Town Council - Regular Meeting

and no requests.

And there's two changes.

The first change is they're requesting the dates to be 9-11, 9-12, and 9-13. Set up on 9-11 at 4 p.m., tear down 9-13 at 7 p.m. on the streets.

the half marathon 5k they're wanting to move their start and finish line to washington street so they're requesting washington street between blake street and mulberry street to be closed from 6 a.m to 1 p.m on 9 12.

The government said it was her. They were unable to make the lead. I don't know what came up with it. Any issues with the fireplace? Thumbs up. Any other questions?

Okay.

We have two applicants. The doctor appears to be an excellent candidate, given Ms. Henderson is really just getting her feet wet, so to speak. I'm going to point her for the third floor coming up.

That's going to be the easiest agenda item I've ever done.

Next up, I took the voluntary annexation, ordinance 906.

Good evening. A couple weeks ago, I came before you to introduce this annexation. It's basically a housekeeping thing. It's two whole strips of property. This is a public hearing. It's going to be an annexation.

the meeting on august 5th i brought forth the calculations for reading financial regarding the application of the meal tax in the town of danville we gave the consensus to move forward we are under a time crunch so i am asking that the rules be suspended tonight for this issue um the Any questions for the discussion?

I have a question. It's okay. Come forward, please. I didn't get your request to speak.

No, no, I walked in right the last minute. Oh, I'm sorry. Are you all ready, Mr. President? Yeah.

Honestly, if the sheet was all ready, give your name and address, please.

Gary Wilson, I'm a farmer in 535, a farmer of Inga. Actually, yeah, I heard something today. I was just not asking you.

They cleared everything up?

Yeah, they cleared everything up.

i'm sorry all right motion carries 4-0

Motion to move with Kirby. Second. Second Mr. Dobbs.

Roll call vote please.

Michael Chatham.

Aye.

Brett Dowell.

Aye. Greg Irby. Aye.

Dave Potter.

Aye. Wheel cap and carry is 4-0. A different point of clarity. The wheel tax applies to commercial vehicles and the wheel excess tax is more to the personal vehicle. Just a distinction between the two at the same time.

Michael Shannon.

Aye. Brett Dow. Aye. Greg Irby. Aye. Dave Potter. Aye. Motion carries 4-0. Motion to approve the episode of tax. So motion by Mr. Irby. Second. Second by Mr. Dodd. Michael Shannon. Aye. Brett Dow. Aye. Greg Irby. Aye. Dave Potter. Aye.

I believe September 2nd you're going to actually have a vote on this. By way of introduction, the county, there's the government center right there. The county is doing a parking lot expansion south of the current parking lot and came in with some site plan.

and all those alleys are still there so request is to make it please I'm sorry that's a pretty non-controversial as a result of it being non-controversial you can't act on it tonight again if you vote this has been um the advertising was for September

corporates from the county through some legislation to change and at that time i said we would have some scary numbers coming forward and then we have those scary numbers just want to say that these are not definite costs these are construction investments there is cost built in contingency there is non-construction cost but these are the numbers that were done by professional from a professional engineer. Since we've had COVID, and I hate to say that word again, but since COVID, we've all had to kind of learn how we price things. They aren't coming down, but these are the numbers, and we will, the next step will be prioritizing the projects, matching up with our bond capacity, matching that up with our rates, and putting together a package that we think, A, that we need to do, and B, that we think everything in the stormwater cd is what came from the county so just to clarify that that you can see a number of those are from the county we do have inspection reports we do have a second opinion on buildings about construction costs and movements um so the next like i said the next step would be to bring the council what we intend to that we prioritize in the first three to five years and maybe even the next year uh 2020 starting in 2027 We'll bring you numbers that match up with rate increases, plus that we feel like we can get the projects done. This also includes CCMG. I'm going to partner with Dave Dillon, and we're going to, we've already started having meetings with Dave to tie in some of those storm projects into road construction that both of CCMG there's that they were there's a these aren't their numbers these are numbers that we got our own because we need to know what's going to be like has there been any discussion the thought was to work with Jeff Thompson or somebody to say hey we're fine if you want to take this on but you got to give us a breath and do it is that I'm not sure of a mechanism that gets us unless we just ask the county to help us which we will do. One of the things that I want to be clear on is if we make these projects and we go through a scoping period, there's some notes on the bottom of that paper that really do pay attention to. They kind of spell out a little bit of explaining how we come up with these numbers, but also how we can manage those by going through a scoping period and getting real but they've done that intentionally because those costs couldn't be that much. But once we go through the scoping period and find out the real cost for doing one of these projects, I feel like that's the time to reach out to the county and say, these are real costs. We've gone through the scoping period, and then we can ask them to support us and see if there's any help.

I did speak with Jeff Thompson, but I don't think this is the last year or something. He agreed with it. If they're going to make a student list, there should be revenue that comes with it. So I just want to get these numbers in front of me.

We'll definitely send it over to you. And we'll just keep it to the CE so that they know we're talking about what the county and what we have here. The only difference I'll be sure to tell you is, is what the county sees as a repair. We may not agree with how they repair it. So our numbers may differ from theirs, or theirs differs from ours. I'm aware that they did. They were waived some time ago, but they did not have construction costs. And I know that it was pre-covered. So they don't have today's cost. And there's a big difference. Sometimes double, even triple what it cost 70 years ago. And I'll have better information for you in a narrower scope. in the next three to five years from the street water cigarette store what what's your estimated timing on heavy value well i'm pushing really hard to have all that data by the end of this month and then match that data to rates It's not physically possible to raise the rates enough to do all these projects. So we have to do these over a 20 to 50 year period. And we just have to do what we've done in the past and do as much as we can now. And if something fails, we have to arrange fixing it. That's kind of the reality, whereas we can't raise rates high enough. But a point of emphasis for me is I always think that one of our targets, kind of our mission statement is going to be to get a gallon of water. That does not seem high, but when you multiply that times 10,000 gallons, that's a number that can get in people's pockets, though, so conservation is the number one thing with the question. And tightening the system, that'll really help everybody. Because if you tighten the system up, you don't have to treat as much, the cost goes down for treatment, and then you can keep the rates down.

I want to point two things out. One, on the small farmer's side, so as we're talking about these structures outside, curiosity kind of breaking down the culverts alone in order to forecast that it goes to pushing 5 million overall projects anticipated for next two years. Based off these numbers, just over 20 million. I don't know if it's 60 million, but we already have one that we've already had prepared.

Well, I think to that point, just to continue to point this out, if we do our due diligence, September 1st is the starting for CCMG, if we did it early. If Dave and I work really hard with this, we can cut our cost for the suicide path. So we really got to work our tails off to get that in front of the state to try to get those grants.

on the second point it is called out in the notes but uh there again we are activism testing uh apologies fire departments uh but uh you know we will have some really good data when this is all said and done just keep in mind any new projects that would potentially come from that are not currently called out in this forecast so um and that's one of the notes on the bottom of the page that you really need The numbers are really staggering.

time we put everything together do a hiring process onboarding there won't be much of 2026 to pay for unless the treasurer is assured that we have all your fund out we did go to give a budget for 2027 and israel their top priorities i think it's certainly given all the

the things that have happened differently for having somebody on board give will a little bit i'm kind of i got mixed feelings on this uh this has been kicked around i feel like for quite some time and i see a lot of value and benefit in it i think that's what i would just really like to see We finished the year and then next year. Okay. So let's still come out to roughly 22,000 a month. Okay. So my question is, if we take on this role, what can we at some point, hopefully start to pull away from said contracts? Or is this just above and beyond?

So this one, to me, I don't necessarily disagree with what you're thinking there, but to me, I think we're just growing in time, but right now we've had this on, and there's not necessarily a cost. And there probably will be some cost savings with, you know, losing Endeavor or Bless or whatever that third-party IT company, I can't imagine paying them nearly what we were now that we have, or I mean, the next person.

But we've got so many computers and stuff out there now, and it's so crazy that

How much an hour? It would go for $900. Yeah, $195.

I guess the other question I have is just how is this position funded as far as the budget that they'd be potentially working with? Kind of like I would say Madison operates in that same fashion. You know, if you want something done, you'll be paying for it, but they're going to do the research and make sure it's the quality that we want when it is implemented. But global things, there will be like switches and stuff, but we're paying that anyways, no matter if we have them or not.

as we're starting to negotiate the contract we'll have that person in place by the time the interview higher we're gonna be here this is gonna be cool

move to move forward with hiring an IT person. Motion by Mr. Herby.

Second. Second by Mr. Gottman. Further discussion? Just on clarity, how is this position going to be funded?

It's going to be generally funded.

The new person, yes?

So I've given you an updated budget book summary sheet that has got current projected revenue that we have received. And it also includes the various positions that the department has asked for. It's including the 3.8% ratings and higher five it's including 3.3 percent increase in insurance right now we have it as the town taking that on that's a decision that we can make i wanted to ask if you wanted to have a budget workshop like we did last year where we go over different topics to decide on september the 4th is when i will be having to advertise for the public hearing so we will have to have They narrow down by them. So we need to have real tight numbers.

Is the advertising, is that the one thing again that we can go high on and then come lower? Yes. So if we aren't able to down by them.

Correct. But we can't go higher. We can't go higher than we can go lower. So that's something that we can think about.

What date did you want to have the horse?

At the next council meeting, so September 2nd.

we can put it on the agenda i don't look i'm thinking of next month uh agenda for the next meeting it's not that

ddp and the chamber contracts so it should be you should be able to put on the agenda and still cover everything yeah sounds like a yes vote to me

any new positions and move full-time position for position part-time full-time etc certification based pay is sounds like kind of included with the new clothing stuff but i think that deserves another overall discussion about the council i would like to see it until the breakdown at some point

Do you want to talk about this now or next meeting?

I'll be gone, you'll pick up Chris. Do you want to give us your thoughts on it? We're talking anywhere from a penny to a family plan of $5.78 a day. We're advertising, or potentially going to be advertising at 3.8% increases, which is well more than cover that minimal amount. If we're talking another potential 3%, that's going to put us at 25, 26% by the time it's all said and done, which is no small amount in the last five, six years. We took on these huge additions and premiums. And we're paying for them on the center. Like, want to incentivize, hey, let's take full advantage of this, right? I just, I think this is my...

I went back for the CPI index the last 10 years compared to our salary increases the last 10 year period. And we've just about matched CPI always to the penny on our compensation increases over the last 10 year period.

was it's projected to be 3.8 next year.

So I don't know what it's projected based on, but what did we do? It was 2.6 last year. I guess I just am wondering why we're using that as a baseline now.

Last year I asked you if you wanted to do a raise every year going forward as the COLA, and then we could go on top of that.

So that's- I'm not, to me, I don't know about 3.8. Just for that to be the starting place, it used to be again, one, two, three, and then it's one, two, three, four, five. So I'm not sure I did a 3.8 yet, but I just didn't know if there was I know that's a lot. I can't imagine going to Coach 5 if he's going in unless all of a sudden it shows that we're nice and flush. But just because with the SB1 and everything, everyone's tightening their belts now to continue. We want to keep people engaged. obviously so it's not it's not the easiest decisions you want to get the question yeah i'm going to find the uh the year-to-date gpi addiction it was uh 3.3 for that year do you know when they'll know the final possible living number i don't know if it's october i'm gonna say it's like october

the time for us for our budget.

Thank you. And while we're hardening up, maybe you've missed this period. What's in here for the fire raise?

It's still up. Any further discussion on that? The detailed discussion will come at our next meeting.

to the engineer of record and allow Mr. Elliott some time at the microphone.

Sure. Kent Elliott, vice president of engineering. I just kind of want to touch base a little bit. I know cost is a big priority in the town. double in the project numbers. So whenever it's 10% every seven years, that project will go double. So that's why it looks like it's so high, because in reality it is if every 10% it shows that. So that's what we estimated. Again, that could be lower, it could be higher, but that's kind of what we've seen so far. you know 35 those are numbers that we've projected at 10 percent rate so every seven years you know the project today is going to be twice as much in seven years so just kind of trying to keep that in mind so if we come up with say 80 or 90 million dollars today we can just build them all now there you go absolutely yeah but yeah a 10 million dollar project today in seven years right now if you look at our Our projection, it would be a $20 million project in seven years. So that's why you're seeing these numbers, looking at what they are. Again, they can go up and down. Right now, that's what we do with our projections.

Thank you. That does help. The numbers, I shouldn't say agree, but that does help a little bit. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

grant writing company that specializes in the okra grant which their their success rate i want to say was 92 percent and so we're looking very seriously at possibly engaging their services but it's brought forth a lot amongst the group of us that there's a lot of grants out there and we're going to start applying for and from the council because a lot of these hot matching members things like that i don't know we'll figure out where the funds will come from but i'm hoping the council will support it because again we're going to try and get some free money and again it'll help with all the projects that you just saw plus other projects whether it be roads and things like that so Probably at the next meeting, I will probably come to you with bond information, I would guess. So we'll be ready to start moving forward with not only our geobond process, but possibly a bond for the building corporation that will be put together so that we can start looking at some major expenses like fire stations or whatever we need to do. So just putting that on notice. want to make sure you're aware of that um i've been working with our legal counsel we have i have given him the deeds for the three pieces of property so we are another step closer to selling those properties off uh getting them up for sale and we're supposed to be willing to do an auction or a sealed bid right so we'll do one and we'll try and make sure we with the most money for our pieces of property so i'm excited about that it would be nice to give them back on the tax rolls obviously lastly receipts information from senator or senator baird's office member of congress jim baird he was kind enough back on december 10th of 2024 he had this flag flown above the state Unfortunately, as you may or may not know, Mr. Barrett,

Thank you.

and late nights, long days. So as we work through the budget, just know we're very appreciative. We can't make decisions unless you're gonna give us the good information. So we recognize the effort you put in there. Very much appreciative of that. Outside of that, I just wanted to say a thousand prayers out to the communities across Indiana that just randomly got smashed. We got to see the television in some areas. And for those of you living in this place, So good times away. Mr. Chairman. that is the lead process that we haven't seen. I think it's gonna help the utility department quite a bit in finding what they need to find for any of those problems. right now, short stops a little bit. Thank you everyone.