Common Council - Regular Meeting

[Music] There's a place in the Midwest, 50 miles southeast of Chicago, nestled near the coast of Lake Michigan. It's a place driven by what's coming next. A place where industry is the lifeblood of its community. And its pulse is gritted with sand and steel, fire and smoke. It's a city building its future together. One business, one family, and one home at a time. This is a place for makers, doers, and dreamers. It's where the global marketplace meets hometown values. Where Americana isn't just a tradition, it's a way of life. Here, your experience makes the difference. With access to railroads, major waterways, and eight different highways, this is a place in motion, sending goods, services, and ideas not just across the state, but across the world. And when the work ends, the day is just beginning with beaches like West Beach in the Indiana Dunes National Park, exciting hiking and biking trails like the Diana of the Dunes Dare or the BMX track, and local treasures and exciting festivals, you'll know you're in more than just a bedroom community. From veterans of foreign wars to hometown heroes, our diversity is our strength. And we forge our future with the same flame as our steel. Oh, there's a place in the Midwest that's calling you home. The best part of Portage is what's next. The best part of Portage is you. There's more for you in [Music] Indiana. There's a place in the Midwest, 50 mi southeast of Chicago, nestled near the coast of Lake Michigan. It's a place driven by what's coming next. A place where industry is the lifeblood of its

community. And its pulse is gritted with sand and steel, fire and smoke. It's a city building its future together. One business, one family, and one home at a time. This is a place for makers, doers, and dreamers. It's where the global marketplace meets hometown values. Where Americana isn't just a tradition, it's a way of life. Here, your experience makes the difference. With access to railroads, major waterways, and eight different highways, this is a place in motion, sending goods, services, and ideas not just across the state, but across the world. And when the work ends, the day is just beginning with beaches like West Beach in the Indiana Dunes National Park, exciting hiking and biking trails like the Diana of the Dunes Dare or the BMX track, and local treasures and exciting festivals, you'll know you're in more than just a bedroom community. From veterans of foreign wars to hometown heroes, our diversity is our strength. And we forge our future with the same flame as our steel. Oh, there's a place in the Midwest that's calling you home. The best part of Portage is what's next. The best part of Portage is you. There's more for you in [Music] Indiana. There's a place in the Midwest, 50 mi southeast of Chicago, nestled near the coast of Lake Michigan. It's a place driven by what's coming next. A place where industry is the lifeblood of its community. And its pulse is gritted with sand and steel, fire and smoke. It's a city building its future together. One business, one family, and one home at a time. This is a place for makers, doers, and dreamers. It's where the global

marketplace meets hometown values. Where Americana isn't just a tradition, it's a way of life. Here, your experience makes the difference. With access to railroads, major waterways, and eight different highways, this is a place in motion, sending goods, services, and ideas not just across the state, but across the world. And when the work ends, the day is just beginning with beaches like West Beach in the Indiana Dunes National Park, exciting hiking and biking trails like the Diana of the Dunes Dare or the BMX track, and local treasures and exciting festivals, you'll know you're in more than just a bedroom community. From veterans of foreign wars to hometown heroes, our diversity is our strength. And we forge our future with the same flame as our steel. Oh, there's a place in the Midwest that's calling you home. The best part of Portage is what's next. The best part of Portage is you. There's more for you in [Music] Indiana. There's a place in the Midwest, 50 mi southeast of Chicago, nestled near the coast of Lake Michigan. It's a place driven by what's coming next. A place where industry is the lifeblood of its community. And its pulse is gritted with sand and steel, fire and smoke. It's a city building its future together. One business, one family, and one home at a time. This is a place for makers, doers, and dreamers. It's where the global marketplace meets hometown values. Where Americana isn't just a tradition, it's a way of life. Here, your experience makes the difference. With access to railroads, major waterways, and eight different highways, this is a place in

motion, sending goods, services, and ideas not just across the state, but across the world. And when the work ends, the day is just beginning with beaches like West Beach in the Indiana Dunes National Park, exciting hiking and biking trails like the Diana of the Dunes Dare or the BMX track, and local treasures and exciting festivals, you'll know you're in more than just a bedroom community. From veterans of foreign wars to hometown heroes, our diversity is our strength. And we forge our future with the same flame. Welcome to the May city council meeting. Thank you all for being here today. Um will you please stand and join me for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Liz, when you're ready, can we do the uh roll call? Mayor Bontton, here. Councilman Alvarez here. Councilwoman Weidenbach here. Councilwoman Hurst. Councilman Parnell here. Councilwoman Vazquez here. Councilwoman Amler. Councilwoman Zilly here. Did everyone have a chance to take a look at the minutes? And was there any corrections or a motion on the minutes? Could you speak what you're saying? I have to speak into the microphone. Um, if you can't hear me, I'll do my best. But, um, simply put, I have to just speak into the microphone and maybe there's a way to get that turned up. But is there a motion on the minutes or a correction on the minutes? I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from last month's

meeting. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Thank you. When it comes to uh communications, correspondence, and announcements from the mayor, I'm going to jump into one, and that is a proclamation for International Compost Week. It's on my phone. Um for better or worse. And then we will get a printed copy for you. I see Carrie in the back. Oh, do you have the paper? That would be wonderful. Thank you. Of course. I was told there was no paper and this is fantastic. So whereas the compost research and education foundation along with Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and other countries have declared the first week of May to be the annual international compost awareness week. Whereas composting is a way of returning organic resources to the soil and is a way of conserving water during extreme drought or flooding conditions, reducing water consumption and nonpoint pollution and a proven method of decreasing the dependence on chemical fertilizers and decreasing erosion. Whereas composting is an effective form of waste reduction, reuse and recycling. And since organic materials make up approximately 30% of the material going to landfills, composting is becoming one of the primary methods communities used to reach waste diversion goals. Whereas materials such as the leaves and yard trimmings have been composted and converted into a beneficial product known as compost at three compost site locations in Porter County. Whereas Porter County communities can have significant impact on clean water, soil, climate change, and landfill diversion by using compost for public works projects. And whereas International Compost Awareness Week is a uh publicity and education initiative to showcase compost production and demonstrate

compost use. Whereas this year's theme is sustainable communities begin with compost, the 2025 theme was chosen with the goal of highlighting composting in all kinds of communities at any scale from backyard home compaster to community composters to large-scale facilities. To all those who recognize the many benefits of using compost on our soils, composting is an essential element in developing a sustainable resource management plan for any community. Composting empowers communities to manage their own waste, create uh job opportunities, and support healthy soils with locally made compost. Now therefore be it resolved that the city of Portage joins the recycling and waste reduction district of Porter County to hereby proclaim May 4th through 10th 2025 as inter international compost week in recognition of the efforts of the compost research and education foundation extension agents soil conservation stewards householders landscapers farmers recyclers public workers composters gardeners and the plant growers everywhere. pray. All of which is proclaimed by the mayor of the city of Portage on this uh 6th day of May, 2025. Thank you. I will you can you can clap if you like. I mean, composting is a pretty big deal. I'll sign this for you and uh if you want to come up and grab it, we'll we'll hand it over to Liz as well. I'm having our city council president sign it as well and then I'll pass it over to Liz and Liz can hand it to you Carrie if that's okay. Just a reminder it's free loading this week so at the Portage site anybody who wants to motion

I was under the impression that the compost is why so many people are here today, but I might be wrong. That gets us to the clerk treasures report. Um, Liz, would you like to go? Sure. Okay. As I stated in the April meeting, we have been working implementing new um standard operating procedures in my office to align with the state board of accounts guidelines. We are going to be rolling out new procedures for the claims process which is pending implementation as we now are meeting with the mayor and the department heads weekly beginning May 9th. These changes will ensure that the checks and balances are being adhered to as well as making the department heads more able to monitor their budgets and their spending habits. A review of some outdated or ordinances have has been stated or started and we have sent a few drafts already to the ordinance committee for their review prior to submitting them to the council. In early April, department heads were sent a spreadsheet and were asked to complete their respective capital assets. To date, only a few of the department heads have completed their inventories. This is necessary for accurately reporting the city's assets, ensuring proper financial reporting and supporting information decision decision making when making strategic plans for new equipment purchases. We are 41% of the way through the year. Therefore, we are asked I ask all department heads to review their appropriations to determine if they are aligned with their adopted budget. So, if you look at your report and you have less than 59% of your um budget left, you might want to look at other avenues in your inside your budget to try to reduce some of those. the weekly meetings. We are

hopeful this will lead to more understanding of the budget process to the use of funds and open the door to two-way conversations. Understanding how municipalities accounting works will help department heads reach their goals while ensuring compliance. We will start having conversations regarding the budget. The city's annual budget outlines how the city will spend public funds. Department heads, common council, and the mayor set strategic priorities for these funds while the clerk treasur's office supports their plans and financial data. We have been notified by the state board of accounts that we will they will be conducting an audit within the next few weeks. My office is preparing for their arrival so to ensure that we have more efficient to prepare we are preparing so that we have a more efficient audit this this time for 2024. If if you get an email from the field examiner, please respond in a timely fashion so that they can get the information they need from the department heads and also from the city council. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? I just had a brief question uh clerk treasurer Modesto regarding the change in standard operating procedures. Does that get added to like a uh employee handbook? Is that a departmental handbook or like a citywide employee handbook? And how are these um like measure detailed I should say? Thank you. Well, if it's pertaining just to the clerk treasures office, it's the clerk clerk treasur's policies. But if it's a department one, then it will be brought before the department and before either the board of works or the council. Very good. Thank you. All right, that gets us to unfinished business. Ordinance 2522, consumer use of fireworks. Um, Attorney Mccclure, did you have some input after further

review? I I believe uh the fire chief and attorney Elwood were working their way through this uh ordinance at this point. I don't believe that it's been back through the process yet. Okay. On that note, is there a recommendation I would say to table it for an upcoming meeting? Yeah, I think a continue to a date certain would be be comfortable if we continued it maybe to the June council meeting. I know we've got one coming up next week, but I think a motion to table until the June council meeting. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I believe that passed. We got to get this ideally done by June because we are getting dangerously close to the 4th of July, but I think we'll make it. That gets us to uh new business. So, we had listed for A and B the utility CBA, the police CBA. Unfortunately, the final documents were not sent in until this afternoon. Um, in discussion with a number of council members, I think it's understandable that you guys were looking for some time to read and review the documents. Um, unless there was further discussion, um, my hope or recommendation would be to continue this to the meeting, uh, next week on, uh, Monday the, um, 12th. Um, I wanted to see though too if I could have maybe our police chief come up and if you want to say a few words. I know you have some officers here um to speak on both. I believe that both were well-made contracts and I'm very proud of the process we all went through. Um, I just think that it's understandable that given the time we had on the final document, you know. Yeah. I I just wanted to come up real quick because um so we we originally thought it was going to going to go today and we had a a large amount of the department that was planning on coming. Um once the mayor contacted me and said that it might get tabled, I tried to reach out to some of the officers, but um we got a lobby full of police officers here that are um obviously very concerned about this contract and wanted to at least show, you know, their support of it and

hopefully get your support today. So, um, a lot of them are working, so I'm going to send them out of here, um, because they probably don't want to hang out for the rest of the the city's business. But I do think it's important for you guys to realize that, you know, they they thought it was going today and and they did show up, uh, show up in force. Um, the contract was um, voted for very, very heavily um, by the union. Um, I'm going to speak for the union, but it was voted on very heavily. Um, and I'll tell you, you know, I' I've come to these meetings a lot and I've listened to a lot of the conversations about um, you know, wage studies and different things when we've talked about other um, positions. I have that information. Um, I don't know if the city can afford it. Um, that's up to you guys to decide, but I will tell you that if you're if you're making a decision based off of wage studies, you will see that this is a more than appropriate um wage uh base for our officers compared to uh the the other Porter County uh agencies and then the Lake County agencies are a whole another whole another ballgame of way even higher than ours. So, I have that information if anybody is interested in that between now and when we get to that. Um, so that that's not something that you guys would need to ask at that time. I I can get that to you. But um, I just wanted to get up here and give a, you know, give a shout out to it and, um, acknowledge them for coming. But, um, unless you want all these officers to stare you down all day, I'm going to send them out of here. Thank you, Chief. And if I could just say, too, um, I wouldn't be here fighting for this contract and I wouldn't have negotiated a contract that I didn't believe could be paid for. Um, at the time that we negotiated it, the state of Indiana had one situation and as the state adapted, we worked to make sure that we were still able to get this done. I've communicated my plans to city council members. And of course, if you guys want to meet with me anytime between now and ideally Monday, I'm happy to talk and go over things further, but I'm proud of the work that we did. On the uh utility side, I'm also

proud of the work we did there. Um, that contract from a financial standpoint is I don't want to say easier to explain, but it is a bit more straightforward. Um, we did have I think unless it's been handled, Tracy, there was one issue with the final product that was sent in, but we're going to have that cleared up by Thursday ahead of the utility boards voting on it at their meetings. Um, in either case, the natural progression would be next uh Tuesday at the board of works will be the ideal time for the final step. Sorry, I talk a lot, but did was there anything I said inaccurate, Tracy? So, I know I've discussed with you guys having a special meeting um next week on uh on Monday um the 12th being that we wanted to make sure that all council people could be there and that works for us. Um would there be a motion to um continue this to that meeting? And do you did I hear you correctly say that we would have this by Thursday or Friday? So, we've received the um final draft that was sent to us for both police and for um the utilities as of this late afternoon. Um Lynn's going to send that so it gets put into the dropbox because the review just got completed. The uh utility contract will be voted on on Thursday by the utility board and then it'll go to the next meeting if there is a need. I know what the legal is reviewing that to be sure. On the police side, we have it the final. So, it'll be sent to you guys, I think either, well, tonight probably most likely, and then we'll have that time to review it ahead of that next meeting. Liz, will that give you and your office enough time to get a financial impact to the council of the cost impact of each contract? I'll refer that to my chief deputy, Carrie. uh for the May 12 meeting. We've met already to go over the

numbers, so I think having something formal would be Yeah. Thank you. I'll make a motion to table to May 12th. I second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Thank you. That gets to introduction of ordinances. So for A, we have ordinance 2525, an ordinance amending number 2512, the salary ordinance for budget year 2025 to clarify compensation for part-time part-time fire department. So I don't know if you guys had the chance to read, although I hope so. To put it simply, um, we have a desire to have a part-time position created for the defire department. Um, I'll be just brief as I can. Formally, this position was handled by somebody who was a firefighter, you know, working full-time. With that person now being retired, we'd like to have a structure where we could hire someone to be able to do that part-time. And I'll be as frank as I can. There's a candidate we have in mind, and it's the retired firefighter who we'd be looking to talk to. I don't know if he's going to say yes for sure, but I have a feeling he's going to say yes. Um, this goes up to 35. It's not necessarily the price that'll get worked out, but we wanted to create some ability to negotiate for that position. Does that position still exist in a full-time capacity and now as well as part-time or does that position now become part-time? Is the fire chief here? I think I know the answer, but I think that the best to have the Yeah. So, previously this was done through overtime, whereas now it would be part-time wages, but to the question of has he been Oh, I'm so sorry. Yes. Yeah, it's it is not currently a full-time position that we have within the fire department. Uh, as the mayor stated, it's historically been done with

overtime wages. Um, which as you can imagine, uh, we have a fleet that needs a lot of work and that that taxes our system quite a bit. With the creation of this part-time position to to be able to bring him on and still facilitate those things would it would do it would be twofold. it would help with our overtime, but it would also still uh provide us the ability to have the same type of service that we have currently. So, being proper and thank you. Um, if I could have a city council person read this. Um, maybe Councilman Parnell, would you be comfortable to read this one? Yes, sir. Ordinance number 25-25 and ordinance amending ordinance number 25-12 the salary ordinance for the budget year 2025 for the city of Portage Porter County Indiana to clarify compensation for the part-time fire department personnel whereas the common council of the city of Portage Indiana previously adopted ordinance number 25-12 establishing salaries and compensation for employing employees and officers uh of the city for the year 2025. And whereas it is necessary to amend said ordinance to clarify and revise the pay rate for part-time personnel in the fire department. Now therefore, be it ordained by the common council of the city of Portage, Porter County, Indiana, as follows. Section one, ordinance number 25-12 is hereby amended to add the following language under the section labeled fire department additional compensation part-time maintenance up to $35 an hour. Section two, all other provisions of ordinance 25-12 is not in conflict with this amendment shall remain in full force and effect. Section three, this ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage by the common council approved by the mayor of such publication as required by law. Make a motion to suspend.

Second. We have a motion to suspend and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Believe that passed unanimously. Motion to adopt. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please question. I'm so sorry. Go ahead. So, Chief, um, in terms of a budget, the part-time salary line item, what is currently funded out of that? So, currently we have that office transfer overtime budget, some overtime funds to account for the the creation of this position. Thank you. You're welcome. I apologize. Any other discussion or questions? All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I believe that passed. Gets us to ordinance uh 25-26, an ordinance amending chapter 90, article 5, municipal code entitled zoning. Matt, as you're coming up and getting ready, I wanted to ask our attorney Mcclair. Um, I know we've had some questions asked. It's still the legal opinion of the city that this requires two readings. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. I'm not by any means disagreeing with you. I just Yeah. I wanted to make sure that I was explaining that correctly. just the arrows. So, before we begin the presentation, uh, Victoria, would you mind giving the reading of the ordinance because you did such a good job with the ladybug last time. Of course. Uh, this is read in full, correct? Okay. Yeah. Me, me, me.

Wait, what? What did we read? We did one of these. So that's later on this agenda. You're thinking of the ladybug laundromat. Yeah, that's the that's having its second reading today. You got it. Oh, no. I wouldn't make anyone read that one again. Do you remember the last meeting? Okay. And so we shall begin. Ordinance number 25-26, an ordinance of the city of Portage, Indiana, amending chapter 90, article 5 of the city of Portage municipal code entitled zoning map. Be it and be it and it hereby is ordained by the common council of the city of Portage, Indiana as follows. Section one, this ordinance shall amend chapter 90 article 5 of the city of portage municipal code and accompanying zoning map in the following manner. The zoning map the zoning shall be changed from R1 very low density residential to C2 medium largecale commercial and M2 multifamily residential. The legal description listed below. Parcel ID number 64-06-30-100-024.0000-16 consisting of 84.299 acres. Parcel one, C2 zoning, 40 plus acres, part of the west half of the northwest quarter of section 30, township 36 north, range six, west of the second principal meridian in Porter County, Indiana. More particularly described as follows. Commencing at the northwest corner of the northwest quarter of said section 30, then along the west line of said section 30, south 00° 22 minutes 41 seconds east, a distance of 131.41 ft. condense north 89 degrees 37 minutes 19 seconds east a distance of 55.66 feet a point on the intersection of the east rightofway line on North 500 West Airport Road and US Highway 6. Hence along the southernly rightofway line of US Highway 6 for the following five courses. Then north 51°

11 minutes 32 seconds east a distance of 86.79 ft. Then north 76° 24 minutes 02 seconds east a distance of 68.06 ft to a non-tangent curve. Then east along a curve concave to the south with a radius of 65,334.62 ft. An arc length of six an arc length of 268.89 ft. A cord bearing south 89° 14 minutes 24 seconds east and a cord length of 268.89 ft. Then south 89 degrees 13 minutes05 seconds east a distance of 845.67 feet. Then south 86 degrees 25 minutes 01 seconds east a distance of 83.41 ft to the northeast corner of the west half of the northwest of said section 30. Then along said east line south 00° 19 minutes east seconds east a distance of 1,341.86 ft. Then north 85° 58 minutes 34 seconds west a distance of 1,342.47 ft to the east rightway line of North 500 West Airport Road. Then along said east line north 00° 00 minutes 24 seconds east a distance of 1,197.57 feet to the point of beginning containing 40 acres of land more or less in Porter County, Indiana. Parcel 2, M2 zoning, 43 plus or minus acres. Part of the west half of the northwest quarter of section 30, township 36 north, range six, west of the second principal meridian in Porter County, Indiana. More particularly described as follows. Commencing at the northwest corner of the northwest quarter of said section 30, then along the west line of said section 30, south 0 degrees 22 minutes 41 seconds east, a distance of 131.41 41 ft to the south line of the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter of said section 30.

Then along said south line south 89 degrees 16 minutes 43 seconds east a distance of 47.62 ft to the east line of the ride ofway of north 500 West Airport Road. Then south 85° 58 minutes 34 seconds east, a distance of 1,342.47 47 ft to the east line of the west half of the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of said section 30. Then along the east line of the west half of the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of said section 30 south 0 degrees 19 minutes 18 seconds east. A distance of 1,249.97 ft to the south line of the northwest quarter of said section 30. Then along said south line north 89 degrees 19 minutes 30 seconds west a distance of 1,385.12 ft to the west line of the northwest quarter of said section 30. Then along said west line north 0 degrees 22 minutes 41 seconds east a distance of 1,328.46 ft to the point of beginning containing 40.05 acres of land more or less in Porter County, Indiana. Section two, conditions precedent none. Section three, conflicting ordinances. Any ordinance or provision of any ordinance of the city of portage in conflict with the provisions of this ordinance is hereby repealed. Section four, severability. The invalidity of any section, clause, sentence, or provision of this ordinance shall not affect the validity of any other part of this ordinance which can be given effect without such invalid parts or parts. Section five, effective date. This ordinance shall be in full force and effective from and after its passage and adoption by the common council and approval by the mayor of the city of Portage, Indiana. Pass and adopted by the common council of the city of Portage, Indiana this to be determined day of the determined month of 2025.

Would you mind repeating that please? And was this read in its entirety? So, as always, I buried a suitcase full of money at the location. So, if you were keeping track of all those coordinates, you might be able to find it. I should probably add that that is strictly a joke. Do not dig in and blad you're not allowed to. That'd be a very neat idea. But, thank you so much, Victoria. More than welcome. And thank you for your patience. If you're ready, we are ready to hear. Good evening. My name is Dave Weslin. I'm an attorney with law offices in Hammond, Indiana. I'm happy I didn't have to read that ordinance in full. I don't know that I could have done as good a job. Um, I'm here on behalf of Simon CRA. Um, the property at issue. I I don't I'm going to try to describe it in more brief terms than was described, but it's at the corner of US Highway 6 and uh County Road 500 West. It consists of about 84 acres. What you have before you tonight is an ordinance that would change the map um from R1 to uh different zoning classifications. It's received um a favorable recommendation from your plan commission. Uh the north 40ish acres would be zoned to C2 if the ordinance is adopted and then the south 40ish acres would be uh reszoned to M2. Um just a little bit about Simon CRA. Um they're a full-ervice commercial real estate development and acquisition company. They're based out of Scottsdale. They've been in business for about 15 years. Um they've done almost 300 projects over a billion dollars of total value um has been done in 23 states over the 14 plus

years. This slide just represents um some of their uh clients national retailers that they deal with um uh and have dealt with in those projects. And I'm sure you'd all notice the the names there. Um, this slide is is sort of a just a big overview of the area. Uh, the site is shown there with the red box and then some of the other retailers that are around this particular site are also shown. Uh, this this slide closes you in a little bit on on the site at issue. Um the site plan itself uh for the northern 40 acres it's about 330,000 square ft of commercial development. Um as I said the plan commission gave this a favorable recommendation. It's my understanding there weren't any remmonstrances at the plan commission at the public hearing. Um the center has direct access from US Highway 6. uh 75 to $100 million in investments in when you include both the commercial and uh the light multif family. Um the north part is currently requesting a resoning as I said from R1 to C2 general commercial and then the south parcel is R1 to M2 um medium density multifamily. Um they haven't chosen a uh real estate or a residential developer for the south south parcel yet, but they have been in talks with um a couple uh some of which are are pretty familiar around Portage. um the uh northern part uh the proposed mass merchandiser which I'm uh bound to

not disclose publicly but I think um most of you are somewhat aware of who that is. It's a major national retailer that I think uh is an a asset to the community. Um, I think importantly when you consider a resoning request, um, and this is not in the slides, but when you when you consider a resoning request, one of the things you have to look to is how does the the new zoning comport with your master plan? And I and I think or your comprehensive plan. and and I think um this particular corner um the commercial development is clearly in line with your your comprehensive plan and if you look at the development that you have going to the south a medium density multif family for the for the southern parcel also fits your comprehensive plan. Um, with that I would take any questions and as long as you don't ask me to read that legal description. A brief question, Mr. Weslin. Um, I noticed on the first page the pins dropped, you know, at the various uh developments all across the country. Um, and I noticed what, maybe two or threeish that are in the regional area of the Illinois, Indiana. Um, do you by any chance know the names of those developments or where they're located? Uh, just so we have an example of what, uh, their quality of, you know, work might look like? I apologize. I I do not. I do not. That's fine. Thank you. I can get that information. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. So, the multif family, uh, are they looking at paired patios, uh, town homes? Yes, I think it's it it kind of depends on Well, I think it depends on a couple of things. Remember, you know, they're going to have to come back for site plan review. Um, and it so it it somewhat depends on the city's vision, number one. Uh, number two, it depends on which one of the developers they decide to go with and if it's a one that you're familiar with. Um, you know, it could be anything from a more single family style to a more um town home looking style as well. So, I don't think there's been a a determination, but I I know the developer is looking forward to working with the city and potential uh builders to kind of to get something that everybody's happy with. I mean, ultimately, your property to the south is going to support your property to the north. So, we certainly want, you know, a high value um high investment in that in that property of the south. Okay. I think that kind of backing that up, if I could, if you don't mind me saying so, and it speaks well to the city's vision. We have a very interesting, you know, neighborhood that got approved, you know, last year to the south of this area, which has a mix of single family as well as cottage homes and then the uh paired patio homes. And so I think with a major commercial area to the north, um, some of this you think of as I want to say transitional because that sounds like a certain thing, but transitional as in the sense of you're moving from kind of single family high density, I'm sorry, low density to a higher density towards the commercial, but as noted, it needs to match our city standards and be of good quality. You know, and I'm not a city planner, but the mayor is exactly right. You know,

all land planners, and I'll let Tom talk to you about this. You want to move from the more intense to the less intense, right? So you've got the commercial which is on the m major thoroughfare certainly something less intense and then going down even to something less intense after that. Tom, this might be a question for you. I assume that this would make a four-way intersection at the light at Panama in six. Yes. Okay. Just one more. Um, the city, we haven't had a major retail development in quite a while. Um, actually, I don't know that we've had one since we in the storm water side, Tracy and Dan switched to the impervious surface calculation, right, for how we calculate storm water fees. Um, so in terms of a development plan, have you all thought about how to capture storm water as opposed to putting it into our system? Because the more impervious surface, the the higher the storm water fee is going to be. That was part of the reason we did this was to entice developers to make their developments more pvious. Have you all thought about that? Are you asking me or are you asking your staff? Yeah. Um, if you're not in a position, I could ask with Tracy and Dan. Has that come up in any review so far? Are we not at that stage yet? We're not at that stage yet. Certainly, city standards will apply when we get to that part of the DRC. Well, sure. I mean, from a city standards I mean, we have our standards. You can put in a paved parking lot. I'm just trying to think through developments are going to pay more for a paved parking lot if they're not capturing their storm water or putting impervious parking lots. So, they certainly understand that and they

certainly understand um you know, when you're looking at a development of this size, right, and and the type of investment we're talking about, there's certainly going to have to be a significant investment in um capturing the storm water, right? like and and I don't know that they're at a at a phase yet where they can tell you this is the plan of how we're going to do it because I don't know that other than the sketch they don't have it laid out and that's why site plan approval is going to be so important. Just one final question are are we anticipating that there will be a tax abatement request with this development? I have not seen that request yet. I'm I'm not I I'm not going to sit here and and tell you no because I' I've not seen it. I know uh there's been some initial discussion about a development agreement that can take numerous different forms and quite frankly um originally that's what they hired me to talk about with them, right? And it wasn't to come to the council on the zone map because they they told me they had that under control. But um but in any event um so I don't want to say no uh but whatever you know obviously the city council will have complete discretion on any development agreement that is is is crafted. Any other questions? With this being a first reading um we would just bring this to the next agenda. So, uh, unless there's anything else you want to say, I want to say thank you very much. And I know that it is not always the case that we do a presentation here at a city council meeting. Um, some of you guys are on the plan commission. At the last plan commission meeting, there was something of a there were communication challenges during the presentation. So, we just wanted to make sure that things were, you know, presented to the council in just a very clear way. So, no problem. Thank you. No problem. You're welcome.

I said they could have me do it, but apparently I'm considered biased, you know. So, well, thank you so much. Thank you. That gets us to the second reading of ordinances, which is A23, an ordinance amending uh chapter 90, article 5 of the city of Portage Municipal Code entitled zoning map for Ladybug laundromat. Is there anyone here, Tom, to speak on that? You guys are welcome to come up, but uh Attorney McLar, I don't believe this has to be does this have to be literally read again because I think that Victoria might like you know what is read on the on the agenda read. I'll ask if Melissa could you read um the agenda aloud. Sure. Uh, second reading of ordinance 25-23, an ordinance amending chapter 90, article 5 of the city of Portage Municipal Cold entitled zoning map for ladybug laundromat. All right. And with you guys here, was there anything? Oh, you've got something. Oh, and look at that. There's a ladybug. Okay. Good evening, Adam. Um, I'm Adam McAlpine. I'm with Mccalpine Consulting, 398 East, 400 North in Valareerezo. Yeah. Logan Wetrich. I'm the owner of Ladybug Laundry. Um I'll give you a We're going to Your time is very valuable, so we're going to keep it short and sweet. I I tend to overt talk. Uh Ladybug Laundry. Um our vision is just to take an ordinary chore and turn it into an exceptional experience. Um we don't quite have the portfolio that the gentleman before us had, but uh we've got Not yet. We'll see. But we've got uh we've got 12 locations uh brick and mortar locations in northwest Indiana, seven counties, and um uh we employ about 44 full-time jobs, and we love what we do. We're kind of laundry nerds. So um I've had my eye on Portage for years and finally found something that's

going to work for us, and we're excited to come to this community. And um and if you have any questions, I'll answer those, but I'll stop there. And so we're here tonight. Um it's kind of the beginning stages of uh going through the process of developing this site. Uh one of the first steps is to reszone the property for this use. It's there on the west side of Willow Creek, just north of Bigby. Um and just south of the credit union. It's an open in a deep property. Um and uh but it's zoned office uh office commercial and so we need it to be zoned C1 um for this for this use. Um hope I got that right. Um but at any rate, this is the layout that we're proposing. I'll I'll just jump through some different uh renderings. We think it's a a good fit for this area. Um and it certainly fits the market. Otherwise, Logan would not be here. Um and um this is the overall site layout showing the size of the property, shape of the property, and its proximity to the neighbors. Um and um with that, we'd have be happy to answer any questions, but looking for your approval for this this reszone. I've already made friends with the Big B uh folks, the Big Bals. So, um they're excited to see us come next door. And um at the at the um previous meeting we had um you know everybody was there in favor of it. So I'm just hoping that uh we get this through so we can start working on it. Thank you. Just a brief question. Uh where is your company headquartered out of? Could be Portage. Um so I live in Palasky County. Um Francesville, Indiana is where I I'm at and that's where we started. town of 800 people and my uh home office is about thousand square feet there. So most of my um seuite staff work remotely. Um they travel we one of the things about our company is I I want

everybody to have hands-on. So they travel location to location um while they're working to uh be with our be with our folks. And just uh I guess just a little few details I guess is is it a traditional laundromat or do you offer other services like what's this? You know Sure. I always forget to say this. So um we are not a dry cleaner. Um, actually we've we ceased our final dry cleaning operation um last Thursday. We've been slowly phasing that out of our out of out of it. Um, we used to be Ladybug Cleaners. So, if you ever see Ladybug Cleaners, that was us as well. We've rebranded the Ladybug Laundry. Um, we're still working on that rebrand process. We are a full-ervice laundry. So, we will offer um not just self the self-service side, but we offer um drop off services as well, both on the residential side and the commercial side. We don't do any pickup and delivery, but you can bring your things here. Um, we work with commercial clients as well. And uh other than that um as a full service laundry, we've got vending machines, we've got the you know TVs, Wi-Fi, the whole nine yards to come and do your work while you got to sit for an hour and wait. Any other questions? You can also get coffee, I suppose, while you're waiting. Yeah, that's what I really like about this. In fact, we're going to coordinate on some future projects hopefully and and and combine the two save some cost. Any other questions from the council? Um, and if not, is there a motion? I'll make a motion to adopt. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Believe that was unanimous. So, congratulations. Thank you. Appreciate it. Hey, one last thing. Can you uh Miss Vasquez had to read the thing last time. That's two in a row now. So, I think it's somebody else's turn to have to read that. I mean, I was actually thinking we'll specialize each council. You be quiet now. Be quiet. Yeah. You guys. Hey. Thank you. All right, that gets us to our public

meeting on ordinance uh 2524, an ordinance amending the rates and charges for the city of Portage Municipal Wastewater uh utility and storm utility. I believe is a public hearing. Attorney McClure, um first off, I guess do we need someone to read it as a council person as was done before? I do not believe that. I do not believe that reading it word for word is Oh, I understand that part. Um I do at this one I would suggest that beyond reading what's on the agenda that uh we point out at the appropriate stage the exhibit A numbers I think would be the appropriate portion to read aloud. Let's see. Councilman Alvarez, would you be comfortable reading the exhibit A portion? Absolutely. Absolutely, Mr. Mayor. Um, ordinance number 2524, an ordinance amending rates and charges for the city of Portage Municipal Wastewater Utility and Storm Water Utility. Let the record show that this ordinance has been read in its entirety. Well, that's even better. These like printed saves that we keep having at this meeting have been delightful. Thank you. All digital, baby. Uh, exhibit A, City of Portage sanitary schedule of rates and charges. Uh, sewer use rates, capacity fees, uh, meter size less than one inch. Phase one, $1,700. Phase 2 $3,000. 1 in four phase 1 $4,250. Phase 2 $7,500. One and 1/2 in $9,860 for phase one. For phase 2, $17,400. 2 in. For phase 1,

$17,000. For phase 2, $30,000. 3 in or larger. For phase 1, $39,100. For phase 2, uh $69,000. Tap-on fees in the amount of $1,000. Inspection fees, residential in the amount of $100. Uh, city of Portage stormwater permit application and inspection fee schedule. Uh, section one, residential, single family dwelling less than one acre, uh, the amount would be $150. Single family dwelling more than one acre in the amount of $250. Single family dwelling development, $250 plus $20 per acre. Number four, multifamily dwelling development, $250 plus $20 per acre. Infill development less than 10,000 square feet does not require a storm water permit application. Section two, commercial industrial, number one, commercial building, hotel, warehouse, $250 plus $20 an acre. Number two, remodel addition, $150. Number three, commercial and industrial developments, $250 plus $20 an acre. And number four, institutional, educational, religious developments, $150 plus $20 an acre. Section three, erosion and sediment control inspection fees. All erosion and sediment control in inspections which may include but are not limited to an initial inspection, routine inspection, complaint inspections and termination in inspections will require a fee above and beyond the application fees. The additional fee will be 100% of the cost of the review by the outsourced

inspector. Inspectors com inspections completed by the city of Portage employees will be build at a cost of $200 per inspection. Each inspection will be accompanied by a complete inspection form and pictures. These fees shall be paid to the office of the city of Portage utility department and shall be paid in full before the onset of service by the city of Portage utility department. And section four, engineering or excuse me, is that section? Yeah, section four. Um, engineering review fees. All engineering projects will require a review fee above and beyond the application fees. The additional fee will be 100% of the cost of the review by the outsourced engineer. This fee shall be paid to the office of the city of Portage utility department and shall be paid in full before the onset of service by the city of Portage utility department. The record show that exhibit A has been read in its entirety. Thank you. Thank you so much, Scott. Before I open the public hearing, would it be possible if Tracy come up and maybe just do a bit of a explanation or translation? And I just feel like someone might have heard that and if they wanted to come and speak, they might have questions that maybe could be answered with a little bit more layman's terms. Yes. And I also think you have one council person's question. Quick question. Okay. Section one residential. It says infill development less than and it has 1 0,000 0 square feet. Is that 10,000 or 1,000? I just want to make sure we have the correct number. It's supposed to be 10. So it's missing a zero. Tracy, would you mind coming up to just present briefly? Well, or as long as you need. You're great at that. Dan is good, too. But I said you're good too at Dan. I I just meant to say that, you know, I'm going to have her come up and speak. Good evening. So basically, you remember last year we came asking for residential increases in the sanitary and we said

that we would come to the council in a future date to apply this to the commercial and the everyone coming in the developments. And at the time we thought we could call it a development impact fee or something similar to that. But since we have capacity fees, we found out that we can't we can't make another fee like that. So what we can do is increase our fees to be equivalent to what the surrounding area is doing. So we did consult with Buzz Cron and Associates on these amounts and we did go on the lower side especially with the capacity. So right now we are at the phase one the 1,700. What we're asking is to go to the $3,000 amount for the first, so go from phase one to phase 2. So, um, basically surrounding areas that are similar in size to ours, he had told us is anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 for a tap-on fee to start with for the less than one inch. So, we went on the conservative side and did the 3,000 right now because it is a large amount going from 17 to 3,000. But this is capturing all the new developments that's coming in and that kind of stuff. So the rest of it is an increase. So like our tap on fee, it was 500. We're increasing it to a,000. It has not been increased in I don't know how many years. It's forever. Um same thing. Inspection fees were $50. It takes more time from our inspector to be able to go out than $50. that's just not anymore. Even his gas can be that much if he's going around the whole city. So, we are asking to increase that to 100. Um the whole other section that you're

seeing 1 through 4 was never in our ordinance before. This is all new. This is something by going to m by Dan and them going to MS4 with surrounding communities. This is something that they have either implemented or they are implementing. So an example is the engineering in section 4. We always ate that cost. If we needed a question to an engineer, we paid them. We paid Christopher Burke. We paid Commonwealth. It should be passed on to the developer. If we're not if if they we have questions or there's stuff is not clear. So if we have to have another engineer look at it, they should be paying that 100%. either send us clear stuff with your engineers or if we have to pass it on then we should be passing on the cost. Um so the same thing with all the rest everything for storm water. There was never really anything in the ordinance that applied to that for inspection fees. It is a great deal of time that our inspector is using right now to do these. So, we're just asking that we're compensating for that because there's a lot of things that they do and they won't. Developers will do it the first time and we tell them to make the changes and they don't the second time. And if we have to keep coming out there, we should be compensating for our time. There's a lot of other things that the field department could be doing. So, is there any other questions on it? I think at this point, did I make it clear? Just to confirm the the fees we're talking about are tap-on fees or these are their So the top one is capacity fees. The next there's a tap on fee under the capacity fee that's $1,000. It used to be $500. So it's an additional fee. Okay. Next question. Yes. Are these annual fees, the capacity fees or these

monthly? No, it's when they they initially Got it. they initially come onto the system. So nobody else it's not a residential thing. It's not anything like this. This is this is in fact keeping it. So the further infrastructure that we have to do is being helped to be paid with this instead of having to raise fees again in two years or three years after that. I think to put it as simple as we can, when residents ask a rather good question, which is we have new neighborhoods coming in to the city, are they paying for their own infrastructure and our ability to service them in the future, or our existing residents footing the bill for new neighborhoods coming in. This addresses that by raising our fees for these developments that are coming in where we can make sure that they're paying their their fair share. Mhm. And I would also say allows us to reserve money in the future for future maintenance rather than having to do dramatic increases in the future. So with that, I should open the public hearing. Um, thank you Tracy. We might bring you back depending on what I will do now is I will open the public hearing and if you'd like to come up and speak, I'll pound the gavl and feel free to come up and align if you're here. Is there anyone here to speak on this topic? I have had enough of portage. The neighborhood I live in is Oak View off of Airport Road. And the people in that neighborhood are so fed up with everything being raised but our

income. I am on a fixed income. My taxes go up so high. I'm paying an extra $100 a month. Sewer bills goes up. Everything's going up. And Portage is allowing all of these builders, right? To take all this land and build what they want to, right? And we're eating it. And we're tired of it. We are tired of the fact that, you know, we go down 700 North and all of a sudden there's a new subdivision. That lawyer was talking about a new subdivision. When's it going to stop? Because if it doesn't stop, we the public are going to be the ones eating it, not the city council. Right. It's the public. And if you think I'm BSing it, we proved it by looking at our tax bills and seeing how high they went up. All right. And then the sewer bill, it was like I was gone most of last year because of deaths in the family and taking care of people. And I didn't know that it had gone up to $87 or whatever it is. And all of a sudden, I get this bill because I'm still paying all the, you know, the whatever it used to be and I get a all this bill and it's like, what the heck is going on here? All

right. And I came here and the woman I talked to said, "This is what's going on. This is what's happening in Portage. Every time they need money, they're going to come after you, right? And that is what's happening. All right. We need a new road. Why? because we're allowing all the builders that want to come into Portage to come in and do whatever they want. So, let's build a road, but we're not going to make them pay for it. We're going to make the citizens that already live here pay for it. All right. And we can't take it anymore because the neighborhood I live in, it's mostly people my age now. you know, the younger kids are coming in, but they can afford it. I don't know how, but when you're on a fixed income, and what really bugs me, my husband died last year. We really thought we had saved enough money for our retirement. And it's like, thank God he did die because he he would have died just from the a heart attack. Seeing all of these things go up and to see that we're not going to be able to enjoy a retirement time together because we're having to pay so much more for taxes. Yeah. It's just so, you know, um, frustrating to us. That's just like NIPCO got their um, raise on their electric bill or gas bill.

Who this year my bill was the highest one was $200. Why? Because my thermostat never went over 60 degrees. And my house was never inspected when it was built. So none of the vents put out the air it should. Nothing is the way it should be to keep the house warm. Right? So I am walking around in three layers of clothing, right? all these socks and then laying in bed covered up just to try to save enough money to buy food. And I don't have charge cards, right? So, it's not my money is not going to charge cards. It's going to doctor bills, right? And taxes. And I just we would like to know, our neighborhood would like to know when's it going to stop? When do we get to retire and enjoy our life? You know, we are just at our wits end. I And the thing is is that there's a a couple that are they're in their 50s, right? their kids are gone and all and he works repair u at the airport repairing airplanes making real good money but he said between his water his sewer his taxes he said I can't keep doing this you know

and parents help their children he's helping his right and so that takes we want to do that for our kids All right. And I don't know how our schools are going to, as a matter of fact, has anybody been to Portage High School lately? Those kids are crammed in there and the teachers don't even know who the kids are because there's so many. the bus drivers have to make three runs right to get all these kids. And if we keep going, what's going to happen? Where the where are these kids going to go? So, I'll be happy to get into some of that. I've taken some notes on what you've said, but I'm going to ask if somebody else would like to come up and speak, but thank you very much for speaking. And certainly, but yeah, but nobody's answered. We're in a So, we're in a public hearing. Where do I go back to our my neighborhood, right? And the people show up at my house. What am I going to tell them? So, what I'm going to Nothing's going to happen. What I'm going to ask is that we have a public hearing. So, with respect to you and all your concerns, we're going to come to them. I've made notes. I'm certain that some of the council people have as well, but we have to allow other people to come up to the podium. I understand that. I really do. So, I'm have the right to know when it's going to stop. and what I what I can tell them. You definitely do. And so what I'll ask is is if you allow for the podium to come up for someone else. If no one else is going to come up to speak to the podium, I'll close the public hearing and I'll be able to give you a response and the other council people can too if they'd like. But we have to allow everyone the opportunity to come to the podium. And if we go back and forth here at this time, we We're not going back and forth. You haven't said

anything. I know. I'm explaining. If you would allow the podium to be open for anyone else who wants to speak after everyone has spoken, I'll close the public hearing and we can give an answer. That's fine. Thank you. I will that is there anyone else here to speak on this? Oh, please come up. That's what I was saying is that we want to make sure everyone has the ability to come up to speak and I'm going to take the notes. we close the public hearing and then I'll address some of the concerns brought up or direct them to someone who can address them. I know that lady spoke a lot about what's happening with our utility taxes in Portage. I've been living here in Portage probably more longer than a lot of you people living sitting right here. I've been out here since 1990 when Willow Creek was two-lane highway and route six was two lanes. But there's property that I don't know why we got a drainage field between Willow Creek and Savannah that somebody owns. I don't know why they bought it, but that feels terrible for our neighborhood. It looks bad. And I know the guy cut the parkway finally, but I do not know why it was bought being a drainage field. I really don't. And like I say, she told everything about the I'm retired. I've been retired since 2007 and my income I get a raise and that raise goes towards the taxes. So, like she said, but anyway, I would like to see more services. Robin's Road, I seen a sweeper going down, not sweeping, just driving down the road. There's so much dirt

sitting there saying by the where people handicap is and that's not been swept. Why? I don't know. But anyway, that's all I got to say. Thank you very much. And again, I'll bring up everything at the end. And of course if there's a need we can keep going but they could say is there anyone else who'd like to come and speak. Good evening. My name is Brian Newman. Uh I got a issue. I live on the corner of Robins Road and Woodbine. would mine uh the stop sign there. 50% of the people don't stop. So to be clear, this is a public hearing about this specific thing. You were here um if you'd like to speak about something related to traffic, I would recommend waiting for the uh public remmonstration at the end of the meeting. Um this is a public hearing specifically for the utility. No disrespect to why you're here. And of course, you're welcome to speak on what I thought you kept saying that you were getting ready to close. Oh, no. I'm sorry. close the public hearing on this matter. I'm so sorry. I'll come back. That's fine. Is there anyone else here who'd like to speak on the matter regarding the um proposed um rates? I just have a question. Um it is my understanding that this ordinance is to make new developers pay more when they come in so that the city doesn't spend as much money on new developments. Yes. Okay. Great. And I'm going to clarify that at the end. So, but I'm comfortable saying that. Is there anyone else here to speak on this matter? I'm going to ask two more times cuz by law I have to. Is there anyone else here to speak on this matter? Is there anyone else here to speak on this matter? Uh, with that, I'll close the public hearing. I'm not

left-handed, so sorry if that was kind of weak. So, to begin, and I want to be careful because there are political opinions being expressed, and I have them as well. Um, that's how you become mayor. We have different council people who've been on the council for different amounts of time. And I won't get into some of the nuances, but all I will say is this. As the city of Portage has grown over the last 40 years, the city has struggled with keeping up with the maintenance needs of our utilities. It's not just homes that were built last year or the year before that. It includes homes like the homes that were built in the late 90s, the early 2000s. Every time the city grows, there is a need to maintain and make sure our utilities keep up. The challenge with the city of Portage of Indiana is the fact that for a long time, for different reasons, the city maintained very low rates at a rate where we could not keep up with the infrastructure improvements and maintenance that was needed for our sewer system. So what that led to is we reached a point where we were at $ 36.50 for a sewer bill and I believe the average sewer bill in Indiana was over $70. You can look right next door at South Haven where it's $71 a month. Now the 87 is actually a combination of a sewer bill, a storm water bill, and a trash bill. And I say that for clarification because sometimes there are people who think it's all sewer or think it's all trash and that can get a bit confusing. when it comes to the issue of what we need to do is that over the last 40 years as our city has grown from under 20,000 people to 40,000 people, we have to do a couple of things all at once. One, we have to take care of the system we have right now. And the first step with that was unfortunately raising the rates in a way that was dramatic for many people, including me. I'm not a wealthy person myself. I'm doing better

now because I'm the mayor, but I was a special education teacher turned music school manager. And I only say that because I promise you I'm not some millionaire who's living outside of town. I live off of Malberry Street. All that said is to say that gets us to where we can take care of problems. Now, the second part though is that we have developments that were approved over a period of years. When you see a field suddenly have homes built in it, almost always that wasn't approved the week before and sometimes not even the year before. Sometimes neighborhoods are zoned residential and a builder has the ability to build on it. Sometimes those neighborhoods get zoned and it or changed and approved and it might take years before they actually start building or getting and going. I say that because there are some people and we won't go down that rabbit hole, but there are people on this council who are very concerned about new homes getting developed. At the same time, as a city, we do have to have commercial development, some industrial development, and we do need to have some growth in our residential to be able to keep commercial and industrial development coming here. It's tough. It's a tough harmony to have, but we are trying to get to it. What we're voting on today, what's being proposed is a massive I should be careful saying massive. I've got some developers already mad at me as if they weren't already, but a massive increase on the fees that the neighborhood developers are paying and other developers are paying when they build a home. So, for example, when you see a field where homes are getting built right now, we can't stop those from getting built. Those are already approved. I made the decision to run for mayor myself when the city council made a decision to reszone a piece of land that I thought was a bad idea. It was my uh origin story, if you will, of the city is growing faster than our services are able to keep up. Now, the challenge

is is we just can't stop growing in residential, going in commercial, but we do have to be able to get a better harmony of our business base and our residential base. We also have to have fees on businesses, fees on developers that are done in such a way that they are paying their fair share so that a new development is paying for itself now and in the future if we manage it right. We don't want to have it happen that people get used to the rates that have been passed and then if we neglect it for years and we don't do something like this like what we're voting on now to increase the fees on the builders what's going to happen is we are going to see more problems come and go or sorry come and then have to be addressed again. These fees that are being proposed here are on new developments so that they pay for themselves. And that's where I apologize because everything you're saying is a concern I've had for a long time and it's a concern other people on this council have had for a long time. And this is quite literally the uh the bill, if you will, to increase the fees on these homes that are getting built and other things so that they're paying for themselves. I hope that that makes sense. On the tax side, we don't directly control all of the property tax. If there was a specific meeting where this council is sitting through and coming up with the tax rate, that's not how it works in Indiana. The taxes in Indiana are a very complicated process which we contribute to by setting our budget which sets our levy and then it mixes with other units of government. So to put it simply, it's probably a very good idea in another setting to offer the ability to see how that stuff is formed. But on the utility side and on this particular vote, as my friend Susan got to, this is an increase on the development fees for developers

so that your tax dollars or your utility bill is not subsidizing new neighborhoods coming in. That's the goal. And in particular, I just want to highlight what was said about the engineering. Right now, we don't have an incentive to get things done correctly the first time because if I'm a developer and the city is going to pay the engineer every time I mess up or every time that we need to do a follow-up, what is my incentive to get it right the first time? Unless I'm actually paying the engineering fees. I hope that makes sense, but I just want to clarify. We do need to increase services in this city over time. And we do very much have to catch up and make sure that everyone's paying their fair share. We have challenges because as our assessments are going up and taxes are going up, this city is being defunded by the state government. Um, to be as light as I can because I said we got to be careful about politics. The state recently made a change to the law that's pleased absolutely no one. People who want their property taxes to go down, even if it means city services go down with it, they're not going down. Well, to be clear, it pleased one group of people, and I was big business, but that's for another day. We'll get to that. Yeah. And for people like us, whether we are right-leaning or left-leaning, but believe in essential local government services, we're being cut in an alarming way. And again, it would be one thing to be cut in an alarming way, and I could say at least people who really hate property taxes are happy, but they're not happy either. So, that's all for another day, but just to assure you, the purpose of what we're voting here, this is not an increase. I would like to say it's not an increase on any fee you pay, but I and I don't mean this sarcastically at all. If you are building a house, you're going to pay this fee on the house that you build when you sell it. If that makes sense. That's why I can't sell. No, no, no. That Oh, no. Not your existing house would not pay this. You'd have to build a new house and sell it to pay these fees we're talking about.

But what I don't understand and I well I understood what you said but why is it that it just keeps going like this? I know you sorry you said that these people these builders had had gotten the okay to do this a long time ago but so there's a couple of different we don't have enough the sewers, you know, if they if we can't get our sewers, you know, to uh work properly, why, you know, why isn't these people? No. Well, and that's just it. By having these fees on the builders when they build, this pays for their development so that what you pay isn't going to some new thing coming in. It's paying for itself. And then it puts money towards its future maintenance so that it's not just built and then 10, 15 years ago our rates have to go up bad again. It's we have builders now who not because they're better or worse than the builders before, but because we're putting these fees on them. When they pay, they're paying money that takes care of their development and takes care of future maintenance on it or at least gives us the ability to budget ahead for future maintenance. Everything that we should have done as a city, I say we as a city, everything that should have been done 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago, we're trying to do now and catch up. And again, that's not even criticism of people 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. I can't speak to all the situations they were in. Hindsight's 2020, but we are trying to learn from the past and put fair share fees on developments that come to our city so that it's not being subsidized by existing rate payers.

That's the goal of this and I believe it's going to achieve that. But on that, I should open it up to other council people to speak. Well, and there's another example of this. Um, Tracy, Dan, Tracy, I don't think you were here when we did this, but Dan, correct me if I'm wrong. It was 2016, 2017 when we switched to impervious surface for storm water. Yeah. And and what we did was we identified that there were businesses in Portage that were paying that have very very large parking lots and very large buildings that contribute a lot of water to our storm water system who were paying the equivalent of what some homeowners were paying for storm water fees. And a home does not nearly affect our storm water as much as a building like Meyer or Walmart or Menard's does. So what we did was we switched to an imperous surface fee based on the amount of impervious surface that businesses have on their property. Uh that was our way of identifying the the real culprit of contributing to our storm water system and ensuring that residents weren't subsidizing businesses. That's what this is doing. This is ensuring that business development and new residential development isn't being subsidized by current rateayers. And I also want to add that was a step in the right direction in 2016. And it's also very important for me to highlight this. I was in an election two years ago against a fantastic person named Sue Lynch. Sue began this process and I'm proud to continue this process because this is nonpartisan. This is simply about making sure that development pays its fair share and that as Colin said it and we just want to reiterate, existing users should not be paying for new users. Correct. And we should be bringing in enough money for new users to take care of what we're going to need to do maintenance on them or their areas they impact in the future. And Tracy, what's the amount of work? $35 million. $35 million worth of work at our sanitary plant to ensure that our system doesn't collapse, that everybody in Portage can flush their toilets. That I

mean, our plant was built in 1972, I think. Yep. Did I get that right? 1972. And when when was the last time it had a major upgrade, Tracy? Probably about the 2016. Well, the the s major upgrade in terms of like complete rebuild. 199. Yeah. So, more than 30 years ago. We're 30 years behind the curve in terms of investment in our sanitary system. And and part of the reason part of the sanitary increase was we have to pay for these $35 million worth of improvements. um the system wasn't going to be able to keep up even if we stopped growing. My point on this is cities that stopped growing inevitably decline. I mean, there are countless examples in Northwest Indiana of cities that stopped growth and declined. And and businesses are not going to locate in your community if you aren't growing your community, if you aren't investing in your community. We've seen it in Portage and we've seen it in other communities and that is not the direction we want to take portage and that's where there has to be a healthy rate of growth but it's also keeping up with the cost and understand but what I'm saying is that has grown so much because I moved here in 1986 right I it corn fields that's why we moved But the thing is is that you know it's like nobody understands you are a lot younger than me. I don't know about that. I'm I look a lot younger than I actually am. But well, I know you're a lot younger than me. And that's the thing is that senior citizens, all right, we've worked, we've put our money aside to try and have a

nice retirement, but we do know we're going to have to pay our taxes, right? We have, you know, things to that we have to that it's gotten to where we can't afford it. Well, and not to and believe me, the last thing I want to do is give the impression I is there anybody from the paper here? I really don't want to be misqued, but uh the last thing I Yeah, there's always someone watching. The last thing I want to give the impression is that we're strictly relying on being a more affordable place than other places. But it is to say when you compare the cost of trash or when you compare the cost not always so much storm water fees but certainly when you compare the cost of trash in other communities whether it's a public utility or private or the cost of sewer whether it's public or private we are still always prioritizing being the most affordable as we can. this council had the ability to go much higher than we could have and quite frankly there were consultants who really recommended we quote bite the bullet and go higher but one of the biggest things about portage is we prioritize one being safe and two being affordable and I understand that the increase that happened last year was dramatic in context of what it was and what it became but unfortunately that was the if you know the expression kicking a can down the road no one was in my opinion in doing it like in a nefarious way, but the can got kicked down the road when it came to the cost of making sure that a our utility and our sewer system continued to work and b that we were not at the risk of one day being forced to go private, which would have really big impacts on us if that ever had to happen. Having a public utility is important to me because we can always be responsive to the community and keep the cost low. Unfortunately, we had to go much higher than it was, but the goal now is to not have to go high again. And that's where

we're putting in these fees so that new developments pay for themselves. I'm not saying that the rate will never go up again, but by a percentage increase, the goal is to not have to have that happen. And again, I think that when it comes to a city that grows, and to Colin's very good point, we can't just stop growing all together. in part because and I don't think that you mean that. It's just to say that Portage was founded as a city which means at some point in our history people came here and said yes there's corn fields all here right now but we want this to be a city. There are areas that are meant to be rural and they're planned to be rural and we see them not too far outside of here. But when you create a city limit there is an expectation that there's going to be municipal development and municipal growth. And what that does is it preserves the agricultural areas so that there isn't sprawl everywhere. But for the purpose of what we're voting on, I just want to clarify this is not an increase on existing residents. This is a increase on the current builders who are building and any potential builder that comes in in the future. So you know what real quick just hit me is it's more of like homes being built than you know businesses. Well, and that's what we're trying Oh, sure. And some of that and some of that goes hand in hand because more homes brings in more business. And at the same time, there's no place to put your business. Well, we just had a development proposed earlier for what is it? Nine stores. Nine. Yeah. Nine commercial stores plus eight outlets which include restaurants and other stores. I mean, businesses are going to look at communities like Velpo, like St. John like Leaport that are growing and have been growing for years and locate businesses there. Portage has been left behind in that business growth. We are now starting to see that

business growth because of our residential growth. Yes. What I'm saying is it business is fine. Mhm. But if my point is if you stop bringing in residents, if residents stop wanting to locate to Portage, if they if we don't have housing supply for them, which is why we have a good mix now of multifamily developments like the one behind Menard's or um the new developments that are being proposed with paired patios and town homes because not everybody wants a single family home. Not everybody is looking for that. We need a good mix of developments, which is what we've been seeing in the new developments that have been proposed. They're not just single family. They're multi-unit. They're paired patio villas, smaller single family homes. They're town homes because Portage needs that mix. Historically, we've only had single family homes in Portage. And and for the new type of home buyer, that isn't working. And developers have responded to that. And in this case, um, I mean, when a new resident comes here, they're paying the same rate you're paying in their storm water bill, in their sewer bill, in their trash bill. Their bill isn't any less than your bill when someone buys a home in Portage. This is ensuring that the developers are also paying for that impact that they are having by bringing those developments here. And and like I my storm water bill, my sewer bill, my trash bill, my property taxes are all the same as everybody else's. the taxes on the newer homes because I looked into it. Two bedroomedroom behind coals it it is 1% of your assessed value that is set by the state constitution. They're paying I couldn't afford to live there because of the tax. That's how high the taxes are. The state of Indiana has set that constitutionally at 1% of your assessed value. So all said and done and again I actually really appreciate the conversation here because that really is

I think the biggest struggle in our city is and I don't like to say balance I like to say harmony. What we need is a harmony of our business base and our residential base. And with that comes a diversity of our business base and a diversity of our residential base because it's not just single family homes. It's not just gas stations. We also need stores and we also need um different types of homes for people to live in. But what's really key is that what we can't do is in the name of that growth, not have developers pay their fair share to be able to pay for the services that we provide to the city. Sometimes this is kind of like stopping a train. If you can imagine an analogy like you stop a train and it's still going to go a while before you get it, you know, figured out. trying to reshape and harmonize that is not going to be as simple you know overnight but we are moving in that direction and I believe it's a big part of why this council ended up coming together the way it did and I think we have a most few people will see all of this right we won't see it I think that the other thing helping to develop it but we won't see it well and not to say that you'll stop helping develop it But with this fee increase that's being proposed, they'll start paying for themselves. And that's the goal that we are trying to make sure is implemented. One last thing I could say before we open it up to Tracy, and I know that I've kind of I think this was important to discuss, and Colin, I appreciate your words tremendously. Portage has been the third largest city in northwest Indiana for over 20 years. Only Hammond and Gary have more people than Portage and wonderful cities, but their population has generally been getting smaller. But for the last 20 years, Portage has been bigger than Velpo, bigger than Michigan City, bigger than Crown Point, bigger than Marville in terms of people. And I might be off

on Marville, but with everybody else, more land. Marville is actually quite wide when you look at a map. Hbert's got a lot of land, too. But we are bigger in population than Hobert. And that's been the case for 20 years. The fact that so many people think of Portage as a small town with a small town feel, it's a testament to our police department, many of whom are still here. It's a testament to our fire department and all of our city services who have been able to make the place continue to feel safe. I also think it speaks to a great grid system that hides just how many neighborhoods we have. you're able to keep on some main roads and not realize just how many neighborhoods there are. We can have a place that grows and has people. We can be and stay the third largest city in northwest Indiana without feeling like what you might think that that feels like. But that's the stuff that we're working on here. And this fee increase not on residents unless they're building a new home or building a development and you happen to be a resident. That's a part of it. Tracy, I'll ask if you could come back up and thank you for being so patient with us. But just to be clear, if you're buying a home from a new neighborhood in Portage, you're not paying this fee. The developer paid the fee. Correct. Just to be clear. Correct. Yeah. Correct. So, is there any other questions? Because if anything, I need to explain further to understand this. So, everyone's good. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Is there a motion on this? This is the second. Oh, this was Yeah, I'll make a motion to adopt. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I don't believe any were opposed. So, I believe that passes. What was that?

Any opposed? Oh, none opposed. Heard Victoria. I didn't hear anyone else, so I'm sorry. All right. Given the time, um, if there's Yeah, I was gonna say if you guys are good. Yeah. Cool. I know if Crayel came up to speak, you'd feel the need to come up to speak. So, I'm glad he signed off. Um, were there any reports from standing committees? Yes, mayor. So, the ethics committee did meet um um ethics, I'm sorry. The ordinance committee did meet uh and we did look over um three different ordinances from the clerk treasur's office uh in regards to uh establishing a donation fund um credit cards um and the different types of authorized payment methods to the city. Uh the ordinance committee did um move make a motion to move forward uh favorably to present those to the uh common council on our next agenda. All right. Well, thank you. Um petitions, remmonstrances, public input. Um is the gentleman who was still here was talking about the stop sign? Oh, hey, come on. And other people are allowed to come up too. I just want to say this is an example of that time period. So, yeah, go ahead. Yeah. And if you could write your name on the paper there if there's a paper there. And if there's not a paper there, we can get you one. There's no paper up there. You can just announce your name and your address and uh we'll go from there. My name is Brian Newman. I live at 6287 Robins Road here in Portage. And at the intersection of Robins Road and Woodbine, four-way intersection, majority of the people do

not stop. And unfortunately, probably half of those people don't even slow down. I've watched people start to cross in the intersection and cars come from a good ways down and just before people even get in the middle of the crossing the street, a car just blows right past them. Uh it's getting to be summertime and there's more kids than there has been in the past and I'm worried that somebody's going to get run over. Uh I have seen in the past that our police department has staged up. I called last year and talked to I don't know if it was dispatch or whatever. I called the public phone number to the police department and they said that they would make note of it. I didn't see anybody come out since then, and that was last year. Uh, I'm sure our officers have better things to do than to write tickets for blowing stop signs, but I'm sure they would rather that than to have to show up because a kid got run over or a family out bicycling got run over because they come down Robins Road and sometimes they'll turn on the wood woodbine without stopping. And I mean, they do slow down because they have to or they're going to end up in somebody's yard. But I have heard tires squeal hanging them corners. And my biggest thing is sometimes I I swear if they're not doing 40, they're just blowing through there. Well, I want to say thank you for bringing up your concern. Of course, city council members are welcome to respond, but what I will say is I would direct you to the chief to talk to him, but I know that our police care

tremendously about this. I don't think that it's a matter of priority other than just we got to patrol the area, you know, and that's the way road the whole is because chief appears to be escaping. No, I'm kidding. No, I mean I I I live at Robins and Cordell. I can attest to this. I mean, it's a very speedy location and people don't stop at Robins and what is that? Mallerie. Um, where there's a stop sign either. They don't stop there yet. They always have to stop as someone who tries to follow the law to remember which one has the stop sign and which one doesn't. I'm sure if you live that way, you get used to it if you're Yeah. I mean, it's it's an issue there. It's an issue in a lot of places where there are stop signs in the middle of neighborhoods. My concern is I I don't want to see a kid get hit and and it it goes on all day all night. It it's not a specific time of day or time of night. And it just seems like people are just getting faster and faster through there. And I'm not I'm not complaining about the people who do a rolling stop. At least they're slowing down. Make sure somebody's not cutting across. But the people are blatantly not even lifting off the gas and just blowing right through. Somebody's going to get hurt. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Chief. Did you want to come up? And we'll we'll wait to see if anyone says anything about the fire department before we call Chief Cray up. Don't worry, you don't have to. Yeah. No. Uh we will uh we'll get somebody out there. So, we actually um a couple years ago, we created a position uh for a station officer. um that can handle certain, you know, special request traffic stuff like this. So, one of the things kind of segueing into the contract again is that um there's a a clause in there for raising our minimum staffing to seven officers because for those who don't know, our minimum staffing is six. So, that means that um there's many a day, many a shift when

we only have six officers working for the whole city. Um so it does make certain you know intersections troublesome because uh with six officers and the call volume it is it is a little difficult to get to those things. However, uh again, we did uh create this position. And so, one of the things that the station officer does is when we have these hot spots, whether it's a speeding, you know, certain speeding areas or stop signs, red lights, or whatever, um we can assign him directly to that because he is not part of the minimum staffing level out in patrol. So, um we took some notes and we'll get somebody out there. Um, and I would encourage anybody else if you've got problems in your city or in the city in your sorry got problems in your neighborhood or whatever, uh, you know, contact us by Facebook or you can call us for extra patrol and we'll we'll get to them. Um, probably open the can of worms right there. I'll get a call from everybody now. But thank goodness you clarified this city. You know, I mean, Portage's police department is so renowned. I mean that seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if we get people calling in from other, you know. Hey, while I'm up here, I did have one thing. Hang on that. Do you I should know this. Is the speed limit on Robbins 35 or 25? 25. 25. 25. Thank you. Oh, well Tracy would know. She lives on Robins. Yeah, Dan lives right there. It was part of that big change years ago when So, do we put up the like digital speed limit signs anywhere anymore? Have we done those in a It's been a while since we've put one of those up. No, no, I mean um the permanent ones. They're like the small box solar powered ones. Have we put any of those up or looked into those? Traffic traffic commission looked into it a couple years ago. Um the cost is pretty pretty crazy for that and I think it was deemed that there just wasn't a budget for that. Yeah. I just wonder there's grants for everything these days. I wonder if there's a safe kids grant or something that we could look into to potentially get some of those up around the city or

I don't know if you want red flashing lights on the stop signs but those exist elsewhere. But then you'll see red flashing lights every night. So yeah, I mean if we hopefully we can get out there and then cause, you know, make some uh make people notice that we're out there and then sometimes it'll it'll take care of for a little while and then you got to call again because we'll move to another area and then they'll start doing it again. But but we'll absolutely get out there. So I was going to say that at the very least we could take a stop sign down on Robins so the crossway would wouldn't have to would know that that's a that's a whole another uh group that's a whole another group of I fear that would actually make the problem worse. Yeah, that was put there because it's a bus stop and I don't see that it would inevitably make the problem worse. People would just go faster. We don't we don't put the we don't decide where the stop signs go just for Yeah. And that's a whole other group you talk to on that corner across the street from him and believe me I'm out there walking my dog and they nuts. They could 40 miles an hour going through that stop sign. And just for the record, and I probably shouldn't admit this, so I didn't mean to interrupt you. I'm sorry, sir. Go ahead. And the other thing I I didn't bring it up, but when Verizon, not Verizon, but they put new service that came to our neighborhood for cable, they left the box sitting there uncovered with a yellow orange stain sitting on it. It's so unsafe. and I reported it and nobody's done nothing about it. Be down on the ground. I'll send the chief over to you next, but or talk to me after the meeting. I will say I thought when I ran for mayor, I did not realize how little power I had to just insert a stop sign wherever I wanted one. I did not actually I knew a lot about city government. At least I thought I did. The power of the traffic commission and all that goes in before you do stuff and what the state requires you to do. I very much would prefer in

my own personal way that I could just stick a stop sign where I want them, but unfortunately it's not as simple as that. Couldn't speed bump. So on that note, we'll talk after, but we can talk after about speed bumps. We can talk about that, too. But Mike, uh, thank you very much. Or was there anything else? Yeah. Yeah. Since, uh, since I'm not giving a report, uh, next week is our memorial uh, lunchon. next Friday at 1:00 at Woodland Park. Um we used to do a very formal service. Uh the last couple years we've changed it to more of a lunch in. We've invited the public to come spend the afternoon with us. There'll be a little bit of uh presentation and such and then it'll be a free meal for anybody in the community that wants to come. Obviously, everybody up here, you're invited uh 1:00 next Friday at uh Woodland Park. So, well, thank you, Chief, and thank you for waiting until after fire left to make that announcement. That was pretty sneaky of you. I don't mean to sig out. Is there anyone else who'd like to come up and speak? I I think I saw your hand up. And Susan, feel free to come up and speak, too. I know in the past I've had some strict rules about speaking, but as you could see, we kind of let that one go today, so I will be consistent. My name is Susan Link and I live in Castle Estates. Um, I'm have lived here a while and I know that we have more people than like Valpo and Hobert, but we don't have the commercial and retail developments they do and I'm tired of driving other places. So, I'm really hoping that the council will consider approving something so we can get more development here in that parcel by um, Airport Road and six. The other thing is the last meeting I expressed some concerns about ordinance issues and some questions. The mayor said that he would make sure that someone from the city and the city attorney met with me. I want to thank Tom Cherry and Scott Mccclure, they did meet with me. I don't know if they agree, but as one resident of the city,

to have them take the time to sit down and listen to me was um pretty special. And having lived and worked in Chicago for 40 years, uh we didn't get that kind of service there. So, um I think it's exciting here. the development going on I think is going to be great and I'm so thankful that I ended up in Portage after I left Chicago back home. Thank you so much. I think he can't but I mean you can I mean I said it on Facebook and you know so you could probably say it. It's on the sketch plan. It does have a name. that off tonight. I think that might have been his attorney caution, which you know. Well, anyway, it's a target for those of you wondering. There you go. Hi, my name is Joe Gr. I live at 6960 Gaylord Avenue. Mr. Mayor, last December, Rob Mainline, one of our neighbors, and myself met with you about um what appears to be a city road that's not maintained or plowed or anything like that. and we haven't heard anything back and I'm just wondering what the status might or could be. I apologize for that. That was something we started looking at and I don't mean to say that we we didn't forget because there are times where I drive my parents house and I know that we got to figure out how to come up with some resolution for Gaylord. Um if you don't mind staying just a little bit if you talk to me and Tom Cherry, that's the same Tom Cherry that uh Susan was talking about. Um I know you met him too. Um we can make a plan to follow up with you if that's okay. Yes. Thank you so much and thank you for your patience. I'm sorry. Was there anyone else here who'd like to speak? Um Oh, the fire chief is back if you wanted to come. No, we're still good. Okay. Would have been kind of fun if you announced the police memorial, but but all said and done that how excited you were for it or something. But anyway, hearing uh no other demonstration, um is there um any other matters not already considered before

the council? Um attorney, was there anything that you wanted to I was going to report Miss Link has already done so that Mr. Cherry and I were able to meet with Miss Link and go over her concerns over uh recent ordinance and Tom and I are working through that now after that meeting and that's what I was going to report but she beat me to it. Well, thank you so much. Any other matters to bring before the council or is there a motion to adjurnn? Briefly, um yeah, I know blame me. Um, I was recently contacted by a constituent and they had a concern about the parking situation to use the trail on Hamstrom. I believe it's called what? Iron Head or something like that. Iron Horse. Iron Horse. Yeah, come on. I grew up, you grew up in Landmark acres like I don't exercise as much as I should, but um they were concerned about the parking situation and so there I believe the parking, right? Um are they allowed to use street apartment? There's apparently some danger um trying to get there from their vehicle and uh it was brought to my attention. and I just wanted to bring it to the city's attention and uh just leave it at that for now. It's an interesting that's a new one for me. I don't mean to say it like that, but just um we might remember this. We talked gosh probably eight, nine years ago about putting a parking lot at the corner of Portage and Portidge Avenue and Chrisman because the trail now goes extends there and making that the trail head entrance. Um and I don't I don't know where that ended up, but we did talk about putting a small parking lot there on Portage Avenue. So, there's actually two things. I I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I don't think I'm like revealing, you know, too much here. There's a very interesting idea, and if you ask me like how long it'll take to do and how we're going to pay for it, well, that's why I wasn't going to bring it up until right now because, as you guys know, in municipal government some stuff, you know, there's a very interesting idea to continue that

trail so it doesn't just stop at Portage Avenue, but might actually go up Old Chrisman Road. And then again, there's so much that's got to be figured out, but potentially take the trail all the way along the railroad track in a safe way to make its way towards Woodland Park. I love this idea in the long term, but it's one of those things where I mean, you asked me, right? If I were to tell you it was going to happen this summer, you'd have so many good questions of how's it being paid for and who's, you know, all that. This is more like the the concepts of the plan right now. There's also been some proposals. Thank you for laughing. There's also been some proposals to use that land over at um Chrisman that have not been completely realized because there were some other issues that came up. I mean, if you're pushing for it and you um well, you're at large, so it's your whole district no matter what. Um I'd be happy to see what we can do over there. If we were if you were seriously asking me to take a look at what we might be able to do at that Chrisman site, I usually would have told people just drive over to Imagination Glenn, but not everybody has the ability to, you know, go you might be want to start from a different route. And that's definitely something we can discuss. Um, but just in the short term, I guess these people would just like to know where they can park and not get hit by cars in the meantime. So Darren, I don't believe we can use the street department right now. I for I think from a safety perspective, that wouldn't work. And accidents with other vehicles, employees vehicle, residential, everything. And you got the towing company there as well. So there's a lot of in traffic. I would think right now if we're just talk about using the trail, Imagination Glenn's parking lot, which Imagination Glenn connects to that trail, is probably the place to start if you're taking a car that way. Of course, if you live nearby and you're walking or riding your bike that way, well, then you can come from any direction, but if you don't mind the the the track, Imagination Glenn is the spot with some free parking right now. Very good. Thank you for the explanation and just uh hopefully the people at home or anybody who uh has any questions will be

updated. Thank you. Any other matters come before the board? And if not, is there a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Thank you all. [Applause] [Music]