Town Council - Regular Meeting

WE WERE JUST GETTING READY TO START GETTING ON ITAP AND SUBMITTING THAT LIKE 9 O'CLOCK. SO WE GOT THE COMMUNITY CALL AND DID GET THAT SUBMITTED. AWESOME. THANK YOU. WORKING ON THE TITLE VI AND 88 ADVANTAGE PLANS NOW. PERFECT.

CHIEF? MAN, WE'RE ON ROLL. GO AHEAD.

Actually, not too bad. We are in the middle of an audit that I didn't expect. I think at the last meeting, I let you know, we got some rumblings about it, and almost immediately after that, they said we're coming, we're auditing over three years rather than four years. In the past, it was always four years, so I knew there was an audit coming next year, but we didn't expect it right now. But we're going through it pretty good. They've not found anything that we couldn't answer or didn't have paperwork for or whatever. So, so far, so good. It's two gentlemen doing the audit. It's just intense because it's constant interruptions and go find this, go pull that, how's this work, sign this, fill out 500 questions. I cannot tell you how many questions I've answered. on paper, but it's going well. So that's a good thing. I've kept you guys through the emails and, you know, kind of up to date on the one business that said, hey, you still owe us some retainage money. So that's rolling. I'll keep you updated. Haven't heard anything today from the company. They need to submit an invoice and then it'll just be in your paperwork for next meeting. as soon as I get all that. So we've untangled that question.

We still have money in those funds.

We do. And it's absolutely owed. There's no question about it. My big question is why they insinuate it that we don't answer phone calls and we don't give them answers. Because we're here and we answer every question and every email and every phone call when we take every piece of paper seriously. So That I find, I don't know, just kind of, you know.

Perspective. Everybody's got their own perspective. Everybody has their own perspective. But I appreciate how responsive you guys all are, and trust me, when I read that, I did not take that with a...

Yeah, I appreciate your responding.

At the end of the day, we owe a due diligence to everybody in the town to check. If somebody says you owe me money, I've got to go make sure I actually owe you money.

You were suggesting that we would just pay them first and then go figure it out? Yeah. That's not happening.

I actually have a question about it. I did receive an email from Joel King.

Aren't you lucky?

Yeah, I could ask this.

The survey? I responded. It is. Absolutely.

Joel is one of the two auditors. What they do is basically they go, hey, we want these questions answered, and we're just going to take a sampling of the people within the town that make decisions, and those are the people we're going to ask to fill out these little questionnaires.

I get a lot of phishing questions. I received it and responded. I'm actually seeing that they may be finished here faster than they expected. I will try to get that done more early.

Yvonne said it was given to beautiful people. I got one, too. Me, too.

Fortunately, I got the eight-question version. I got the one that was 20-something.

Yeah, there's quite a few on there, and I literally haven't had time to respond to it.

Whenever you can, it's all about fraud and whether you suspect that anything is wrong or, you know, they just kind of want to know.

You're on the 20. You got time. You're good. Turn in your homework on time.

Yeah, he was very generous giving us that line.

Yvonne, if I can go back to the prior subject. So is there any chance that this vendor, their invoice was included in a payment that we made to the consultant that was doing the whole project?

No, this went differently. At that project, the retainage was held by the SRF. It didn't go to an outside bank. So, but I wasn't aware of any of it, but I now understand a lot more about it. It is absolutely owed. So there's really no question. They just, I've been on the, you know, emails back and forth with the IFA to make sure that we're doing things right. And she said, hey, just make sure to get you an invoice. And I'm like, Yeah, that makes total sense. Even though it's been previously invoiced, the retainer, since it wasn't paid, the IFA for an SRF loan, we want to make sure that they see an invoice. So I requested that today. You're copied on the email.

And I know we've allocated some of those FRF funds from the previous project in another area.

Yeah.

Does that affect that at all?

It's not been earmarked yet. We've said, hey, there may be some funds left. You know, come up with a plan and then we'll see where and if we can use it. Yeah, you'll have a little bit less to use there, but in the big scheme of things, all of this was done correctly years ago. It's just that final payment wasn't made and somebody on their side must have been sleeping to not see it as we also should have seen it. But in our case, we were relying on an engineering firm where the engineer passed away and the company folded and

COVID was going on and I was new when you know there was a lot of other things you know distracting us from realizing this needed and just just for everybody to know this is basically from a project years ago yeah and came up so this has nothing to do with any current projects an older one that I bet communication probably fell off on both sides, and then you change new people in new seats, and they probably did their own audit and realized, hey, there's a mistake here, so we're working to get it corrected. So I appreciate that.

We're all good. That's just one quick touch on that. That's all I have. Thank you.

Awesome. Thank you. Moving on to public comments. Five minutes, any topic. If you have something, please come up to the podium. State your name and address or the organization you represent. The microphone will not project your voice, but it will record it for anybody watching at home. That's why Mr. Hillebrandt made a joke about my mom because she's one of our watchers. She's not really, but I like to make that joke. You're making mom jokes now.

Scott Klein, 4277 West Hidden Preserve Cove.

We are now having a new Kroger built in Greenfield. What happened to our Kroger here?

It's still happening. It's just happening slower.

Okay. Are we on any hook for a bunch of bonds or anything that we have committed to?

Not until the project moves forward, and it's my understanding that it's either a 27 or a 28 build. Okay. So, you know, they came in here hot and heavy back in the good old days when you used to, if you bought an eight-pack of chicken, you got a free six-pack of Pepsi Minis, but that promotion is no longer available. So back in the good old days, they came in and they made their presentation, and we were 100% for it. And then they kind of reprioritized which ones they were doing first, and then we learned they're doing Greenfield before they do New Pound.

Has there any infrastructure thing been done for the apartment complex out there yet? Has anything, ground been broken? Any sewer lines put in?

Patriot Engineering is supposed to be out there doing soil tests on the 27th or 28th.

It just seems like things get whacking right up to start, and then it just drags on for years. I mean, that thing's been in project for I don't know how long. Here was Kroger. Four or five years ago. Representative Bosma was here touting everything and had all these plans and now it's dead. Is that anything to do with the amount of new roofing or new housing that's here in this area versus what's in Greenfield?

I don't know that. Making an assumption, not knowing exactly the reason behind their prioritization, I'm sure they would like to see the apartment complex go in because they're probably looking at data saying, hey, How many people are here will sustain a build of that size? All that. From my understanding, they've communicated that they're still moving forward. But when they came in for approval, they did say that they were going to be further out. We were asking them at the time, like, what could we do to help you move any earlier if you can? But I don't think that they plan on moving any earlier.

It seems like we've been shot before.

I heard about the green flow corridor being built in four hours.

but we've kind of pressed them.

Again, we have no control over any of that, but I do feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and ground break on those soon by the end of the year.

And there's a lot of train coming at you. Yeah, it's not a train.

But, you know, fortunately the town doesn't really have control over it. We can approve stuff, but we can't force them to start or force them to do anything.

I just wondered if you, as a council, had any background one-on-one conversation with them other than them being here and meeting on why this thing's going on.

I spoke with Harold Gibson this morning, and he had talked to Rob, and things aren't really forward, but it is.

See, 25 years ago, there was rumor that Kroger was going to do the same thing they are now as far as that property, and about a third of that is wetlands. But now it seems that it's not wetlands anymore. I don't know how it dried up so quick. It was on the federal or state Department of Natural Resources wetlands.

We try to be as accommodating as possible. That whole deal is through the hospital. So they just come to us for approvals and stuff. And we try to be as accommodating for them as possible. And I feel like we have been. And then they kind of started pumping the brakes a little bit, and we want to see, we expressed to them when they came here at the last meeting, they brought their team, we expressed to them to kind of push them when they announced that the start date was going to be delayed. It was really frustrating. Again, we can't make them do anything, but we're hopeful.

Anybody else?

All right. We'll move on to council comments. Ryan, you're up first.

I have a council chat on October 2nd at TIAs, so it's before our next council meeting. At 8 o'clock, we just set up at TIAs and invite anybody to have any conversation. We had one for September. We had a good turnout. Conversations around sewer rate concerns and things like that. So I appreciated people taking advantage of that opportunity just to, to talk with Bill and I and anybody else who wanted to kind of share what they're feeling and what's going on. So October 2nd is the next one and we'll be at Tia's at ABN. We certainly invite anybody from the community to come and join and be a part of that conversation, share anything that you'd like to discuss. It's just a kind of an informal opportunity to do that. Um, Also want to just acknowledge September is a suicide prevention month. There's a lot of people in our community and even beyond that deal with mental health concerns. I'm praying for them this month. I think that that's a big need in our community, and we just need to be aware that there are people hurting in ways you cannot see. And would invite you all to be thinking through that as well. That's all I have.

I want to say thank you to the team for the audit. I know those things are never fun, but I know everybody up here is confident that they'll be in and out quickly. So I'm excited for that to start and finish and hopefully you guys get back to normal. That's all I have.

Jim, I want to mention this morning at the Hancock Economic Development Council, there was a brief discussion about They have a list of properties that communities or property owners have approached them and it's just expressed that these properties are available when they have individuals or companies from out of state that are looking to build or to relocate to Hancock County. They contact the HEDC and Randy Sorrell and his group provides information And so I was asked if we have any properties that maybe we want to submit that when they have companies looking for sites, whether they're big or small, you know, if it's in town limits or near town limits or anything that might be a possibility for development. If we have any, reach out to Randy and let him know.

Yeah, there was, I did get an email of a company looking for about 150 acres, but I did send that over to Hancock Health over at their gateway to see if that was a fit for them, but it wasn't a fit there either.

Okay, so that was one thing. And the only other thing I'd like to mention is I'd like to congratulate Tommy Niemeyer on passing the bar exam.

Yeah.

Found out today.

Awesome.

Awesome.

I WILL ENTERTAIN A MOTION TO ADJOURN. MADE BY RYAN, SECONDED BY TERRY. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR SAY AYE. OPPOSED?