having to have somebody come through and clear out the big sewer lines. Um, but as far as responsibility of the homeowner, it's from your tie into Okay. tying into us to your house. Okay. I I know that I'm sure the roots were from the tree all the way on your property. Is that correct? Like how far in did it extend?

To the the clean out. So it's uh all the way from the road to the green out which is probably about 30 35 ft. Okay. The clog was probably about 10 the worst of them was probably about 10 to 15 ft away from the tree as far sick.

So I this is just my opinion and I I don't mind taking care of it. $350. Um the roots were well into his property there. That's it. It's a town tree. You know, I I just I think we should take care of it myself. My my concern is you open it up for the entire town. That's true. That is true. We can't afford to do that. I understand that. Um you know, we could put if if you want the tree removed. started on the list to put it on the list to have it removed.

You're, you know, the line is your responsibility all the way out to the the tapping. Um, the other thing worth thinking about is like I had a tree that messed up my story line in my house pretty bad. Since the trees come down, I've not had any issues. Okay. So, if the tree comes down, you could like try and even your line for a little bit. And if you don't have any issues, great. You don't have to worry about the $6,000 silver rank. Um, but if it continues to mess up over and over and over, then

well, I mean, I guess kind of wish on both hands there. I mean, I can see where if we open it up for one, then Yeah. No, that that is that is the part that's scary is every every backup sewer in town now becomes as the lady if there's a tree if there's a town tree in the vicinity now every backed up sewer right could become a true hey can the town pay for this hey can the town pay for this has a lady they're on street down a ways close to you nothing yet okay joined no I'm not hurting noting Okay.

And that's a that's a different one though because that's that's their tree. It's on the other side. Like that has nothing to do with us. That's all that is true. There really isn't any gray area there other than Yeah. where they put that septic line between the two neighbors or whatever. Okay. I mean that's that's a completely different um I don't think there's a lot of gray area. It's who's responsible from the line from the house to the tide. Right. Not at all. Yeah. Not not on that one. On this one, I feel like, you know, those are town trees. Our town trees. I mean, if if a town tree falls on the house, is it who's responsible for that?

It's not the town, right? It wouldn't be. No. For putting a tree there. Absolutely right. There was So, the tree My house was built in 1901. The tree was planted in the 1960s. And if your tree falls on my house, it's not the responsibility of the town. The town doesn't own that tree. That tree is on your property. It's not my It's not on my property. It's in the tree law. It's in the tree. What I'm talking about is the one that's next to the road. Yeah. The town plant. The town would not be liable. I wish Andy was here to explain that. Yeah, sure.

Trees coming down is the act of God. you hitting a deer in an act of God, uh, your homeowner's insurance covers it. Yeah, that's true. Well, Derek, um, I think you're going to have to pay the $350. Um, so, and we'll get the tree removed. And the tree is on the quote that you have provided. It's not. They have to come look at it first. Okay. Um,

I just wanted to be clear. whatever it is, whenever they're here in the next couple weeks, they will then quote out that tree while they're in town and maybe even do it with the whole project. I don't Yeah, it'll be done soon. Probably not when they're here in a couple weeks, but soon. But hopefully like Jake said before tree comes down and you may not have to replace that line at all. Yeah. Because that that stump will be all ground up. Yeah. And that should slow down the growth of the roots, I would think. So

you can always put down uh copper sulfate too. Flush that down or um there's other products that you can use. Are they to kill the stuff? Usually, usually we guess because I know uh some people have said like once they cut it, if you're able to they have the other stuff, you can drill holes in it, kill the stump completely before it gets ground. But they're going to grind it the same day. So, don't be if they already have it all there. Yeah. But when they when they grind it, they usually break the roots off of the main

like the the main stump of it. Well, the only thing that's left is just the little fingers and generally those won't you won't get any more growth out of those. And if there if there would it would be very very minimal. Now, if you leave the stump, yes, you probably still you get a little bit of growth still. But yeah, you're welcome to stay the whole time or you're free to go, whatever you prefer. Thanks, Eric. Uh, nation's a water project of the overwater project. PLS typically Mark's here to walk us through it. Yeah,

he could make it. So, um based on his recommendation,

so um this pay claim as you can see when the contractor signed it was back in two 124 of 25 and it got lost in cyerspace um I guess to Mark's email. So Mark signed it on 311 to submit for approval. Um Thomas Escavating is requesting 77,93135 um for the work completed so far and then mark for Midwestern the amount due is 18,480. Make a motion that we pay the excavating of $77,931.35 and also investor engineers invoice 20249400-06 of $18,480.

Uh second the motion. All in favor? Right time.

Okay. Next is a conditional purchase agreement with option to purchase from the growing your land. Thank agreements this man. Oh my god. I checked it off before I shut it. Sorry. You're right. Okay. Um these two um agreements are for the Okro wastewater project for grant writing environmental services and then also the sorry grant administration and labor standard services. So presented those on behalf of Baker Tilly. Those need to be executed for her to assist us with the next steps in that grant.

I'll u you've you guys ready? Yeah. I'll make a motion to accept the Baker Tilly Advisory Group uh grant writing and environmental services agreements which let's see grant writing services for a total of uh $8,000 and the grant administration $65,000. No, second. Okay.

Herardo, I know you're just getting here. They went ahead and approved your utility adjustment. So, I mean, you can say this is Herardo. He was getting here from work. So, um I'll make the adjustment on your account that was approved and then I'll let you know what's the balance due. And they adjusted it for the two months. So, and then I'll adjust it. So, you're welcome to stay or you can go. Just whatever you'd like, sir. You're welcome.

Okay. Now, the condition of purchase agreement with option to purchase public land. Uh I've read through it and uh everything looks to be in order. Um, I motion that we uh accept the conditional purchase agreement with optional purchase uh as presented for the growing your property. Second it.

All right. All in favor? All right. Project. This is the entire This is from Rochester to Akran. What is this? So, we received in the May I have the full maps or images that they provided. Um, but yeah, from Rochester all the way down to um Jonesies. So, 14114.

Um, there'll be a road project in 20 was it 2029? Yes. Spring. Spring of 2029 is when they're doing this. And so, that was off. Oh. Um, so where this pertains to the town of Akran, obviously the road itself, but also when we met and discussed the sidewalks along Rochester Street, the north and south side, um, miraculously, like we were basically told,

I don't I mean, not out of luck, but I mean, it was like, you can apply for these grants, you can do this, and the next thing we know, we got this information in the mail, and it's included in their project. So, which is a great thing, but we hadn't got an update that they were going to include this because they made it sound like So anyway, I would I just wanted you guys to have this information for you to review if you'd like to see the actual project images on how they have it broke down by different segments. I mean, all the culverts between here and Rochester getting redone as well as the mill and new asphalt and then sidewalks here in town. You mentioned going to Jos's. It's actually stopping at State Road 19. Sidewalks.

Sidewalk. Sidewalks. From 19 to 11414. Oh, the sidewalk. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Yep. From 19 to 114. Right. So, are the sidewalks included on the west side of 19 on this end? Yeah. It doesn't look to be on the map that I looked at today. Okay. just shows from the intersection all the way down to me is just from SAS to right down both sides. Yeah. And you called to confirm north and south. Yeah.

You know that first half a block, you know, the SAS intersection was it was done six years ago. I assume they'll do some sort of evaluation before Okay. just ripping out everybody. That's just an assumption. I have no idea. But I would assume they'll look at a sidewalk perfectly fine. I'd hate for somebody from Indianapolis to decide you need to redo all the handicap accessibility yet again. Well, no, on the thing it only showed like three steps. Well, right.

But like as far as the curb ramps and everything, there's only like three that need to be added that they circled in in areas. So, I don't think they're going to touch those unless they're not ADA compliant when they come in because they have standards they have to and they're settling and everything else. So, anyway, that's more just of a making sure you're in theware of what we have. He'll give us a window to talk about all of the trees along here. Yeah. Did I put you in on that? Yeah. You want us to kind of get an idea of how many trees they think come down? Sure. How many? 54. 54.

54. Pretty much 54. I think that had an effect either completely tore up or lifted on the sidewalk. That was kind of our assessment. All of Rochester and all of Melaka. I believe there were two. I was keeping pretty much all. Wow. Well, um I don't know how many years I still have on my board. I told you I told you to I told Rich now to put it on the thing.

Now, it's it's a little different with the state doing it. We're not paying for it. Um, I still think they need to come down otherwise you got brand new sidewalks that are jacked in six years. Interesting.

I was looking um what were they doing? Oh, Ann and I went for a walk and right after I started here, there was a sidewalk we did which is about seven years ago and this thing is already. So, I just think it'd be dumb to to have all this new sidewalk and like on Walker Street if we're going to do if the town's going to pay to have that redone just there. And like we were talking

um down from basically from Pine Street to the east there's no trees and those curves are so clean. It looks great. Uh there's no there's no intersection. I don't think you know there's still on Rochester Street there's still a ton of houses that have trees in their yards. Yes. Not in the tree lawn. I think we'll still keep a pretty good aesthetic going through town. But I mean not only I mean super pumps, not only sidewalks. I mean they're just destroying Yeah. the infrastructure that's true there.

Yeah. I think if we're going to really pursue something like this, we need to reach out to the property owners with the letter and saying, "Look, we have a big central project here." Uh, your tree may cause problems with the new sidewalk. Would you be willing to have it removed? We remove it. Would you be willing to have the tree removed and um get some buy in from the community? But yeah, I mean those of of those 54, all of them were the town side. And surprisingly, they survived this windstorm. Yeah. Shocking. Yeah, man. Oh, man.

But yeah, and I'm not like I'm not suggesting getting 30 trees cut down a year and doing it over a two-year period. It's probably going to be like a 10 year deal where we're doing a handful of trees each year cuz I mean it's expensive, very expensive and it gets more expensive when you're working on a state highway and the tree trimmers don't like working on a state highway, right? I know.

I I believe I believe taking care of the bigger ones first, the ones that have already the ones that you would have to manipulate the new sidewalk to even go in, getting rid of those first so you can lay it down. Now, the other ones that have had an effect and will have an effect can probably be later on before it starts getting because if not, we're going to end up with a brand new sidewalk with with the and even in some of those cases where they went around it, it's already popping that too. And I and I think for for the for the long term of Akran like having that set for the 4th of July and it's just something that yeah we fight every five six years on it. Um, and I know people think the trees are cool and think the I mean they but really I like that east side of town because it's it's open. Um, and there's no intersection hazards because the bigger those trees get, the harder it is to pull out.

Um, I know you probably don't have any on right there, do you? The library took the one down already. Yeah, I removed ours and planted them. Yeah. In the yard. Yeah. And like right there on the corner of my house, I got on both sides. You got to kind of look once and then kind of move up a little bit the other angle and then get one last angle. The three in front of Yeah. On that side. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know if you remember. You asked us to get a tree inventory. I got a tree inventory and it's just not everyone. I'm I'm open to ideas on how to move forward on something like this. And like you say, where we've had to build sidewalks around, that makes sense. Trees that are severely damaged, you know, are other ones that you can say, let's prioritize those first. Make a tiered list and these four, then these three, then whatever, whatever, whatever. I I even it's also makes it a little less enjoyable because I walked on that lake quite a bit. So holding a wagon on that sidewalk now.

Yeah. Like strollers. I guess with this situation it's only going to be 50. Now there might be 10, 11, 12 year olds that get mad because we're taking out all their jumps from their bikes because my son used to love that. He knew exactly what he knew exactly where the right trees were to hit a lot.

Well, it gives us something to think about. you know, just gets close. Yeah. And we've got time. Yeah. And um I'm wondering um if they have something slated for 19 uh if it's on their radar. I'll send them an email and find out. There's some contact information here. I'll ask them if there's anything on the schedule for State Road 19 North and South. Hard to imagine them doing a package deal for act. No, I don't think so. But just down to high like if they got they always seem to take care of 19 better than 14.

Well, I'm sure they've done traffic studies and the heavy traffic is on 14. Yeah. So, is all the free debris cleaned up down there? Yep. North side. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Pick up it was cleared. I've never down that area. So I It was a fun day that we had five tree well not we that were usually property owner trees but we had five trees come down like what 40 minutes completely across 14 that he got a call on. Push that out of the way. Then on the way back well there's another one. Hey there's one school. down or street.

Keith was Keith was coming into town right at that time and he's the one that called us. Hey, uh, you might want to And as he's talking to me, oh man, I got to back up. So, so that that was a wait, but it was that finally cleared like five o'clock. It went down in 11. I think it wasn't cleared until 5. They were still there. What? Six. Seven. Well, only six. They were still

Okay, move on. Do we while we're we're still on like the INDOT thing on the sidewalks, is there any interest in entertaining getting an updated quote from Whitils on remember how we did like the whole entire town just so we knew what the cost would be on for 19 north at least with the parade route and then also the extension down here to the Dollar General. Yeah. That we discussed. I mean cut it down. Sure. like just minimize the thing. But if I get that like that, but if we've got money in the budget to do the north almost get that done because it's so much smaller than that in this way. And

yeah, it's worth getting a quote. I mean, I have no idea, but I'm just The other thing is there's not huge trees on No, we've taken down some on the west side there. Yeah. Yeah. And in poor condition. There's um are any of those on the list like this? The one I have here? Yeah. Okay. No, the only thing on the list is the stuff they need heard about our CCG project. Okay, that's fine. Okay. Yeah. I don't know. I just wanted to know if the board was good with this. Sure. Yeah. Let's get a call.

And um yeah, we'll talk about that other product shortly. All right. Okay. Uh, Snowco.

Um, I put Snowco on here. I received a call maybe Friday, Thursday or Friday from a gentleman. Um, Snowco is going to have to do pre-treatment. They're putting in an application or whatever with IDM. Um, they were requesting for us to provide a letter that gave them permission to discharge. And so I called Dan and asked Dan, you know, what is the procedure here because we've never had this pre-treatment um in place. And so um right now we're getting the sewer use ordinance, reading that. I need Andy here to have a conversation more. Dan said that could be a six to eight month process because putting parameters in that is also creating where there will be whatever within the parameters how often the certified operator town employees have to monitor um and take samples

before they discharge into the system because of their yeah their glue call that so remember the mess we had a while back so there's a new individual at IDM And it sounds like with the turnover there is maybe some things that are done more closely to align with what the state's expectations are. Okay. And then it sounds like the water effluent will be improved coming towards this. Yeah. So, so anyway, I mean that'll probably still be on here for future conversation, but okay, I just wanted you to know I got that call.

Justin last month signed down by Dollar General. Rich and I were just talking about it. Um, we've done all the troubleshooting that we can do. I think what we're going to do is take the new sign that we haven't put on Walker Street yet, move it down there, and then get um Elon City on the line, their technical department, and walk us through this other one. We can do more testing back at the maintenance bar than we can out there on the highway. So, we switched the batteries. I went through the manual, did all the troubleshooting that I could do. Fuse, check the fuse, change the fuse,

and nothing.

So, that's the only thing I know to do. Um, getting ready to send out ordinance letters for disabled vehicles. Was going to send them out last week when it was nice, but then we were starting to get we're going to get more weather this week. So, going to wait a week. That way people have got u decent weather to get out and work on things. We had a uh licensing issue with our body cams. So we're on the phone with Motorola technical department trying to get that rectified spoke with the supervisor today and he's hoping that this week a move back up and running. It's not known our end. It's a glitch in the system that you have to get an engineer involved, whatever that entails.

Uh they said he'll be in contact with me. It's been over for two weeks and they went 10 10 days without contacting me. That whole suit day and that's all I have at this time. Thank you, Justin. Thank you. Thank you.

Good to have my report in front of you. Um, four houses are officially on the new water man south of town. Um, they'll be working on adding the other houses in Sokco over the next couple weeks. Um they've got a bore under 19 so that could get a little fishy but um we replace replaced the rain ball data logger out of the wetlands. Um it seemed to be working when we installed it kind of. Um we'll find out at the end of the month. Um, we finally got the wetlands to burn off was quite the event. Um, the this week now, yeah, the way I worded this was from last week, but anyways, this week they are supposed to start the concrete work between uh Dies and Gas Station. Um, I've not heard anything from them other than when I called them. couple weeks ago they were shipped for the week of the 23rd. So

have we made contact with the gas station or delies to let them know the gas station? We'd already well I just didn't know as far as like the updated of like this is when it's going to so they're

uh the jetervac discussion. So, I got that that quote there. Um, we had we had Best Equipment kind of that's who we bought the Jeder Vector on years ago. We had Best Equipment kind of look over our machine and um get some advice on on what to do with it. Um they recommended that we should keep the machine because um Ringamatic doesn't even make combo units anymore. Um so they recommended we keep the machine and put money into it to keep it keep it running well. Um, and then we had um, Brown Equipment Company um, take a look at it and they say since it needs $16,000 worth of work done to it, he'd probably only buy it for 12 grand.

Yeah. He he came in and gave us an estimate for trade in value on it, which is about 30,000ish. Yeah. So the the trade in I think he was given us 15,000 um because they would have to put another 15 or 16 into it. Yeah. Um but they they quoted it with a trade in and a new machine which the new machines are it was still $120,000 with the trade in. So so yeah um after hearing those two things I think it makes our decision pretty easy. to put money into our machine and keep it running well, keep it quite a laundry list of stuff. Yeah.

A lot of it has to do with one single part of it. Most of the parts go to the bearing system where our big boom or turret system where the big boom swings out for you to be able to suck stuff. Pretty much every piece that is being replaced in that is a custommade piece. So custom made means made of gold. Yeah. Um Yeah. Well, we got to get up and running.

I It It's running and it's working fine. The problem is each time we use that turret, it gets worse. Um, could we get through another year? Yeah, we probably did. But, um, why why I mean, you just worry about all the time. So, I think we need to get fixed. Go get it fixed. That's my opinion. Um,

the professionals kind of alluded to that, too. like the best equipment's like you got a nice piece of equipment there. Um Brown kind of said the same thing like this is this this is a good you know good piece of equipment. Um and heck I think the one that they quoted us on wasn't even really as big as ours. I mean you know it was kind of a smaller model even. Um and and that that quote there that is a if we approve it and send it to them and tell them, okay, we're good with it. They collect they got everything to where the downtime of them having it. It's not it's in the shop. Well, we have to order this part. We have to order this part. They order everything beforehand and have everything on hand to do what they need to do.

And they come and get it and take it and bring it back. I I I can see it in your face, Rich. I know it's it's hard. It's $16,000 is not a not a small number. There's quite a laundry list of items here. A footage counter for the hose, you know, the hose itself, you know. So, I don't know what these things are. So, if you're thinking all of these things need to be replaced. I thought it was ridiculous that the hose was on there until we rolled the hose out and saw that there was a spot that's almost worn here. Ah,

so you guys operate the machine. Um, we're if we spend this, we're committed to keep it and we should. And that's a that's a that's a deal where we committed to maintaining this that maybe was neglected a little bit before. I mean, that's been around since 2017, and it's the first time we've ever had it looked at. Yeah. You know, I mean, and for us, it still worked. Like, like, we still did this and did that. We took it to have it serviced and fix a leak on it. Well, they did the fine tooth comb on it. Okay. And showed us that. And then once we seen that, we were like, "Oh crap, that is it."

Yeah. I mean, every time you move that boom, the whole machine is going to tear over. not supposed to do that hard. Well, I can support it if you guys are in favor of it. And you know, do you have any I know that I don't want to write a check for a new one again. That was my first That was the first check that in the backo that I wrote and it was that Do you remember what that one was? Six figures. Was almost 100. Yeah. Yeah. So that's 10 years ago almost $200,000. And that's the inflation part

and that was I just wrote the check that was approved by you all before I came in. Just for the record, the one that we had quoted with a $15,000 trade was $140,000. So it's you're 150 140 150. Yeah. Well, they're not even making a machine now. So

the only way you can give there's that probably still do. We just we're with Ringomatic. So that's who I talked to at Best Equipment. They sell Ringomatic and Ringomatic doesn't. I'm sure other companies do, but I mean they're again here at 150,000$160,000 $140,000. Trust me, I don't like it either. I'd much rather $16,000 go towards a a UTV. I I would, but it's a it's a piece of equipment driving.

So, all right. Well, I'm going to make a motion that um we get the jitter fixed. uh from Browns Equipment Company. Yep. Um for the total $16,317.80. Second. All in favor? All right.

I Okay. Oh, yeah. Um, uh, the parttime opening has been built by Mr. David Row. Uh, he started a couple weeks ago. Um, he's doing very well. Um, no complaints there. Um, I do need them to approve his hourly wage. I know you were able to hire him, but so it's in the official minutes. So since it's a gap 16 Mhm. Okay.

Do I ask them? Can you guys approve the hourly wage of $16 an hour for one Mr. David Row? We can. Yeah. So make a motion. Somebody second it just like we do anything else. A motion that we approve um a wage of $16 per hour for a part-time uh maintenance person. All in favor

update on the tornado siren on the south side of town. Um, we met with the insurance adjuster today who did not miss a thing about this. So, I'm assuming he's looking for any possible whether or not we have the insurance company pitch in here. We haven't talked about it, so I have no idea. It was ridiculous. He spent an hour down there on one box. Almost an hour. So, when JK did they did JNK show up?

Yep. JNK showed up. He showed him like all the like the capacitor that exploded inside of it. um big black spots on the inside of the box that show it's clearly been burnt up. Um but he looked it over and guess we'll be hearing back from him. He wanted the quote that we got for the um replace the circuits um which we explained to him if we replace the cir if we replace the circuits the siren could still be bad. We we have no way of testing the siren until the circuits are replaced. So then if we replace the circuits, there's $11,000. Well, then the siren's still bad. There's another $40,000.

Yeah, it's just been

Yeah, the whole siren and and just I'm putting this on the record because it's not just Akan. When we had the tornado sirens tested and that whole thing, we were not there was five out in Fulton County. the amount of people throughout the state of Indiana and unfortunately with bad weather, we are in a better situation than most that we have two tornado sirens here in town and the purpose of a tornado siren is if you are outside to seek shelter. They are not for you inside your home to alert you that a tornado is coming. That is other news sources. I mean, it's a great resource, but it's not the only source that you should rely on. It's more for if you were outdoors to seek shelter. So, I think a lot of people have a misinterpretation of the purpose of that tornado siren, but needless to say, we're trying to get it repaired. I just we just have something a lot of these other communities don't. They don't have a backup.

So, okay. So, this is a backup. So, no, it's not a backup. I'm saying I mean, if it's not working and our other ones working, we're still we're okay. We still have Yes, we have an alert system because I mean, if we have to have this, we got to get fixed. Then, you don't technically have to, correct? I don't I don't know how that all works. I don't I didn't even know the thing. I thought it was fire. I didn't even know it was ours. So, um but yeah, we're working on trying to find a solution to that. And I don't know, it's all in kind of in the hands of insurance right now.

So, they got a quote to fix it. Yeah, I've gotten a quote to fix the circuit boards on the inside of the control panel for $11,000ish. And then I've got a quote to replace the control panels and the siren, everything, the whole system for $40,000. So they do one or the other, right? Kind of. I mean I mean you're going to do one in your absolute bit of fix is absolute best. is you replace the boards and the and we're done dealing with it. But that's a big risk to take because you're spending $11,000

on top of if that doesn't fix it $4,000. And depending on the assessment done by the engineer, the way our policy reads, if it was struck by lightning, there's only about a $5,000 coverage. If it was a power surge, we have up to $250,000 for coverage of it. So that's why they and we find out we talked to the National Weather Service. Yeah. They didn't find a lightning strike in they did not have anything. We Yeah, we talked to Okay.

They did that assessment and then the insurance also pulled off of some resource. They have a like lightning strike and it would show an assessment of that and there wasn't any during the time from the time our siren was working till the time that next ove they will testing. So if one lightning strike they will pay $5,000 of whatever it takes to fix it. So they don't know what caused it because if it's an internal thing and they just replace circuit boards it's going to internally fry it again. So they don't do they know what caused it or it sounds like they don't. They don't. I think the initial assessment from JK was was a lightning strike. Yeah. J thought it was a lightning strike. Still thinks it's a lightning strike

buting issue too then. Well, I mentioned to him that like um they didn't see any lightning strikes in the area. So they think that u the insurance people think it could be a power surge. And he was like well either way you're getting too much power. So I guess it could be that too. So, I don't know. You want to make sure you know best idea what it is because you go pay a minimum of $1,000, you don't want whatever happen to happen again. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah.

Big thing. find out why do it multiple times. Yeah, but we can't afford it. Yeah, I mean that's a bit I mean I mean this will Yeah. Um okay. Uh tree quotes. They are tree service. They the ones you used before? Yes. You happy with their work? Uh, very happy.

Um, the first one on there is Philips Tree Service. Um, $10,000 on that one. Um, I can't remember. Yeah, this included them hauling it away. Um, so if they hold it back to our Lagoons or we helped them, it it might be a little cheaper, but he didn't put both of them on there. Um, that one's 10,000. And then Roy Wallen free service. Um, I'm going to clean up, I think. Okay. With with us helping him,

um, it'd be 7500 with him doing all the clean up. 10,500. Yeah. Um, and then the last one, AR 7652. Yeah.

And that I mean that kind of includes our help cleaning up, but not really. We kind of just provide our trucks because of the machine they use to clean up. they don't really need our skid loader or even our manual labor. Um, so my vote is obviously for AR3 services. They have done a really good job. We have a really good working relationship with them. Um, and they're within the ballpark on the price and that that includes them. Okay.

So, right. And if approved, they can be here in 3:18. They have it on their schedule to be here the 26th if they are approved. All right. Any other questions, guys? So, um he recommends AR service. So, I'll make a motion that we accept the bid here from AR Tree Service or 7,65250 to remove How many trees is he? 57 five. I show five stumps. Okay. So, I assume five trees. Five trees and the stumps.

I'll second. All in favor? All right. And then the last thing is the first bathrooms are opening. Everybody rejoice.

Um, can you circle back up to the pipe lumber company CF form CF1? It I gave you a new agenda today. wasn't on the one that was previously provided because that got emailed to me today.

Yeah. So, these are um the confirmation uh the abatements that we approved um several years ago and it's in the annual reporting. That's that's due and then I provide like you guys said we have to prove it and sign off and then I'll submit it to the auditor for compliance. Correct. And I'm not employed anymore. So do you have any stake or interest in the company?

But I'll be happy to obtain if you want me to

I know the work I'm done. So, I motion that we approve the two uh CF1s as we have in the past. I'll second that. All in favor?

Okay. Um I know Andy isn't present. He had with us having to reschedule the area plan meeting this evening, but he did send me an email that I provided a copy of you with since. And so just to read what he provided um this is regarding the data center moratorum that was put into place by the county. So whenever the area plan commission receives or initiates a proposal to modify the text of the zoning ordinance it may one make a favorable recommendation two make an unfavorable recommendation or three take no action. In February, the area plan commission made a favorable recommendation on to place a moratorium on the zoning ordinance. Informally, this would impose a moratorium on any permits related to data centers for a one-year period. Since the area plan commission is first and foremost the body designated to make recommendations not pass ordinances. It then passes its recommendation on to the legislative bodies. County commissioners Akran Town Council Kiwana Fulton Rochester City within 90 days of the certification. It is up to the town of Akran whether to one adopt the recommendations, two change or reject it or three take no action. It does not need to have a new public hearing so long as the notice of the public meeting indicated that the proposed ordinance would be considered. If it considers adopting the recommendation, the council should consider consider whether it wants um that adoption that an adoption to coincide with the county commissioners now adopted one-year time period or being a one-year period of its own at some later time. So then you'll also see attached kind of the flowchart on how this all works as well as the statute. Um

and then I also did provide kind of a sample ordinance if at a future meeting you were to make a recommendation. Um I do know Heather is planning to attend our April meeting and I just have to make the public aware 48 hours in advance if an ordinance is going to be considered by the town council or the data center moratorum. So, and I would rather do it more than 48 hours, but that is the requirement to be able to discuss and pass that ordinance. So we did we pass it today?

No, we have to in 48 hours. I was at the next meeting. Yes, we did not give adequate notification to the community for them to be here and have I mean realistically like from our standpoint we don't have a and town. I don't think anything that's enough and you have industrial but we don't have enough ground but still to right make a decision as a legislative body. Yeah. So we'll take care of that next month. Yeah. So you want me to make sure the council or that the public is aware that that will be

Yes. discussed like that. Okay. Um, a couple things to add before we get to dockets. Um, just for the record, um, the town of Akran, um, on March 2nd was awarded the Oakra grant for a wastewater project of $750,000. Jim has signed the contract agreement. It is now back at the state for all of their signatures. Um the reason we had to cancel last Monday's meeting um for quite some time our lights have flickered but in the last two weeks it got to the point that like everything was shutting down electronically in my office. Garage doors weren't working. um all of our backup and I called an electrician and they advised me to contact Duke Energy first because if they would come out do an assessment it's 50/50 whether it's an internal situation or if it's Dukes. So Duke came out did an assessment and we had an issue with our main power supply line. Um when I came into work last Monday morning everything was going haywire and I got back a hold of Duke. do put me through the same run around the prior Monday. Well, Dora at least had been notified that J&J out of Cooko was the one that was going to come and bore the line. I called them directly to see if they even had a work order in for us. They did, but it wasn't put in as an emergency work order, but the lady indicated on the phone this is 100% an emergency situation. So I had to call Duke back and in the meantime the Duke and the J&J people got and they were here Monday afternoon and worked till 8:45 at night and then came back

the next day for actual hookup Duke did. So um wasn't ideal but all of our ongoing issues have resolved itself due to that um utility fix. Um, I got notification today. I received the money for the CCMG grant match from the state. So, I do have that in my account. Um, one thing, Jake, just to circle back around, we have precon meeting with DC Construction on Friday at 10:00 a.m. just to go over the project with them and with Butler, Fairman, and Cipher. Um, so I met with Tanisha today just to talk logistics on some things to make sure we were all on the same page. Um, I think we will be okay on that. But outside of that, I think that's

Oh, and the other thing is after we sent the email to Verizon and you sent it back, um, we've not heard anything. So, are we proceeding are we proceeding with termination? Are you reaching back out again?

Uh, you know, we can stay the course where we're at. I mean, the whole idea was if you're going to make these great changes, then we should be compensated for it. If they're not going to make the changes and they're going to keep everything the same, I don't see a need to terminate it at this point. I'm open to ideas and talks and I I say uh see the horse and well see if they'll get back with us and um really want to I mean if we terminate something we better have something in mind unless we don't we don't care. It just becomes down to if they're saying no, we want to upgrade our site and you're saying this is the amount

of rent we're wanting and then they said okay then we're going to find a different site then they remove it and that's so if they become if they want to they will find a different site. Oh yeah would be hard for them I don't believe after hearing what the revenue is each year exactly why they can afford to pay the fee for the excessive equipment and the ground usage that they want to utilize.

Anything else? Rebecca. All right. Go to dockets. Uh $76,000 975 and 10. I went through this. I didn't see anything stuck out. Right. So, go ahead. I'll make a motion to approve the dockets for $76,97567. Second. All in favor? Hi. Hi.

And uh payable allowance dockets of 33,000 $3.96. Motion to approve. All in favor? I

All right. No other business. We'll adjourn the meeting.