Town Council - Regular Meeting

I had told him that it was on my desk, but it's taxes. Everybody wants to forget. Okay, good.

Let's see if he Yes. So, um the only thing we got to do is figure out when he starts do that. We'll put it in the That's how long Good. Yeah, that would rain. I got in here before it rained and then um Thank you, sir. We need to let the insurance company know, too. But I'm telling you that I can forget it. Remind me. Thanks.

Thanks, ma'am. What can I do? No. No, not yet.

Cool. All right, we will start with the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, let's start with a roll call, please. Ryan Hartley, here. Bill Neyer, here.

Chad Melinder here. Terry Reed, here. Ethan Maple, present. Moving to claims. Uh, do I hear a motion on the approval of APBS number 28811 through 28862? I'll make a motion that we approve APVS number 28811 through 28862 as provided in our backup materials. I'll second that motion. Moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. I.

I. U. Moving on to the approval of SRF claims 28824 through 28825. Do I hear a motion? I'll make a motion to approve SRF claims 28824 through 28825. Second. Moved by Ryan, seconded by Terry. Do I hear any discussion on those? All those in favor say I. I. And now to the adoption of minutes. uh the adoption of minutes of town council from February 18, 2026. I'll make a motion.

Hang on. Yep. There there are some three places it says refers to Ethan Lawson and I believe it should say Ethan Maple in the minutes. In the minutes. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'll make a motion and then we'll get it second. Then it'll be open for discussion. So, I'll make a motion that we approve the minutes from our February 18th, 2026 meeting. I'll second. Moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Yes. 6.3, 7.1, and 7.2 have need to be Ethan Maple instead of Ethan Lawson.

I'll get it. Okay. Thanks. I'm not offended, by the way. Could be a worse. Could be worse. They could definitely be a worse. Any other discussions? No. All right. With those uh amendments made, all those in favor say I. I. I. Thank you, Terry, for making that note. It's Terry.

The next item on our agenda is public comments for items on the agenda. There's a 3m minute limit and this is for items that are on the agenda. All right, moving on to new business. Uh, we have a salary ordinance correction for 2026. Salary ordinance 030426 amended. about that. We made a mistake in the salary ordinance. The first time we made it, we had missed that there had been a adjustment mid year in the payroll for Jim and for Steve and then when we added the 2% and then divided it by 27 pay periods, we missed that um interim adjustment. So that caused it to not be correct and we corrected it in this salary ordinance version. So your decisions that we had talked about and the budget and what you had approved and whatever um that had already been done that was all good. It was our numbers in the paper that were not correct.

Clerical correction to what we have already approved. Got it. All right. Do I hear a motion on the amendment to the salary ordinance? I'll make a motion that we approve the amendment to salary ordinance for uh well, it would be salary ordinance 030426. I'll second that motion. Moved by Ethan, second by Bill. Are there any further discussions? Only one. Is this one that we do do we do it on the first read? You can do it on the first read with a motion to do so on the first read. That's fine.

And I would like to make a motion that we consider this amended ordinance on first read. I'll second that motion too. Thank you. Any objections? None. Any discussions? None. All those in favor say I. I. I. All right. On the motion. We have to go back and do it again. We're good. All right. She's taking care of us. Thanks, Z. All right. Next thing on the agenda is uh the dragon's den.

Come on up. Yep. Hello. I'll um Can you guys see me? Okay. Yeah, that's just getting sound for anybody watching at home. It's just my mom, so don't worry about it. All right, perfect. Good deal. Um so I'll introduce myself. My name is Tyler Wolf. Uh my wife and I uh moved to New

and three kids here, two that are going to brand new, a three-year-old little girl and that's enough kids for us. Uh One of the things that uh we've talked about doing over the last couple of years is starting some kind of organization or charity that will give underprivileged kids the opportunity to be kids, not have to worry about adult responsibilities like financials. And um so we put together a 501c3 charity organization in November and uh the goal of it is is to support any uh financially support any you know family or child in the community that might require a little extra help. And so, like I said, we started that in November and in December, we actually got enough funding to pay off all the the school negative school lunches at all six schools, which was which was great. Not looking for a pat on the back there, but I at least want to let you guys know what we're doing with the the money that is is coming in. Um, another thing we did was sponsored a bunch of families, um, a handful of families through, uh, the school, uh, and bought the, you know, Christmas gifts for the kids where families were struggling. They'd reached out to guidance counselors at the schools. We talked to some of the guidance counselors to pair up some families with some other families in the community that community that were willing to step up and help somebody in need. So, we did that. Um, that was a good success. We have a lot of other things that we want to do. Um, and to kind of further further helping,

we put together a fundraiser. Uh, it's actually this Saturday, the 7th. It's a purse bingo. It's at the Lions Club. We've partnered with the Lions Club. They've done a lot for us and helped us out a lot. Um, but we actually we've gotten a good response from the community. There's 250 bingo players. Uh, so that that was a great turnout. was a little nervous how that was going to go at first, but um it was a great turnout and we're excited for it. But, you know, that'll be a nice fundraiser um to bring in some capital to help uh support more families and continue to to to help folks in the community. Um reason for coming in today was uh you know, I think I think you guys did a a sponsorship uh some sponsorship meetings on your last uh town town council meeting. So, I missed that one. I was actually at the Legion uh doing a meeting with them and they they helped us out and we're able to sponsor started a little partnership there with them as well. But, uh, my goal here today is is to see if there's any potential, uh, partnership, sponsorship here with with the town and see if we can't continue to do some of these things for the families in the community that that might need some extra help. So, that's uh, it's kind there's a lot of things that that that we're working on like a coat drive. Um, we're putting that together for next winter. any any kid that doesn't have a coat or, you know, holy coat, maybe needs a new coat, right? Um, we're going to have a safe place for them to go to to to pick out a coat, right? So, um, another thing that I want to do is create kind of a safe space for some of these parents. It's not easy to admit when you're struggling. So, we have a website that's that that we put

together. It's kind of a safe space for family to reach out to us without broadcasting across the community. So, those are kind of the things that we're doing now and uh we'd like to keep it going and said we've got so far got a lot of positive feedback. So, just want to put that out there. Is there a certain dollar amount you're hoping for or sponsorship levels or anything like that?

No. um you know for the bingo a lot of the businesses uh in town we were asking them to sponsor it in I think designer purses are expensive I would never carry obviously my wife doesn't carry either but um that sponsorship for just a game was you know 250 350 or $500 again I realize that's crazy but uh we've had 10 local businesses is between contractors, restaurants, uh, you know, the American Legion and a couple other businesses. They've all come together and they've sponsored each one of those games for for that. So, I ask today, I don't have a number because anything that comes our way is is going to get put out in back into the community for these types of families. So, anything would would be would be awesome. and

what's your drawing Tyler? What's what's the area in which you are helping families in? Do you have boundaries? Do you do you are you specific to New Pal School District or what are you what is your target?

So, it is specific to New School District, but I did get a question the other day at the the American Legion. It's very it's easy to see the the the needs for kids that are in school. Um the kids that aren't school, there's no way for me to find out how, you know, how if if they need help. So that is that was a good question. That was a little it's a little tricky. Um but in terms of your question, it it's specific to new pastor. And is are is your board of director consistent of your you and your wife or do you have others as well?

So we have a couple others. Um you know it's it's kind of tough to to bring this you know it's you know my wife and I bring it to life and then we ask other folks to jump on board right away. Here go do this go do that you know. So finding some some some the board of directors was tough at first, but there has been some people in the community that have reached out have asked to be on board. How many do you have right now? Currently, including you and your wife, including me. Okay.

Any other questions, comments? Do we do we have any real I know at the last meeting I think we had $6,000 in community support. We had 7,500 in community outreach. Is there any money left available um to help and you have some money available?

It seems this is something we literally talked about last meeting that we hoped people would do would come to the council or come to the town and ask for help. So, uh, it seems like, uh, seems like Dragon's Den is doing a good job getting out in the community and helping people. Um, I would entertain the idea if the rest of the council would on maybe supporting and helping the cause. Yeah. Do you have all the bingo games paid for already?

There's one that's not paid for. Um, so we have nine businesses that have sponsored. There's one that's not paid for. Um, but there's there's, you know, other businesses that have donated what they could, right? So, I put a couple of their so technically all paid for one of the multiple. What um what is on your vision board right now of something that you see as a need that you would like to impact?

School lunch is a big thing. Um I I just like a lot of other folks grew up with very little and going to school with no lunch money and getting that brown paper sack with a peanut butter jelly and a water. It's a it it can be embarrassing to to to your peers that that aren't getting that right. So, um I felt that that that was a big was the school. I can appreciate that. Um and then I also my kids, like I said, I have a six and a sevenyear-old that gets I do it for you. There it was. Six and seven. I I actually My kids would be proud.

I have a seven and six.

Okay. Does that matter? Um, but but I coach their sports teams and um I I see kids that have things um that other kids don't like there's love is they can barely catch baseballs or know even on the football side. So, I see I see even the sporting uh on the sporting side of it too where kids could probably use a little more a little better updated equipment. And one of the things that we're doing there is we're going to put together something with the town that hey, if you have some leftover uh equipment from from from your kids being with sports, that's that's something that we're going to try to gather a bunch of that get that to authorization. Um, but you know, outside of some of those things, there's there's a lot of needs. I thought I think something that

Do you partner with other nonprofits and to just kind of be able to identify some of those? And if so, how is that

going? Like what nonprofits are you working with in town? So, um, the education foundation, we've been in communication with them, partnering with um, you know, like I said before, it's very, very new to us. You know, we've only been there for a couple months, so we're trying to figure out where all those needs are. Um, but the education foundation is one of them that we're to talk with them. Um, there's things that they that they sponsor sponsor. But outside of those two things, outside of that, there's not any discussion yet of any nonprofit partnerships, but that's that's so

right. I think it's always good when we have our nonprofits because not all the nonprofits are doing the same thing and sometimes they can work together and hand inand to try to accomplish something bigger than they could on their own. I um I think that Sorry, I was going to make a motion, but you if you have something to say prior.

I just think it it the interesting aspect here is it's focused on kids in our school system. Yes. Right. So there I think there's a lot of nonprofits that are focused on different aspects to your point. Um I think this one geared towards, you know, kids that that may not have everything. Like there are a lot of different socioeconomic statuses within this community. and I think it's it's a great thing that you're doing. So, I'll pause and let you make your motion.

My motion would be that um we support the dragon's den um at at $750 and I would just add a ask on top of that that you come back and share with us in some way, shape or form how that was used to to impact the community. I'll second that. Ethan made a motion and Ryan seconded it to donate $750 to the Dragon's Den. Any further discussion? Sounds like Ethan knows the price of a designer handbag. Even I He was about to sell his decided he would let us, you know, donate.

I was trying to figure out how much I I don't think that if we're donating, we should define what that is. However, I would say that I am less enthusiastic about funding fundraisers than I am seeing the money go to directly impact the community versus raising funds to do so. So, I I would prefer that if we're putting tax money out into the community that it's going directly to impact the community in line with your mission, but I'm not going to define how you do that. And thank you for what you're doing. Yes. All right. We need to vote. All in favor say I. I. I. All right, that passes. Awesome. Thank you very much. Thanks, Tyler.

So, Tyler, can we get together after the meeting to give us the information on where to send it? Uh, moving on to the town center project LOI ratio contract. Dale, I'll kick it to you.

Thanks for having me. Also, uh with me is uh Chris Borgman from Ratio. So, you have uh seen the ratio contract uh here before. We've just made some minor updates because uh last time you saw it was in August. So, we have a new board uh uh president. We have uh the dates changed. We just updated that. Also, some more uh discoveries gone on since then. We updated the acreage. There's really no substantive changes to the to the document itself, just cleaning up some of those some of those ends. But like I mentioned, Chris here with me as well if there's any uh questions on that. The new document that's with me today. Um I didn't draft this. This came from our attorneys, but is a letter of intent. This is to allow the uh town to start talking with uh Alana Group LLC about um potential either Paul partnership. Um this is a letter of intent. It's essentially establishing our ground rules for how we intend to engage with this developer. Um, it's not binding, but it is very thought out. Um, thinking about how is TIFF going to be potentially entertained? How who's going to be doing design? Who's what's the site? What does the town need in terms of infrastructure and land? Um, really just getting both parties to the table. Now this will all be flushed out uh through the process of master planning with so once we understand what we're really trying to put forth on property can actually put real numbers to it and

understand the performer both for the town and for our develop um that will have to be an open open book conversation with our our developers at that time but this establishes that framework here for for your consideration tonight. So happy to happy to answer any questions and separately is also here to answer any questions on that. So to put this in words that I would understand, this LOI provides the framework for us to begin discussions with a developer.

Correct. This sets our legal framework for how we will engage, but the individual terms are all subject to verification and review as we go through the process. Makes sense.

I'll add just the the conversations that we've had to get to this particular point. um the council we've had with Envoy and our legal department and the discussions um with potential developers. I just appreciate kind of the the conversation and how we got to this particular point. I believe this creates a good framework for us to get the ball rolling. I'm excited if we can move forward on this LOI uh because then we're going to start being able to see how things are going to actually look and function and become something more than just words on a piece of paper. Um and I'm pretty excited about that process. Very much so.

Yeah, I'd like to echo what what Ethan said. It's it's uh it's taken some um some time to get to this point, but I'm excited to um to keep the ball rolling and momentum rolling on this and uh look forward to what kind of information this leads us to. This is the first time of many that this will be uh in front of this this council in some way, shape, or form. This just starts our road. We'll still have budgetary con uh considerations. We'll still have zoning. We'll still have master plants out. There's many decision points ahead of us.

So, this is very much a living document moving forward and we know there's there's a lot of things that are going to change in this. Uh, but that being said, I would like to make a motion to uh enter into this letter of intent agreement. And I think we'll do the ratio contract separate. I'll second that motion. Okay. moved by Ryan, second by Bill. Any further questions? The only comment I would add is um just for our town and and for those who are here or Chad's mom, um I

she doesn't actually watch, but I just say that I I think this this helps us get to the place where we will know what we don't know. And and there's a lot of things that we don't know, but those pieces are still yet to be determined. Um, and so as our town is eagerly anticipating some of the conversations that we've had with the town council, this gives us the framework to start discovering some of those pieces. Awesome. The all those in favor say I. I. I.

Great. I'd like to make a motion that we enter into the ratio agreement contract for master planning. I'll second that motion as well. Moved by Ryan, second by Bill. Any further discussions on that? All those in favor say I. I. I. I. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. I can I can I just offer we see contracts but not everybody who's out there sees a contract and I would just let those who have not seen this contract that what we approved from ratio was a contract of um of about $99,500 to help with master planning concept design services all the pieces that are included in that. Um, we also have had a previous commitment from our redevelopment commission to help offset some of those costs. And so for those of you who are here, that's that's kind of what we're looking at as we we get the ball rolling on this master plan concept. Thank you. Next is continued council uh conversations. Employee benefits is tabled for now. Um, Bill's taking a crack at that and we'll have more conversations on that going forward.

We also skipped over that. I did skip something that we're going to run back to which is old business for ordinance staggering which we don't have additional information.

So Mr. Lawson reached out to me and um as you know that um everything ended Friday. Uh all the lobbying and and hoopla and all the excitement ended Friday. So um and I spoke with Lisa Lofreen last week as well. So, um, I should be talking to Mr. Lawson and Lisa Lof Green in the upcoming week or weeks. I imagine Zach is going to be involved in those conversations to hi to find out how u House Bill 1055 is going to affect us moving forward on the election cycle. So once once we find out on our end, we can share that with the rest of the council and we can figure out um how to do this, you know, what steps we need to take moving forward if that makes sense or not. So we'll come back did not make it out of session. Is that correct?

I believe so. Miller for that. Um the way it was drafted was that cities or towns of more than 10,000 could opt out of that correct election obviously not that so as stated now if that if that did in fact take it out of legislation made it to the governor's desk we would be required to municipal to even years yeah we so so if that happened we just need to find out how that's going to um affect us. It didn't pass, right?

My understanding was that I didn't see um it didn't pass the full center floor. I don't think it did not. We we need to see how this affects affects us staggering the terms moving forward. So, I'm waiting to hear from Mr. Lawson and Lisa Lofreen on this. I I put another feeler out to L did not hear back, but I talked to her and told her and she said she was waiting for the Thanks. So, she said she'll reach out after that. So, we'll figure this out and then we'll move forward. Yep. So, we will table that. We We have till the end of the year. So, no reason to rush. We want to make sure we get all our ducks in a row for this. Yep. Right. Yep.

Any other continued council conversations? Yes. I'd like to bring up the logo. We got that information from uh Blue Sky. We did.

And um can we just Would you like to vote on it tonight? If I mean I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda for this action item to vote on this since we've given been given all the information and and Lori or yeah Blue Sky had presented a couple times I know to Jim and myself and couple times to the stakeholders um I think well and they attended Summerfest and got all their information a gathered a lot of that information last year and so they have put in a lot of time for what we're paying and so I just didn't think that they needed to come back out for another presentation since we were given these two options coming from the stakeholders and I know that we're kind of chomping at the bit to get this underway So instead of waiting till next meeting,

I'll second that motion. That way it gets it. Do you want to position for discussion? I've seen them. Okay. And just I mean my input would be

I have sufficient information that I would be prepared to vote between the two proposed logos. And also I would like to commend everybody for the efforts in revising and coming up with these two just my own personal opinion. Um I think they're much more attractive than prior versions. So I appreciate all the work. Um you know because it's when you're dealing with something that's artistic. What one person really likes maybe the next person doesn't. So it's not an easy process to get to this point. So, I don't want to drag it out any longer than we have to.

My only comment is what what else is still due out with our package? There's a video that will accompany this. Okay. What is it? A three minute video? Two minutes. Two to three minutes. Focus on the video of the town. So I think the my thoughts are that we would want them to come back if the logo is the next step to allow them to do the rest of it so they can come back and present the rest. I would be okay with that. I think the video they've already shot most of their residents businesses and things like that. So

tag whatever we pick here onto that video to make the

Right. Okay. My my only concern is that I I think it it deserves um kind of a a recognition or at least a heads up for our community to be able to come to a meeting in which we're making that decision. Um I I would prefer to have Lori here to share for our community. I know she's went to the stakeholders. She's had conversations with some of us, some of the town members, but she a lot has changed since the last time she was in front of our council and and I think it's reasonable in terms of transparency and the conversations in our community that have been gone on against this this logo. No one else knows that the stakeholder meetings have happened and no one else knows where we're landing. And I think a formal presentation of the process that's gotten us to this point is reasonable for our community to hear. but they don't have a a vote on it.

Well, my my perspective is it's not always about who has a vote, but it's about transparency and making sure our community has as much information as they can based on the decisions that we're we're faced with. So, that's just my perspective. Yeah, but can we see it? We can see at this point council's decision to make it. A or B. A or but we haven't seen A or B.

It is council decision and it it lies within us. I'm from a council like that's me. I'm a council person. Um, I much prefer having that that next meeting if if we can to have it so it's on the agenda so that the community knows that that's what we're discussing and what's going to be in front of us and that Lori's here to offer any any thoughts or perspective on how we got to this place. So, I I get it that we get to make the decision. I'm not afraid to make the decision. Um, but I do feel like part of my responsibility is making sure our community has as much information as they can while we're doing so. I wonder if there's a way that we could do that. I I'm just I know that Blue Sky has exceeded their time. If we were paying them $60,000, then sure, but we're not and we've gone beyond what they said what we're going to pay them the time frame.

What about if we put the two options on our website? broadcast it. We don't need to require Blue Sky to come back to the next meeting, but put it on the agenda so that if anybody has any um you know, hard feelings that they want to share about it, welcome any input a and so maybe what we do is we may do the best of both worlds. Show those two options and vote at the next meeting. I'm okay with that as well. And if we believe that blue sky, you know, has done too much work to come to a meeting again, then maybe they would be willing to offer a explanation of the process or someone on our team could write up an explanation of the process so that that can be shared and presented whenever we choose to vote on

and maybe they could give some input but without requiring them to be here. Um, and it unlike prior logos where there was a lot of explanation of what this color meant and what this direction and I don't need that. I mean, I can look at the two and say which of the two I prefer. Yeah. Um

I I mean I will say from a from we've been trying to coordinate something with Blue Sky in terms of this stage for the last 3 to four months to to get to this place and there just hasn't been a an ability to coordinate. Does did Blue Sky mention that they don't want to come back or is that just trying to No, I was just being streamline. No, I was just being respectful of their time and I know Jim We talked to them quite a bit and we we both feel that is our contract with them based on hours or is it based on I think a flat fee.

It was a it was a fee flat fee based on what they're producing but they did have a general interest right here. We've got council. It could be show and you could put this back out onto the the next agenda and we probably won't have this. The the motion the the motion the way I understand it as it was made was simply to amend the agenda to put this on there so that we could take action on that. I would vote no on that particular motion um if it comes to because I'd like to see it on our next agenda and we can have the communication pieces between now and then.

So the motion was to add the logo to our current agenda just so we could have the discussion that we we've already had. Right. So that was by Terry. Was it second? It was seconded by Bill. Yeah. Okay. I'm second. Second by Bill. Yep. You are. You're doing a great job. Mr. Second. All right. Well, to address that motion, all those in favor say I. I. I. I. All those opposed? No.

All right. This carries. So, we will add it to our agenda. And on our newly added um agenda for to vote on the logos for the um towns of Palestine, there's option D and option H. And um I don't know the best way to do a vote on two different options. I think you H is with the light post and yes, the other is without. It would be nice if we could.

I'm working. Okay.

How you going to try to get that up there, Chad? Connected to his computer. You've got it up there. Okay. Yes. He's dead. Let's do it. I don't know. Let's try. Where is

the one time? My typewriter wouldn't have worked here. There you go. I know how to use it. Can you enlarge those? Goodness. No, I can't. I don't know. I might be able to control. No, I can't control. Come over here.

All right. Option D is this beautiful logo over here. Option H adds a little color. and this uh light post here. And I think if you read in the reporter, the Mount Comfort corridor is adding signs and they're um talking about McCordsville and New Palestine and and each has a symbol to designate who's who. And so what they've done for New Palestine is they've added a lamp post. So that's why um I think it would be cohesive to have something with the lamp post. It certainly fits Main Street.

Mhm. Yes. Needs no explanation. Exactly. Yeah. We get a lot of compliments on our lights. Our main street looks nice. So have us uh without the light through Main Street. I'll make a motion we choose option H. I'll second that motion.

All right. The motion to adopt uh option H as our town logo has been made by Ryan and seconded by Bill who's seconding everything today. So, great job. All those in favor say I. I uh Oh, sorry. We open it up for discussion. My bad. No, that's okay. I I think either of these these logos will serve our town well. Um and so I appreciate the work that was done in them. However, I will be voting no because I do think it deserves another meeting on the agenda.

Understood. I sent this out to everybody who gave me a email the last time and they like this a lot better. Um, it was mixed between both and the reasonings were interesting. Some people didn't like the color, other people like the lamp post. Um, but I I I prefer the All right. All those in favor of adopting option H for our town logo. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed? No. All right. And that passes. legal updates. Oh, I had something else.

Oh, sorry. Oh,

um, community cleanup day, also known as dumpster day. Um, I was just trying to get a better name. Uh, I had the discussion with Jim. We talked about um potentially having it June 27th and um increasing it from four dumpsters last year to six this year. We'll start advertising earlier. Um I think last year we only advertised it like two or three weeks before and so if we start earlier I think we'll get better response. Um, and along those lines, we've Jim and I are discussing this with Zach. He's going to be working on a um um composing a letter to the discussing the properties violating unh wholesome environmental conditions to clean up and then

to preempt. Yes. Preempt. Yes. Do we have a date that we want to start communicating all that? Do not. Okay. Stay tuned. It was a huge success last year. I volunteered and helped out a little bit and it wore me out. So, it was a huge success though. I was unable to lift anything at that time. Boating accident. No pontoon building before this. No pontoon building. Thank you for that, Ryan. I appreciate that. Any other continue council conversation. So, Zack, Zack, when do you think you might have like a preempt uh letter that we could start?

Well, I first need the uh properties identified and then I need the violation that they're attached to them. I I need Yeah. What violation they're offending? Well, I think I think we're going to use that rubbish. You know, that's I think that's our big Yeah, it it goes with most of them. Some of some of it doesn't. So, okay. Your code states that before you can really take any action, you need to specifically identify what code violation um is on the property. So, we need to identify the property's address, owners, and then we need to have a code citation. What specifically they're they're violation of. So, it's not one letter fits all. Nope.

All right. But you could do it in like if you have two main things. Yeah. You could just say, "Okay, these are all the houses for this one. These are all houses for this one. Send those out. Hey, by the way, here we're also adding our flyer for dumpster day in here. Here's your chance. Contact Bill and Ryan to lift all the heavy things for you. I will be pontooning." Okay. All right. around June on to department reports. Jim,

uh, nothing. Papa John's did come in, get a permit today. So, that's going to be the first build out. Uh, I think the landscaping on that property is going to be, uh, was it 3 weeks? So, that's going to be uh, with PCOIC. Uh, it looks like probably that first uh, meeting in May, we might have some uh, plans in front of us approved by the hospital. So, looking forward to that. I know they're working really really hard on it. So, it's uh Yeah, that's a good thing. Is there any movement on the Kroger conversation? There's no movement there. Yeah. Yeah. It's a it's a slow walk for sure. Yeah.

Got it. And then we attended the wastewater treatment plan meeting yesterday and um they're moving right along even though they had a few days that they couldn't work last month and they should be doing the backstroke with this. Um but they are pleased with they're still on for the August date. So there's a lot of stuff there now. A lot of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, this looks like a big wall. Kind of find might have to paint or something. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. And the sewer department has taken delivery of their truck. Is that correct? Oh, yes. That's true. We've got a beautiful truck.

Very nice truck. Yeah. Uh Ethan wants to run the crane. Can we work that out at some point? Well, yes. Ethan wants to run a lot of things. So, I will say that the sign, the speed sign, we're waiting for the uh jack for the trailer. Once that comes in, together. It's all charged up. It's ready to go. I'm excited. We're ready to deploy it. Yeah. To your neighborhood. Yeah. Awesome. All right. And back to the the truck. Um was it Kyle that got found that truck for that price? Yeah. Hats off to him. Get his fourth quote in. I think that came in at 204,000. Yeah. I think it was a very good price. I mean that that's pretty loaded. We need to Pretty impressive.

Yeah. Actually, cool. Awesome. Yeah. All right, Chief. I really have nothing other than I got an email uh just the other day. Okay. The uh 2026 Hancock Flat 50, the bike ride that's um talking about coming through New PAL this year or kind of around New Pal, but go across 300 South. We were supposed to have a meeting coming up. It got cancelled, but I think they're rescheduling it to try to find out general map of what they're planning on doing, but I don't know if you guys got any notification on it yet or not. We work with them every year. So, it's it's coming. I think they said August 29th is the day they're shooting for.

I know a guy. We'll get more info from that guy. Perfect.

That's awesome. Thank you, Ivon. Um, I got a phone call from John Heder. He is with Congressman Shrieve and they asked about doing a um setting up some office hours here in town hall that's happening on March the 12th from approximately 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon and we'll set them up in uh the conger room or maybe even right in here. But so somebody from Congressman Shre's office will be holding office hours here for anybody who's interested in speaking with them. What's that time again? March 12th.

Um between 10 and 12. Okay. Thank you. And that's really all I have at the moment. Outstanding. All right. We will move on to public comments. Any topic, five minutes. If you have something you'd like to talk about, please come up to our microphone so my mom can hear you and tell us your name and address, please. I'm going to tell her she has to start watching now. All right, we will move on to council comments. Tara, you're up first.

Great. Um, all I have is March birthdays. Trey and our attorney, Zach, has a birthday this month. She knows things. I It was in discussion. And you have the same birthday as one of my grandsons. So, happy birthday. Thank you. That's all right. Is that it? And thank you for um entertaining all my ideas. You are welcome, Bill.

Thank you. I'll be very brief. I know Ethan's probably very modest and he definitely would not mention this, so I will for him or about him. Um, but Ethan's son, Andrew, received a Lily scholarship to Walbash College, which is a full ride scholarship. uh there are only three countrywide given and and his son was one of the three recipients. So that is really really really a neat accomplishment. So I just want to note that in the record. Congratulations to Andrew. Thank you. Congratulations. And your whole family. Absolutely. Thank you. And your pocketbook. Thank you.

Yeah. That's awesome. Congratulations. Um yeah, I don't have much um excited for the to come and and um share that with us. I think that's the next step. and continuing to control and have positive growth in our town, which is a lot of the discussions that we're we're having today. I also know that um Mr. Pakovic also partnered with the Dragon's Den and and helped you fund a lot of those negative lunch balances. So, continue to enjoy his uh partnership not only with with the town, but inside of our town taking care of things. So, um that's that's awesome. So, um that's all I have. Ethan,

uh, we have a council chat Friday, first Friday of the month. So, there's a council chat. We'll do it at Tia's again at 8 a.m. I don't know if anybody on the council is free and would like to join me at Tia. If nobody else will, I certainly will. Best biscuits and gravy in town.

All right, Bill will be there. I'll make sure you get the graphic tomorrow morning so that we can put that out on social media. The only other thing I have is I would just like to invite um our community to the the community night for the new PAL guard and winter percussion. They are combining their community performance night also with a chili cookoff. So that is uh March 12th at 6 PM is the chili cookoff. So you can get great desserts and great chili and have some fun at that. And then stick around for the performances that start at 7:30. Our winter percussion group has won first the last two competitions. So they're excited for the season and doing well as is all of our winter arts performances.

That's all I have. Ryan, happy birthday, Zach. Congratulations to Ethan and Andrew. That's it. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. I'll second that motion. Ryan and Bill made those motions. All in favor say I. I. I. Ajournative.