Town Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, today's date is May 12th, 2026. This will be the Arlington Town Council meeting. Uh, all three town county representatives are here, Daniel, Jared, and myself. Karen is here as the town clerk. We'll go ahead and start this meeting. Uh, first will be approval of minutes. I make a motion to approve the minutes. Second. I have a motion by Jared to approve amendments. Second by Daniel. All those in favor say I. I.

I. Oppose. Motion carries. Next will be the payment of claims. There's a motion that council second. Have a motion by Daniel to pay the bills. Jared seconded that motion. All those in favor say I.

I. Motion carries. Next will be T modu. look like a stop anyway. I don't like this new form or one of these men that he's not like doesn't say. No, no, we need I'll get with him. I don't like this form cuz he's getting this off the CAD from the county but it's not got stops on it.

So maybe he did stop it. He just printed this out. Yeah, it's possible just didn't get it on the cabin. So then maybe ask him to go back to the other thing. Well, we can or just make sure that it's on here.

Make a motion to approve the October report. Second motion by Jared, second by Daniel. All those in favor say I. I. I oppos. Motion carries to call Shane. Anybody with community club? You're up. Well, got our new pumps. You probably seen on there. And I just got to get the brackets to go down on them for the rails. Those don't come with them. So, I have a price, man. Uh, our stick pick went really good. dumpsters, not so much. We had an incident down there where somebody hit one of the cars parked down on Elos. And he's I have no I don't know if he's contacted his insurance company here how it's going to work, but the treasure is on the ground and it's piled right beside the sign that says nothing on the ground. So, we're going to have to do something different for next year. We got to be able to police it better. or not do it.

Take it away. Yeah, if that's happened like last year wasn't too bad. The year before that was really bad. Right. I remember one year it was terrible. We're getting out of town stuff and I'm like I'm about done with it. By Saturday morning I went up through there. I don't know. It was quarter after 8. I mean they were full like loaded. Friday night it was full. Yeah. elegant touch with Shane and Shane said it's more of a on him, you know, as far as the insurance and stuff like that. So, we're just kind of waiting to see what happens with that

and uh we had a thought, but you know, we don't want to do that just yet. So, but yeah, that's not working. I know Cam has issues as well. system which I think they're going to eliminate theirs. I mean, the whole intention of it was for Burlington residents to be able to clean up their property, right? Well, people now are storing their stuff all year long just for this. Just to get rid of Yeah. not working. How about the trees on Park Road? Did we get those down? Mhm. What's that? It was in the claims. That's all.

Oh, okay. Well, I saw it, but I didn't know if Yeah. Yeah, completely done. Yeah, we got that done there. We had one come clear across the roof and the other one was leaning. It was going to hit the wires and then there was another one was dead. So, we just took all three of them out. Okay. Yeah, that was by far the best. It wasn't safe. I mean, you can see that just a wall. So, how how many like what percentage of people do you think are taking advantage of I mean, not not right on that. I mean, a small percentage. Well, last year I caught two people. I made them load up their stuff and take them out. Now whether they come back later on, who knows? But

but I did catch a couple, but it's just And then it's piled right beside the sign, right? That's what it's aggravating. I drove by Friday and tell somebody I know who lives in the county with the truck backed up. Yeah. Well, they surfing like buzzers. Yeah, they just surfing like buzzards before the dumpsters got there. Yeah, there's five people in line before they had a parked in there. I mean, they was all towners, you know, but Right. But still, yeah, I just do that at the church sometimes, too. I see.

I think we just need to hold it for a little while. Maybe we can come up with a better plan. That's about all I got. Okay. How much does that cost for us to do that? Uh, what was it? Karen 425 a dumpster I think it was. I don't remember it being very expensive. It's around about 900 bucks. It's not real expensive, but we get abused every time it seems like. And it's getting to the point where you can't do it anymore. Yeah, that'll be in discussion for next year. So,

consider doing um trash city trash pickup with the sewage bill that like Rosco and Florida and them do. So where you residents in town have a basically you have to pick up with a certain company and you have the toers that are there. It cost him that much more every week in a suit or every month in their sewage bill. It could, but that's a hassle for carrying. But everybody most almost every resident has somebody with totes already

and that's just like get rid of it. Don't store it. Some people do curb sites, you know, the town picks it up, but we just don't have the people to do that

and don't have any place to put it and take it without getting dumpsters ourselves. Kind of defeat the purpose. Okay. Park. Anybody? Okay. We'll move on then to a guest Mike Martin from Carol Area Plan. How's everybody doing today? Um, so I've been uh Carol County area plan director for about two years now. Um, about 2 years ago I was thinking I probably get over to Burlington and introduce myself to everybody over here and never quite made it. But um um so this mixed use ordinance proposal was brought up by Cameron Gates uh the direct the director before me and I think in the middle of all that he got elected as mayor of Deli. So it just kind of fell flat. So I think uh Camden initially signed off on it and the commissioners had already signed off and approved it um for Burlington Camden and Yman. So I don't really know like there's a few questions I need to ask on the legal side of it. Um, I don't want to just go changing the map on Burlington, you know, because that downtown area where it says B3 or whatever. The intent was to change that to M1. And the reason, from what I understand, would be because of the residents that are there. Like if something's owned B1 or B2, it's not necessarily appropriate

to have a single dwelling there. you could have a dwelling unit. This is an accessory to the business. And it specifically says that. So she she asked a question, what if the house burns down? Somebody wants to rebuild. What about the property set back and the minimum lot sizes? Not such a big issue with this town because you have already have sewage. That's the biggest issue with lot sizes, right? So, I don't see that being a big problem as far as the lot sizes. Hypothetically, the house burned down, but if a house burned down, single family dwelling that was currently zoned as B2 or three, I think technically to rebuild, it would have to get reszoned back to some sort of residential zoning if it stays the way it is. Now, the intent of this MU was to clean that up

cuz people have trouble refinancing their homes.

Well, we had people that could buy a house because it's the same way in all the little towns in Camden. There was one lady, she had she owned the old pizza king there and she closed the business down, converted it back into single family building. Went through the reszone process long before me. Went through that process and had it listed for sale. When she had it listed for a year, couldn't get it sold. And finally, somebody said, "Well, you know, it's zone business. I can't buy it without 20% down." But she went through the process to get it reszoneed. and it just never the map never got changed. So, technically it was reszoned, but it didn't look like it.

It's a realtor's fault.

Yeah, it's kind of there's a lot of I'm just saying that there's I mean there's one uh the guy that runs the dock bar and restaurant here. He owns a I think it's a it's a rental. It looks like an old business of some kind. Single story. I'm not exactly sure right where it is. But it's being used as a single family like rental, which is fine cuz it's been doing that for 15 years. I'm not going to go and be like, "Hey, you have to change all that." But for financial purposes, a person like that, he would benefit by having it as MU cuz then not all banks require 20% down. But if you want to use your equity in your home to do improvements, it's got to be 80%. So if that stuff's making sense to you guys or not. Um, and there's several other other issues with the zoning and in general having it all B2 or B3. Even Deli changed all their maps, too, because it didn't quite fit the bill for downtown, you know. So, it wouldn't really change a whole lot. Um, I guess there was some feedback prior that people were worried that like, oh, someone can just open a tattoo parlor and or whatever. Well, technically, they could do that now. someone that h has a house that's on B2 or three here now, they could start working on cars in your backyard and you couldn't stop them. And so if you look in here, like you know, the top part, that's the stuff that's intended uses. And then down here

is special exceptions. So some of the stuff in in you here they'd have to be able to do some of this stuff they have to come before area plan commission and pitch their idea and explain it things like that. something else that so something you should think about too that no one they probably weren't thinking about this when they wrote this but if so say the gas station they sell vape and they sell cigarettes and they sell all that stuff right I don't know what the Indiana law is going to end up mean, but right now there's no county rules against uh the dispensaries. So, in the town of Del, I asked the guy that runs the vape shop there. It's literally a head shop. Got bongs, all kinds of paraphernalia for sale in there, every kind of cigarette he could think of. He's a really nice guy, but he he think he knows I work for the county, right? So, he thinks I'm in there like looking at like looking at his stuff. I'm just buying a pack of cigarettes, right? But I asked him, I'm like, "What's the rules? Like, how's this work? When when Indiana makes this available, what do you have to do to start selling it?" He said, "Nothing locally. There's no requirement locally for him to do anything."

That's good state license. Well, and but most of these guys already have that stuff. They're they're like waiting to pull the trigger on that stuff. They've already got it. That's why you bought that building. Yes. And you know, it's harder than what you think because the state still has to approve it. So

I know I'm just saying that it'll there's there's it's just an example of like loose ends, you know, that so you think, oh well, someone might open a tattoo shop based on a change to MU. you probably already knew that anyway, you know, or but this would short-term rentals without that covers Airbnbs, you know, there's nothing that covers Airbnbs now. So, that's the issue we're running into on the lake. Everybody wants to buy all the lake properties and it's literally their weekend property, but they're classifying as an Airbnb so they can ride it off. No one ever stays there. They're just using it as a business write off. But still, it's like they're supposed to taxes are supposed to be paid for inkeepers tax and that's supposed to go somewhere, but no one's really, you know, checking that stuff. Just giving you guys some things to think about. I don't by no means am I an expert. Um, if you guys are interested in pursuing this, it the reason the main reason is it's going to benefit the people that have dwellings in the downtown area the most. If there's some other places that you'd like think would benefit from being MU, we can probably highlight it and that'd be a suitable option, too. And like we're uh we're also getting started updating the comprehensive plan for the county. So the comprehensive plan is like the playbook for the whole county and you're supposed to update it every 10 years and it's been almost 20 since we have. So hopefully I can get that

done within the next year or two and update all the county ordinances. not not rewrite them, but just get a new book, word them so they make sense, cuz some of it's uh contradictory or whatever. But the comprehensive plan will probably end up coming around to all the towns and, you know, present to you and there'll be experts involved that that's this is what they do. But something you guys should think about as a town is where where would Burlington expand? Where would the city limits expand to? What side of the town and what's the best spot? So just just you don't necessarily have to move the city limits. You just you need to have a plan like hey maybe this is where we would go you know for we're talking 10 15 years from now. So, does anybody have any questions? I kind of the particularly the guy that um can't think of his name that runs the restaurant, he I mean he called and asked about this specifically. It's something I was on my radar. I knew I just hadn't really had time to mess with it. So I was like, well, he's going to have to come before me and do a resound, which is going to be time consuming and costly for him, but he could have already been taken care of. I have a property on Sixth Street that's a residence. It's one house behind 29. So uh it's to the east of 29. So right down here at Marathon. So you go across Marathon, there's a house right around the corner that I'm right behind a little brick house. had my first rental. Uh my issue is is my that property is split by an an antiquated alleyway that's no longer used, but it's still

on the books. My house and the little parcel behind it are considered uh business, central business, and two across that are considered urban right now. So, I have a split property already zoned that, you know, it it's not that's not very effective when I go to sell later on because it just causes risk. My money is Yeah, two zone properties problem. So my m my multiple parcels though. Yeah, it's four parcels. Yeah. So, but it's two and two. The two parcels are separated from just by an alley that's basically vacated, but it's never been vacated properly. Okay.

So, my concern is is, you know, uh I I don't care either way, whether it's mixed use, whether it's central business, I don't care. But um you know my my point is if we're going to reszone that I'd want to have my property all contiguously zoned the same if possible because that's valid and I I think there's se you'll find several of those that we look really hard on the plat because the way Burlington was I mean this thing was platted in 40 or 45T lot widths you know back in well somebody just took a color pencil and made this downtown business they didn't take any I guarantee they didn't have any hearings about it. No one had a se a say in it at all probably. I got one of the last maps when they did it that 1964. So, um

way before Yeah, there's stuff in Del. How long has it been zone like that? We didn't know even the town of Delaw. He doesn't know when or how it was zoned like that. Like, same thing. Dr. Ster's house right through the middle of his property. Same deal all up and down that whole strip. It's the same way. Um, so and then I'm just saying if we're going to change it though, I would my my my position has always been if we're going to make a change, we need to clean it all up, not just go in there and bandage it. So that's that's my thought, Mike. I just would I hate to see us go in there and just be spot zoning for the residents that are there and then, you know, because some of them wouldn't need some spot zoning. It' be the whole the whole block that's highlighted on there.

Yeah. And my opinion was is if we were going to do that that we should look at all the way from Jackson Street over to and I can't remember what the street is between over there where uh Linda Brookshire live Washington. My thought was that you went Jackson to Washington and then figured out your end zone on 29. Then that way you cuz there's there's pieces that float all the way through that is the issue right now. Yeah. And I just don't know. I mean, I think you're going to have a zigzaggy key looking cut if we, you know, be a line draw from their crown. Well, you can't avoid that 100% no matter how hard you want to. No,

but that's just that was what I mentioned before was cuz so many some of these businesses have bled back especially towards Washington. Yes. That Jackson Street's not quite as bad, but Barnard Lumber runs all the way from 29 to Jackson or the old Barnard Lumber, stuff like that. So there's just stuff like that that and you know I know Karen lives right across there so she's always concerned about what could be right across her neighbor now. So but anyway that's just that's my thought. So that's where I stood two three years ago on this and that's where I stand now and I thought that's what we were going to do cuz I that's why I was getting ready to say I knew your property was was messed up. Yeah. Which we could just fix this property. Yeah.

We could fix this property like we could fix that problem. just it's just it's more of a a zigzag though. I'm just saying if you had just all the way to Jackson from Jackson to Washington, everything in between them was that CV and if you went all the way down here to this post office then all the way north of Dollar General, you know, which I know that's not ideal, make it all mixed use. So they would be residential or I know the the old bank, the guy that owns that for instance, he's like he goes, I want to put three apartments in there. Well, the way it's zone now, he can't.

He can have a retail business or a restaurant and then have a dwelling unit that's an accessory to the building. He could have that. So, if you know, for instance, if he was able to like, hey, I could have three units here. He'd put the money into it and fix it up and probably get it sold or keep it rented or whatever. That's up to him. But he his hands are kind of tied a little bit. Of course, you know, every when you buy real estate, it's always a risk. So, um, but just saying like that's example where changing it to MU would benefit someone. I don't So, what's our next step? I don't know. I'm waiting to figure because I know that like Yman, they're taking it and they're going to sign it. It's already been discussed. They've already talked about it. They've already debated it. It's already been approved by the commissioners. So, the question I don't I'm not sure of is it go does it go ahead and change the whole thing or does everybody have to individually come in and request it? I don't think that's the case. I think it just goes ahead and gets changed. It just, you know, I just go and tell the person that runs Beacon like, "Hey, here's the line. This is what we're following.

Are you saying that you guys are going to change our map like without our permission? Is that what you're saying? No, we can't because you haven't signed it yet. County commissioners have have I don't know if they can over over I I don't think they can do that. I'm not I'm not interested in doing that. I just This is my opportunity. Like, hey, if you guys want to revisit this and do something with it or I'll share the paperwork, we'll forget about it.

No, it needs to be revisited. As a land owner that has multiple parcels in those in that section, I would like to see a complete listing of what's allowed, what's special exception, and what's not allowed in those in that zoning of that mixed use just because that would help me understand exactly what I'm going through. So, and then and I've looked at it and it's been 3 years ago, Mike. Yeah, that's it's been so long that I

Yeah, like I said, I wasn't involved in it all. I know that Cindy the attorney spent and she she's like yeah she spent a lot of time on it and then it just kind of like died. Cam inside it and they they got they're they don't have hardly anything to worry about. You know, there's no conflicts that they can even think of. But it does clean up what's currently being done. Like there's a lot of like would be called zoning violations right now. If you switch pretty much switched it over to MU today, the zoning violations would be gone. Even though I'm not going to go out and pursue it as a violation technically, it's not being used. Uh what's your professional opinion about the uh I mean Burlington has the same problem as most small towns. We got a bunch of empty commercial buildings or underutilized commercial buildings. With this with this zoning change, would it enable us to to bring in businesses easier?

The block building that's got the bird and all the broken windows out of it. So that's curve. That's like what uh B2 or B. So it'd be hard to convert that into something residential cuz for one, pretty much anything you do there is going to need to be completely redone. But if if it was zoned in you, then they don't have to reszone it to do multiple options. You know, you could have a laundry mat and and an apartment there. It's just I'm just using that example. I'm not saying it's up to them what they want to do with it.

But like uh the looks like it used to be Well, where we at? Over here next to the barn lover. Looks like it used to be a little fire department or something. um on the corner uh just right next door to the storage units for sale. That's it was originally the bank and the old phone company. So, as it's zoned now and in MU you they wouldn't be allowed to have an apartment on the first floor on the main road like that. They have right now.

It was supposed to be used for a small business. You know, that's something I you know, if if uh they called and said, "Hey, we want to completely remodel this thing and change the use of it." Be like, "All right, well, that that first floor has to go back." But in B1, like I said, it's it's supposed to have a business there and a accessory dwelling. So, it's just kind of the way the things are written is kind of loose anyway, but I'm just trying to do the, you know, the best for everybody. I said Camden's same deal. There's, you know, their mam is a little bit bigger in Burlington. So, and they didn't they signed off on it and as far as I know, they didn't have hardly any argument against it. Whatever 2 or 3 years ago, I wasn't a part of that. You know,

I Jared and I weren't on the council, but wasn't there a public hearing in 2023? I emailed that and the result the result of that public hearing was that people didn't want it, right? There there was it was it was about 50/50 to be truthful if I remember right the people I talked to but they were just scared a lot of them

yeah I don't know that it's really going to make that much of a difference like it's going to make if they go to refinance or borrow money against their property it's it's bank's policy whether they want to enforce that or not but there's There's people that call us, "All right, well, we can't refinance your place cuz it's zoned industrial." There's places out in the middle of nowhere that's got zoned I2 somehow cuz somebody had a trucking company there. Like, we're talking mom and pop trucking company, not a not a shipping hub. But like, what do they do, you know? Well, I if if it was 50/50, that's still like a lot of people. I think before we make a decision about this, we should have another public hearing so people can come in and see

Well, I agree. I I think that there needs to be at least a, you know, a drawing of of what of what it would look like.

What I highlighted on that beacon map was just my idea of what the intent was. doesn't mean I'm 100% right. You know, uh Cindy and Cameron are involved in that. I'm still in contact with Cindy, so we can have her come to the next meeting or whenever you guys want to have my earring on this cuz I'm not in a hurry on it. Like if you guys want to cuz you should look at what cuz I don't even have a B3. There is no B3 zone. I don't have it. So like technically that's already wrong, you know, like all that is is a phone call away. I be like, "Hey, switch all that to B2 because we don't have V3." Was there a V3 in the past at some point

in our town in the zoning ordinance from like 197071 somewhere there was a B3. Okay. And I didn't I don't know how it worked back then, but I've seen it in the people. Well, I I assume whatever ordinances you have are still valid. They would be in addition to whatever the county is. It as far as I can understand from the research I've done that the town's ordinance governs the whatever the is going on here. Yeah.

So, you guys are like operating in advisory like administrative capacity like you're doing now to try I get I get a lot of phone calls on a wide range of things. I'm sure you probably don't. Sure.

You know, so like why is this town doing all this stupid stuff, you know, like I'm like I'm not saying I'm not saying that's what they say, but people, you know, people are. I'm like, well, good question. I don't know. Don't have an answer, you know. And then same thing back to uh not to change the subject, but is worth mentioning. I I rewrote the all the nuisance ordinance for the county and presented it to the commissioners to get it updated and figure out a way to actually enforce it and county their attorney took it and he's like kind of sitting on it. So I got stonewalled on that. So if you guys want something to happen with nation stuff, you guys are should do it with your own ordinance because if you have one,

we do. So that's kind of what Ted did is he's like, "Well, it's up to the towns." So like he pretty much threw everybody else under the bus just because he doesn't want to do the work or whatever cuz I get probably 40 nes complaints a week. you know, and I'm I got to tell them the same stuff doing the best I can. I wasted 12 hours today, you know, trying to get someone to clean up some trash. So, just let you know that I I I'm trying to do that. Are you talking about in the county?

The county, but I mean, I get mis complaints for Burlington, too. So that's just people like misunderstanding that what if you you guys are have struggling enforcing yours. You see how like I can't everybody thinks so you just call somebody and they have them find them. It doesn't work that like that. Well, I think we we usually have Shane take the baby papers to them if like Shane will take the baby papers if it's if it really is. Yeah. Right. He's the marshall.

Sure. And we're trying to get Camden to do that, too. So Camden always just jumps on me. Well, they got their own town marshal and they got their own town council and all that stuff. So it's like, well, it's like, well, if you already have the ordinance, figure out a way to use it,

right? You know, um, just letting you know. And then, like I said, back to the, uh, comprehensive plan. That'll be something that'll come within the next year or two. Probably a little bit more information on how to be available. But, um, yeah, that's something that you guys need to think about like what would be the what would be the next move, you know, 10, 15 years from now. If there was to be a new subdivision, where would you where would it need be best placed? Cuz you're not really reszoning that area. You're just saying, "Hey, this would be an appropriate spot."

If the annex of them who pays for that, is it the town that pays for that? I assume it would be the town. Yeah. For the legal cost advantage thing. Yeah, I believe so. Property taxes of course would be then changed county

to court. So that would be the the difference is you part of it from there. But, you know, as far as the actual drawing of the lines and figuring it out, yeah, you'd have to go through all the proper notices and notifications and all that, all the meetings and then Yeah. So, I guess if I was you guys, I'd dust off the V3 ordinance and if you send send it to me, too, so I can take a look at it cuz I haven't seen it. I've seen Delphies. I know what Delphies looks like. It's pretty much the same thing. just add a few extra requirements or a few uh other things you could do. Um that's pretty much all I got. I just I'm I know there's at least one guy in Burlington right now that needs this to happen soon. And so and it was something I knew that was brought up years ago and just kind of got dropped. So

when we had the public hearing cuz that was required by law and that was in December of what 22 and I I sent it to them but I can't remember off the top of it was 23. What's the number? We had to send a certified like we sat and we wrote down every parcel it affected and we had a whole list and we had to mail everybody a certified letter. Yeah, I do it all the time to for all for all those parcels. Sure. Yeah.

So, if we had another public hearing, I mean, I don't know what the law would be at this point, but if we had that would be something that would have to be a consideration is that we'd have to go through that process again. Yeah. I was I could ask Cindy would be the one to answer that question if that would need to happen again because I know that the public can have all the opinions they want, but ultimately terrible

you make the decision or whatever cuz people come in all the time and they just throw a fit over somebody reszoning something. It's cuz they they think there's going to be a nuclear waste site next to door to them and it's just, you know, you know, this was kind of overreacting a little bit. So yeah, like like I said, I got to check it checking it out a little bit more. Just wanted to bring this to you guys. Hey, get your feel for it. Like I get it. You know, if you go on property, it's got to get cut in half, but that that's takes place everywhere. There's probably partials that are partially U1 and partially all the way around. And I don't know that really affects much either. So, so that's all I got guys. Anything else I can do or help or any questions? I sit in almost all the commissioners meetings and all the council meetings and u especially the council. They're going way better than they used to. They used to waste so much time arguing about the dumbest things. Uh I it seems like it's really productive. Um and they don't waste a lot of time spinning their wheels. The commissioners means are get or I would say better too. Not so much uh back and forth jibber jabber. It's more down to business and stuff like that. So I make a point to go like I'm I'm in the building and I get paid full time to do this. So, um, a lot of times I get get involved in stuff that's not really in my lane, but it's okay. So, and as far as closing alleys, you know, I don't know. Do you guys have your own street department? Would you have to

close your own alley through the town or would it be through the county? Well, we've done it before with the property. I guess the property. They just did one uh the church or something, wouldn't it? Yeah, we we did that. Y but usually the person gets an attorney to start the process. Yeah. Yeah. The legal description and all that. Yeah. Yeah. The other ones, you know, we have to protest or something on be if there's a sewer line in it, you know, our maintenance or do energy or something like that. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. All right. Well, I'll get out of your hair and let you guys uh finish off with your meeting. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for your time, guys. appreciate it.

Just let me know if you need anything or got any questions. I'm not I don't know all the answers, but um we try. Yeah. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. Okay. We'll move on to old business. It's going to be ordinance 2026-1 additional appropriations.

That the thing we taped last time. Yeah. This was introduced at the public hearing last meeting, but it had to be uh tabled. I wasn't here, right? And then I left a note for Jared. I think Jared can vote on it cuz he's on the fire department or something.

So, do we just need to make a motion to approve it? Right. because it was introduced last month. You don't have to pay that whole rig and roll thing you have to do. Okay. I make a motion that we approve the ordinance 2026-1. Anyone made a motion to approve ordinance 2026-1. I will second that. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. And you abstain. Right. Do motion carries. Nope. I can't

And it only has a place for so just be you and I. Okay, moving on. going to go to resolution 2026-2 transfer appropriations and this is to do our match for the community crossings. Correct. That's what I thought.

So we're moving money for the from the motor vehicle highway sub fund to the local road and bridge matching grant fund for the town's net. I make a motion that we Approve resolution 2026-2. Second. I made the motion. Daniel second. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. I don't think I can vote on this. You can't. So you abstain.

It's like doing good being on the fire department. I can't vote because of it. Such a gift. We're doing good. Oh, yeah. No, not that one. Okay. Next old business is golf cart permit question, which I think we got resolved by the attorney. I wasn't here and I would not approve it. She's Yeah. I mean, is there any additional questions on

No, I mean, it seemed like pretty open to shut to, but I just wanted to him to say look into it. She wants to apparently my understand I wasn't here, but she wanted the golf cart permit, but she does not have a valid license. She because she can't see. Can't see. So, she has to cross the highway. Yeah. So, the request is going to be denied.

Okay. Moving on to new business. April 2026 payroll allowance docket. Why is this Steven Sty have four pages?

You stay on a chicken. I know. Make a motion that we accept the last second. We have a motion by Daniel to approve the allowance docket. Second by Jared. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Next is the must meeting for income tax revenues.

Turn this over to you. Yeah,

I'm not really sure how well I can explain this, but last year they made changes to the tax structures with the property taxes and local income tax. And so now um this year um they are wanting municipalities to work with counties. It's a municipal unit unit strategic task force. It's what it stands for. and um they're wanting um us to meet with the county um for us to work with the county council, but also, you know, advocate what our needs are as a town for local income taxes and um so they're wanting us to work together. It says, you know, for collaboration and planning. The outcomes of these meetings, it says, are not bindings, but it can be used as a guide for planning and recommendations to the general assembly. And they're wanting um us to do this with the county no later than August 1st, 2026 if the county agrees to do it. So, I just wanted to let you know that this is um you know what they're wanting us to do. So my plan at this point is to try to reach out to the other uh municipalities and see if we can meet to talk and also need to get a hold of the county council to see if they are favorable to having a meeting.

So um do they have to do this or they could they choose not to do it the county like not to give us any money?

No, no, no. It's not that. It's just that this is a preliminary. So, this was going to take effect this the the effects of the law and the changes in the revenue structure was going to take place sooner, but they're delaying it now. It'll be effective 2029, but it would be adopted in 2028. So, what they're trying to they're trying to set a framework so that we have time to work with the county to work together in collaboration for these changes that are going to take place. So this meeting is not a requirement of law, but we're hoping that they do it so that we we can make, you know, advocate for our municipalities before the county, right?

So um kind of be ahead of the game,

right? So they've made it so there's a there's a 2.9% cap of total um local income tax rate that's allowed for the whole county and that's divvied up. And if you look on those pages, it ends up being a little bit more than 2.9%. So what I feel is going to happen is just like everybody, well, we need money, we, you know, we need revenue, we need revenue. And so there in lies a concern and I think the toll that the town could receive is 1.2%. But on on the back, and I know that Mr. Higgins was here earlier, but part of the bill that passed last year is if you look on the back where my handwriting is, you know, last year we received a over $16,000 through local income tax, through certified shares, and through levy freeze. And then our property tax for last year um was $90,000. So that all together. That's $267,000 of revenue. That's all changing because of we'll be receiving lower property taxes. My understanding through this bill is they're doing away completely with the levy freeze portion. Well, that's $87,000 right there. And you know, the portion that you can get back through this 1.2% is not what we are receiving now. So, like I said, as I was, you know, for me to fully explain this, I don't know that I'm going to do a good job. It's something that I'm really going to have to spend some time with. And um but I know we're going to have to advocate advocate for our town because the general fund for us is the main fund and we, you know, we have our public safety in there. We have our park in there. You know, the main functions of government come out of that fund. And if

we, you know, have a loss of revenue with local income tax, that could really, really catastrophic cuts would have to make. I mean, yeah, it's a loss of $98,000. Take that over five, I mean, you're $500,000. And that's that's mine, you know. I'm I'm not 100% on that, but that's just my thinking at this moment. But when Mr. Higgins came in, he He said it was a loss of like $19,000 if it was based on this year, right? But that didn't count the levy freeze monies, which according to this law, it repeals it and it goes away,

right?

So it Well, according to the school, cuz they're loosening it, too. That's something similar that they they're taking away from them, too. So, I just I wanted you to be aware of it. There's a whole handout. I can email you a link if you guys want to read through that. You know, I've been trying to go through webinars, you know, in free webinars. I've been trying to but you know, these are people that have been spending 24/7 studying this and and I don't have the ability to do that. So, we may need to rely on Mr. Higgins again to kind of help us navigate through this because you know he's a CPA and and understands more of this on that level.

I agree. Well, as we get closer, it's not that far away. So, as we get closer to it, we're going to need to have a plan as we start to see better like what we're going to do and let people know about it too because like does our marshals pay come out of the general fund? Yes. the and then the the park what we you know what's uh contributed to the park. How much is that like 20 grand? No, it's 40,000 a year. 40,000. So the township contributes 40,000 and then the town contributes 40,000 every year. You have your just, you know, you've got the loan for the the building that we're paying off and

library. Yeah, we we help support the library, but that's if we don't lose mar or township trustees too

cuz that's coming. Okay, script miscellaneous business. I wanted I wanted to talk about um like the the agenda and like setting up the agenda and I would like to like maybe put some more oversight of the council under that, you know, and so there's more time too because like this guy uh you know when he wanted to come in, I don't have like a lot of time to research all this stuff, you know, and I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen. And so it's like we're going to have to make a decision on this now, you know, that sort of thing, which I know we never have to do that, but it would just be better if it was. So I am working on an ordinance that to try to, you know, do that and I'll have it completely ready by next the next meeting just to set some um kind of oversight of the council. And what what I would like to see is that like the agenda have all the the the ordinary business of the town on it every time. So what whatever this this stuff right here, you know, and then this stuff like if somebody wants to have a special presentation or an audience or something that they need to get approval of a majority of the council to get that on the agenda so that we we can say, "Yeah, we want to hear that." Also, we know it's coming like a week ahead of time or whatever um that we come up with. So that's just what I'm working on. I would like that for that to be on the agenda for the next meeting. Scott.

Yes, sir. Jamie, the same thing. Speeding. Having more issues with the house down there. Not right away. Okay. Mr. St. N. I'm ready to retire. I think you're ready to retire. Are you serious? Uh, I'll make a motion. I close this meeting. Second. Okay. I made a motion we close the meeting. Jared seconded it. Always a favorite.