Town Council - Regular Meeting

How are you? Great. The struggle with this technology old folks

question. some of the other I'm sure she heard it somewhere. I just mute somebody. Thank you. I could have got that. No.

You think I could pull it over, but I stay out of trouble. No, I never stay out of trouble. Mr. So now those bills have my bill name. Justin, how you doing? How you doing there?

Yeah, there's your I'm so excited. I heard a basketball going down my sidewalk this afternoon.

Been a long time since I heard a basketball going down my sidewalk. Me too. I give up my garden. It's hard to give it up. You can't buy tomatoes that taste taste good. Oh, I still have a tomato plant.

Oh, I still have some great onion. My wife told me if I gave up gardening, I would put in a tomato plant or two. So, I have been flower bed.

We always have extra He was here. He got called out for another semi on the bridge or something. Semi on the bridge. The last meeting, Kelly was telling us that a semi ripped its one axle off on the bridge today. I said, I didn't hear any sirens.

It happened about 3:00. So I don't know if somebody just hooked on pulsing I guess. It's officially spring, Paul. I heard heard my favorite motorcycle out on Northport going through the gears. Yeah, it's officially spring until Monday or Saturday.

Spring Indiana.

No one told my daffodils. They're blooming. Yeah, I got tulips about ready to open up, too. things.

Okay, Cheryl, we've got Bill and Natalie on. Best time to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. move.

Second. All in favor? We'll follow up on ordinance violations. 108. They have two vehicles.

Those have been removed. 204 Harman property owner repore 580 Bay View. The owner is selling 215 Spring Beach. They removed the trailer frame from the yard. 355 Bernice Avenue different pallets that they had 750 yard of properties to send letters to. Uh 398 Grand Street for junk pile starting to accumulate. 452 Jackson Street. So then there's another property on Jackson.

We can get you that address. Huh? We can get you the address. I've got the property owner's address, but I don't have address. It should have been should still be in Yeah. 295

jump 302 Kelly Street 155 Martin which she paid a fine last year but never took care of the problem. And then uh 252 Weston has vehicle. It's got a wash and dryer in the back of it that's been sent to

and how's our property on Front Street doing? I haven't talked to Deb, but give her to

Okay, thank you. Thanks, Paul. Uh, Commonwealth. Natalie, you're up. All right. Hello, everybody. Uh, this is Natalie Shelling with Commonwealth Engineers, um, attending virtually. So, I had a meeting with Lee and Scott this morning at the main lift station. Are you guys ready for me to continue? No, go ahead. Okay, we're moving you down so we can

I see you moving me around. Uh, so as I was saying, um, we had a meeting with Lee and Scott as well as Zach from Indiana Pump Works at the main gohead. There's so much back be on that.

Okay, I think we're ready. We're getting a little back feed. So, okay, just stop me if you need me to. Um, so as you guys are aware, we've been looking at an improvements project at the main lift station for about a couple years now, as well as installing a new screen on the influent at the wastewater treatment plant

for about a couple years now. as well as installing a new screen on the influence at the water treatment plan. Let's see. We shut that one off and go through that one. Hey, Natalie. Yeah.

Hold hold hold on for a second. We're going to shut the one off and just go with the one on the computer which and then move it down there by you guys. We'll have to be very quiet.

I'm not coming any further. I'm stuck. I got Okay. Okay. Try again, Natalie.

Okay. So, we've been discussing for the past couple of years a project to perform improvements on the main lift station as well as a new screen at your wastewater treatment plant. Um, I had a meeting this morning with Lee and Scott as well as Zach from Indiana Pump Works at the main lift station site and we had some discussions about how to move forward with the project. Uh so I have prepared an updated proposal for you which uh hopefully you have uh copies of. So what we are proposing to get this project moving forward but give the town more control over the process and especially the costs is to deliver this project using an alternate delivery method. So this would be something like a guaranteed savings project or build operate transfer project. And essentially how this works is instead of the typical design bid build process, the town would start by soliciting a contractor through a request for qualifications. And the contractors who are licensed to perform these types of contracts would submit their qualifications to the town. You would then review these qualifications and potentially interview the candidates and then select which contractor you want to work with moving forward. And by getting the contractor on board at the beginning of the project, they would work directly with the town as well as us at Commonwealth on the design. And we would be able to have their insights on ways to make the project more cost effective. You would also be able to at any point in the process pause on the design and say this

is getting to be too costly. uh the contractor will be providing cost estimates on the project as we get to various stages in design and you would then have that information upfront to be able to say we need to scale back the scope because this project is getting too costly or what have you. So I have revised the proposal that we've submitted previously for a design bid build type of project and made this in accordance with an an alternate um delivery method project. So we are proposing in here um the usual project management um field work. We'd have to do survey and soil borings and those things could get started right away. Uh we would also have preliminary design and we would pause this at approximately 30% design. Um what we discussed this morning with the group was that there are multiple options for making improvements to the main lift station. uh you could do you could convert the lift station to a submersible lift station or do an inline lift station and either one would potentially solve your needs. So by doing the alternate delivery method and pausing at 30% design, we would design both options up to 30% design and then get the costs from the selected contractor at that point, which would also help to narrow down which option you should move forward with. So once you've got the contractor on board, they've given you the estimates for the two options at 30% design, then we would move forward to final design with your selected option.

We would of course have permitting included in there. We would potentially need uh construction permits from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. Uh since one is sanitary sewer with the lift station and the other is at the plant, it would be two separate permits, but we've got that all included in here. We have a phase for bidding and negotiating. And this is in this case the procurement of that guaranteed savings contractor or build operate transfer um but the procurement of the contractor at the beginning of the project and we proposed that this would occur concurrently with us working on that 30% design. So there's a certain time frames that have to be allowed for advertising the request for qualifications and such. So, we would put this out for advertisement. Um, and while that is all meeting the required time frames, um, Commonwealth on the back end would be starting on that 30% design. So, by the time you selected a contractor, we're pretty close to having that first preliminary design information prepared for them to start reviewing and estimating. And we're just that much further along in the schedule. We've also included a phase in here for financial assistance. Um, this would be most likely um applying for the Rural Water Financing Agency Flexterm loan that we've talked about before. That's the loan program that's specifically for municipalities. Um, at this point it doesn't look like there's a ton of grant options, but we will continue to investigate that and depending on the time frame. Um, we may be able to look at doing um requesting earmark financing, but that wouldn't be

until probably next spring. So it might not work out timing wise but we have budget allocated to be investigating financial options. The next phase we have is construction engineering. um the all of these phases from construction engineering onward were not included in the original proposal that I provided to you because with the traditional design bid build um we typically have our proposals go through bidding and then once the client receives their bids sometimes there's a decision on we don't want to move forward it's too expensive or whatnot in this case we will know upfront what the costs will be and you will already know by the time design is finalized what the costs will be and you'll be able to roll right into construction. And with this method as well, um the contractor since they're already selected, they may be able to start ordering items of equipment such as new pumps um right away once the design is finalized. So they could be starting to procure materials while we are working on the permit applications. Um anyhow we have construction engineering included in here. We also have a phase for resident project representative. This is your construction inspection. So you would have a con a an inspector from Commonwealth on site keeping an eye on things during construction. We also have a phase for post construction and startup services. We have a a couple of former wastewater treatment plant operators who do um they can assist with starting up the new equipment or any troubleshooting once

the new screen is getting online. Um so that's included there. And then lastly, uh record drawings. So once the project is totally complete, we'll get you as built drawings drawn up so that you can have those for your records. Does anybody have any questions on the scope? No. Sounds to me like you pretty much covered it all.

So next we have the uh anticipated schedule on here. Um, this is flexible since you aren't under any certain um, NPDES permit deadlines. Um, it this can be adjusted. It's based on your needs, but based on what I was hearing in our meeting this morning, it sounds like there's pretty urgent needs to get started on the main lift station. There are. Yes.

Yeah. So, that's what we've based this schedule on is getting started as soon as you guys give us the green light. And then budget. We have all of our tasks laid out there broken down um task by task the costs. Um we also indicate on there where it's lump sum versus hourly not to exceed. And then the grand total for all of the engineering services associated with the project is $460,700. Give me those numbers again. $460,700.

Thank you. You're welcome. send me some documentation, but I didn't get printed off a so she sent it at 450. So, let me go print that off and um let me ask you just email it to us, Natalie. Yes. So, the documentation I didn't get printed off yet, but so if I print that off or email that to them, is this something we can review and then approve or disprove at the May 9th meeting?

Yeah, absolutely. If that's the time frame you guys are looking at, it it would need an approval by the council. Um, so yeah, the next meeting is fine. We'll just hold off until then and if you guys give us a green light or need more information, we're happy to provide any more info that you need. All right, sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thanks, Allie. So yeah, there's information on the main lift and then the screening that she attached or GSC overview. So that must be that. Yeah, the guaranteed savings contracting that she's talking about. There's a document on the Do you need to talk to her further? I don't think so. Unless you guys have any questions for her. And this was just kind of a kind of Do you want to take this information to you guys and then I thought we could review it over the next month and then bring it back the next meeting. You want to take this down?

No. Bill's going to be on next and you're gonna need to hear him. Oh, okay. You just get to look at us for a while, Natalie. Well, she can Natalie can sign off if she's done with the presentation and you guys don't have any questions. No, we don't have any questions. That's up to her if she wants to stay on.

Yeah. So, you don't have to stay if you don't want to, Natalie. I'll just lurk in the background. Yeah, she's gonna lurk around in the background. All right, we'll let her. Hi, Bill. Hey, how's everyone? We're good. How are you? Fantastic. Uh, first chance I've got to see Dustin in a long time. But um I'm here to answer questions about the simplest three paragraphs that they've ever written that nobody can read and understand.

So I I was told that uh I should be here to answer questions about uh how the new state law works as concerns town conventions versus uh primaries. So I didn't know if you guys had questions. Do you want me to go through this real quick or what you'd like me to do? I really would just prefer to stay where I'm at.

I get it. Um the the way it works is really easy. Uh and I mean this is really simple. Um, if if you have more than one candidate apply for a position, and remember what I said, more than one candidate, one candidate, it's no problem. Two candidates, then if it's in an oddnumbered year, you have a town convention. If it's in an even numbered year, then you the nominees would have a primary and the primary be conducted by the county just the way it does all the other primaries. Uh, of course, if a convention is needed because it's an oddnumbered year, then you would do it that way. As I understand, every board member in Rome City is elected in an oddnumbered year. Is that correct? That's correct.

So that means that what this says to this board is that every time there's an election, you'll have a a a town convention if more than one person files a declaration for the same office. Okay. Now, if you want to change that, you could change it. So it would you could, you know, we could stagger offices. We could do all sorts of different things, but you know, it it's up to you folks. But what you've got now, you're using a convention. Well, that's what I prefer to stay with myself. What do you guys think? paper that was

so I have been doing some research on it and I mean I'm concerned as a citizen that from what I understand so don't take this personal definitely this is not but as a citizen who pays taxes and cares about what happens to the county I would rather have the option to vote if there's more than one candidate That's what he's saying. But if you have the convention only, everybody is on the Alger. So therefore, there is no no election place.

And if it's the conservatory thing, I understand that it's the insider parties who get to determine they get to vote and they make the votes and nobody in the No, that's not how that works. Okay. Well, that's what I read. So I would have Bill explain the convention process.

Yeah, the the convention process is pretty much a primary that takes place on a small scale. Uh it's it's very much like going to vote. Uh and once again, it only happens if you have more than one person running for a seat. But if you have that happen and you have uh an a an elections necessary, then the town chairman organizes the convention. It's got to be held in town and in a suitable uh location. Uh everybody comes in on the date of the convention and votes. Uh it it'd be pretty much like going to a precinct to vote. They would they would check to make sure you're a registered voter and or you have the proper ID. You would cast your vote. They would count the votes and then that person the person who wins gets the seat. I mean it's just that simple. If both parties

asking Bill is it so the parties don't have anything to do with it? No, it's the people. Okay. It It's the people who have it, not the It's not a Republican party or a Democratic party. No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. That's not true. It's a Republican party or a Democratic party. You if you had, let's say, four people run, two Republicans and two Democrats. Yeah. There would be a Republican convention

and the people who are Republicans would vote. There would be a Democratic convention. The people who are Democrats would vote. So then there would be two two people running in the election that one would be Democratic and one would be Republican. That's correct. On the final in the general

which is really no different than your primary because if you go into your primary, you're going to vote Republican or Democrat and you're going to vote for who you want to be in the in the final election. So this process here isn't what concerns who's going to get the office. Although realistically it probably would in a town as small as Rome City. But if if you have two Republicans, you're going to have a Republican caucus. Uh I call it a caucus convention. And if you have two Democrats, you're going to have a Democratic convention. There'll be one person from each party then make it to the final election. And then at that election, you'd vote republic. You would vote whoever you wanted to. It wouldn't have to be Republican or Democrat because both parties names would be there. So the convention is just like a primary on a smaller scale.

Then the last convention we had, which I don't even know what year that was, it was at the school. We held it at the school. Yeah. And it was council members. I think we had five council members. But it it's it's not a situation where someone's going to appoint someone. That's not what happens. What happens is the party actually has the residents come in and vote for who they want to do it. It isn't the party who picks them. It's the people who pick the person. Just like you would at a primary. That's where I was getting you because it sounded to me like the Republican party picked whoever. You're friends and that was it. That would be that would be more like

that would be like if resign. That's how I mean that's how Ken got on. So that's a caucus. That's different. But I thought everything was going to be that way. No. No. And so when when the vote comes up again, the traditional vote the people vote. If we have more if we have more candidates than seats. Yeah. So if only three people put their name in their state, then they're they're in, right? But they have to be of the same party. So say we had six people put in and three of them were Democratic and three of them were Republicans. Then you have to

then when it goes to we wouldn't have a primary, we wouldn't have a convention because we have three seats for each party and then it goes to the general election and you're then voting on the person, right? Absolutely. You got it. Lee. So, it's kind of like when you do the Oh, the Orange Township Board. If there's more people that are running for the Orange Township Board, so say you've got four people running but three seats available, then you're voting for three people,

right? Gotcha. because that that has come up where they've had more people put in for that board than seats. Bill, did you have anything you want to add to that? Do you have anything more you want to add to that, Bill? No, I think you guys understand it. Like I said, it it's a law that is always misunderstood because they use the word convention and everybody assumes that's probably a precinct committeeman just putting their cousin in, but that's not what it is. It's an actual place where you go and you vote. Yes. So, if we would go to staggered terms, then we would have one council member that would be under a primary.

Yes. Yes. And the other two would stay under contention or verse visa. Or would you do two on odd? No, you do one per year, right? I would. Yes. So too much to So you still have convention. Yeah. I was going to say because the law the way the law is written, you would still you would still have a convention. Yes. I don't see any need to mess that all up. Do you bill? I never tell my board how to get elected. I just say keep appointing the same attorney. Oh, good job, Bill. Ching

to just even years because that's when we actually have the normal elections. So like your presidential elections in an even year. your county officials are in an even year because we the vote that who we're voting on in May would be the sheriff and I don't know who else is on there but sheriff's the one that's got well there's a commissioner so commissioners and the prosecutors and judges and so that's probably why they did that bill if you want to do a primary you would do it in an even year because that's our elections going on

and And that is the reason the primary is in an even year. And the reason the convention's in the odd years is because there's almost nobody running, but there still has to be an election, right? We have opposing parties. That's true. Correct. Yes. Okay. Let's look at super easy. Not. And so, Bill, I've got a question on this. Am I correct that if you wanted to run in a convention, you would have to have your name in admitted by May something?

I I can't tell you what the date is. I think it's earlier than May to be honest because the the actual primary takes place in May. So, yeah, February makes more sense. You would have to have your name submitted earlier. I think it's February 12th is the cut off day. Okay. I lost you.

No, that makes sense because that would be I think it's 80 days or 89 days before the actual convention takes place. There's there's some number of days in there, but it makes sense that you would actually have to declare that you're going to be a candidate before the time when you would hold either a convention or a primary, or else nobody knows you want to be a candidate. So 2027 is when the council and the clerk would be up for reelection. Yes. So most likely February something would be the deadline to put in somebody. Correct.

Okay. I just would tell them February 1st because things get slow at over to Albian sometimes. Well, it's nice to do it by February 1 anyway because most people who run for the first time forget something. Yeah, true.

And if if you get there early enough, then when you talk to the clerk, she might say, "Hey, you need to go get a a petition or you need to get this or you need to get that." And it gives you time to get that done. True. Did anyone else have any questions about that?

Did that answer your questions? Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, I think we all want I would want to vote because I want to know what you're gonna do, right? I know what Ken's gonna be for, but I don't know you and I don't know you. So, you know what I'm saying? Like I would absolutely think to do I want to be able to vote for that person. That was my concern. But that does question. Okay. Probably the most important thing is getting the candidates get in and and put their applications in, you know, in in early February so that they don't miss any deadlines.

Yeah. True. Yes. So, if you know anybody who would like to I don't know. Be sure they get there by February 1st. No, I'm not running again. Well, you're going to have a seat open because I'm I'm done. So, we need to start searching. Yeah. Yeah. I've I've done my 50 years of being on boards for Rome City. Thank you. I've still got 10 to go. During various boards, not just this one.

Yeah. Various boards. 50 years. Been married 56 in room City for 56. And my kids got old enough to not need me all that time. So, I started doing boards just for fun. Okay. Well, folks, I'm not going to be like Natalie and and lurk around in the background. I'm just going to disappear because you got dust in there. You don't want to hear the sewer rate study? Not really. Okay.

You got dust in there. I'm just here because I I seem to be the one person uh north of Indianapolis that understands the law well enough to talk with the attorney for the election board. Well, we're glad to have you. All righty. You guys have a great evening and Dustin, take care. Thank you. So, we're ready to study update. It's just an update. Um so Lee and I met with the Indiana Rural Water Authority um a few weeks ago before you went on vacation.

Um and they're finalizing their rate study. Um they have asked us I we responded to some questions after that meeting. So they're still working on that. Um they had given us a preliminary um rate study but it wasn't complete. It still had errors in it. So I didn't want to give it out. Um, so I know that we had talked, Cheryl, that um, you had talked about a $10 increase going forward. Yes. So that was not their original proposal. So I asked them to give us their original proposal and give us a proposal for the $10 increase as well. Okay.

So we've answered some questions after those meetings and so we're just waiting on the final paperwork and the corrections and everything to get returned back to us. Did they give a reason why it's taken so long? They are very Wow. They must just be two people or something. That's about right. It is. It is. Yeah. We were, you know, because we were expecting this study to be done. Yes. And it's also free. We're not paying for it. The state of Well, that that Yeah, that's great. But regardless, you know, we were expecting numbers back last fall,

right? And I've asked them to set up meeting. Yeah, maybe the timing will work out for when this project gets started. Okay.

Yeah. And and depending on what their what Commonwealth's um projections say, we may need to have an official rate study done on top of this as well. This was just to try and get us to see if we were in line with what we were doing and what we wanted to do. But depending on some of the programs, we might have to have an official rate study done again. Oh, okay. We would have to pay which would probably be what I think Peter Franklin was. Yeah. And I think that was like 5,000 time. Yeah. Real close to 5,000. And they were fairly quickly quick with that. Yeah. Depends on

I think they were within 90 days. Yeah. The loan if we how much the loan amount's going to be as to whether we'll have to do one that's official.

Okay. And for those of you who are here, um there was one project at the sewer department that was 250,000 just to say hello. So, that's the reason for increases in your sewer payments. It's not that we're trying to rip anybody off, but we got to cover it somewhere. Well, but you know, when I met with Indiana Pump Works today, their um best guess estimate for the inline station, which is the station that would be um above ground, nothing underground.

Yeah. um was a million and a half. Yeah. Just for that. So, we'll probably we'll look at costs on the submersibles just to see what the difference is there anyway the options as to what we want to go. But I would like to eliminate a confined space in that area if possible. Yes. dangerous for your employee be getting in and out of and the closest emergency retrieval is Kinderville when they go into confine space. We don't have anybody in

No, nobody that's trained closer because Kendville is um full-time. Okay. Yeah. So we call ahead of time when we do a confined space entry and put them on standby so they know that we're going. Okay. And then when they get out safely they let them know. But so they're kind of ready if something happens then they can dispatch their people. Yeah. But that's that's still a an 11 minute response time at least. Yep. something.

Okay. New business sell Silven sellers noise extension for the 26th, 27th, June 10th, September 4th, and 18th. Yeah. Every year they have their concert series and then they've been doing some I don't know what they call them in September. That's not the con that's not the concert chairs, but in September they do the help, Ken. I'm trying to tell them, but they asked me. I'm the one that went up because I didn't want to have an emergency meeting.

Correct. Um Yeah. So, concert series June 26th and 27th. July 10th is um their the the locals, the local one that they do. So, QB and then the local people. They have a name for it. I can't think of it, but it has to Yeah. local church. And then September 4th, I think, is the um food bank. Is that the 18th? Yeah, I think that's out there for some. So, the local food bank um they have a they call it the Buffalo Fest. Okay.

And then the money all goes back to our local food banks. to whatever money they raised that night and then September 4th for the life of me I can't remember what that one is it might be another fundraiser type event okay probably right around yeah it's Labor Day weekend so so anyway they always come and ask for an extension in case there's some that happens that's not for seen so they have an electrical issue if the the entertainment whatever. So, our normal stop time is 11. They're asking 12 and they're asking. Yeah.

And I think there's only been one time they've used it. It was a local one. I thought a local fan that went late. Yeah. Well, I'm glad that they put it all together to where we can do this all at once. cuz they've been doing come to the board individually for each date for permission to stay late. But um I I don't have a problem with this. Do you guys have a vote? Make a motion.

Make a motion. Ellie Grant selling solvers or noise ordinance extension for the dates listed till 12 p.m. A second. All in favor? Hi, Silven Farms tax abatement.

So out another um abatement I believe it goes till 20 or 20. Um, and that just needs to be signed if we approve that again here. Um, I've got everywhere marked. I think it needs to be signed. He's got everything completed. Um, we're still waiting on Precision and Momentum to send in their tax abatement forms. We have sent them emails. We've sent them Well, you remember what a terrible time we had last year.

It's today, too. So, I called the president today and left a message. Told him on his dead for a motion for self farms. I make a motion that we approve Sven's arms tax abatement. What's the actual resource for next?

So, they had new equipment installed back in looks like 15 is when they came in and asked for it and then they came in and asked for it again in 2019. Monday. Okay. So, that's a new I think it was um the concrete and the I think it was for the kitchen and and the kitchen equipment, but I know the outdoor patio was in there originally in one of them

and then the kitchen equipment all stuff, but those are the two things out. possibly the electrical that they pushed ended up putting out. Could you second? All in favor? regulators for Shiakqua Day's encampment.

Hi.

Hi. So, my name is Rhonda Steiner and I am the president of Advanced Row City and parade chair of the coordinator for the Shiakea Day parade. As you're aware, this year's the 250th anniversary of United of America and I was at one of the meetings and Stone Trace would be willing to be in our parade. I didn't know that. So, they've never done this before, but they will bring a team of people. Um, they would like to have a place to put up tents. So, we're working with the park board. I think Robera already reached out to Lee about a place where they could camp. They would be in the parade. Um, and so we did talk to the marshall. He thought we should come to you. Um, they do want to bring their muzzles. Uh, m the guns.

Muzzle loaders. Yeah. Thank you. And they're only muskets. Muskets. There you go. Musketss. Thank you. Musketss. And shoot them off in the parade. It will be only powder, no light ammo, but we felt was something that's new and different. We should come to you and make sure you're okay with it. I think it's fabulous. I'm excited. I didn't know they would do this. I had no clue. Yeah. I had no idea. So, we'll put them on the We'll put them on the list every year. So, will they do it like right out front here where the stand's going to be?

Probably. And then what? And then we'll also have tents where people can come over to their tents possibly if we would want and they could teach some things or whatever. So, I'm working with Wendy um on her last name. Anyway, she is the person over at Stone Trace. We're trying to grow the brain. Okay. Like the old Three rivers. I would imagine they'll probably shoot those off more than once probably,

but I mean I don't have any concerns against it. I don't have a concern. Um, I've I've visited, you know, you know, and really enjoyed their whole stone trays, you know, it's just great. And um, they have sent representatives that I've seen at uh, Chain of Lakes during the summer. They'll have different people who go to the certainly about and put on demonstrations and so on so forth. They really do a great job. Very interesting.

Well, every year, every other year we're trying to add something new. We got And I think they attend the Apple Festival, too, don't they? Yeah, I think so. I think so. Asking that you Okay, that so they can shut off their Yeah. Yeah. Um, you want to need a motion for I'll make a motion to approve what is it? Regulator. Regulator. Second. All in favor? I thank you. Gary Ch Cox IT contract.

This is an annual contract. Um, same cost as the last few years of $4,000 a year. Um, I'm just signing it. There's initials on each page and I just have the back page here. He's got his insurance and everything included in the packet.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Is that Yes. What's that? Does that include just call or include anything? We've never gone. Yeah. When we can't get this thing to work properly. Yeah. We're installing this up so we can have it work some takes care of the storage too in the basement. So everything comes back up. Does he have how many does he have before comes through? He doesn't ever charge us anything.

Do we need to approve his payment? Do we need to approve his payment? Make a motion. Gary Cox. Gary Cox. Second. All in favor?

Firearms range agreement with Nova County Sheriff's Department, Lrange, and Ailla. different cities for the last five years, probably six. Um, a villa is my understanding is only they've got some guys they have to get qualified and so they don't use it for that purpose. Um but uh this year generally they use along with they use the conservation club in Alb uh they've got an area that It's maybe a little bit wider than the quality there. Um, and every time a trace by, they have to stop shooting and they can only shoot one way and it's not convenient to do fire instructor wants to use our range

and what kind of contributions would they make? towards the purchase of targets or whatever they bring anybody in the past. Okay. The only thing that they will be ours for the stand targets long as nobody shoot. Okay. But they'll bring their own. Well, but you know what I mean. I don't want us to be paying for Yeah. I'm not the targets for like five departments to use.

Yeah. About consumables. Um then I would they have to provide all the Okay.

Okay. Need a motion. Make a motion that we approve Firearm range agreement with Noral County Sheriff's Department with range in the villa. Sir, all in favor? I trench box purchase. I think it's got more than just a trench box on there. A trench, a gas meter, and a tripod. So, here this is the tripod. So, we have a current tripod, but if we bought it in the late 90s, and they're only really good for so many falls on them. Yeah.

So, I I don't know how many falls or if we've had any falls, but I think it's time that we have some paper to safety equipment. And then this is the gas meter. We also have a gas meter, but um over the years things get misplaced and new people don't follow through on getting the gases that need to be purchased to get it calibrated. So, this comes with the meter and then the gas calibrations and the box that it's like the whole kit and they all stay together

and that all stays in space, one box. So, it's all in one area. And then the trench box obviously that kind of suits for itself. It's a box they put down in the ground when they dig out so that the sides don't cave in on. Yeah. that well quite often

they have to dig something up which so we've never had one but the problem is is that um in the past the cost was astronomical. I mean they they were 20 $25,000 to buy a French box. So, when the guys came in to talk to me about it, um I said, "Well, get some prices and see if they've come down to where they're more reasonable, which $11,000 is or it's 10,000 because they had the sales tax on here, but um is is a much better number than 15 to $20,000 for a trench box. But they do, you know, we have 126 grinder stations and 27 lifts. So if they have to dig up pipe, they need it. They should have it.

I guess there one thing I was going for is running versus owning. The problem is is the time to go to the rental place and pitch it up and then bring it back. And then if they have to leave the trench open overnight because they didn't get everything done,

then you're you're looking at two-day rentals. Um, I just think, you know, I've been here 33 years, not really have that and it is a necessary proper safety component we should have for them if they're going to be out there. I mean, if we want to hire a contractor to come in and do it all the which we do for the bigger jobs, but for the safety of our guys, I think it's a small price. I guess I'm not arguing safety. I were arguing. Do we need to purchase a person rent? That would be where would you rent it? If I came be going to Auburn

think Taylor Reynolds. So you're looking out of there hour back. So I think about $400 some maybe. So that's only I'm going just break it up. So, uh, considering the amount of stations that we have though, how many how many times do we have Well, how many times they dig stuff up? Yeah, but they would um like if we didn't have it, we could go around. Well, they've been doing without like

Yeah. So, yeah. Um, four times a year on you know a best guess but the grinders so they're 50 some years old piping's 50 some years old I mean any any do you feel that they use it more I think they would use it more if they had it like what most people do or we can do it right we'll jump up on the roof

they really should And I did assign David Rainey as our safety person. So, he's really been taking the classes and trying to get everything to where they're more safety conscious. The guys are are more aware that they need to do these things. and show. Oh, well, we can do this real quick and it won't it won't be a problem. Okay, again, it's not good when it's a problem. As a former EMT, I can tell you I pulled a guy out from a fall in and uh we barely got him out in time. So the the sewer um gas meter and tripod, we would pay for that all out of sewer. And then the trench box, we would pay half out of street, half out of sewer. So we'd have around $8,000 that we pay out of sewer and about 3500 that we pay out of street.

Have we looked at used ones? No. Um can buy Are you talking just trench boxes? Yeah, I haven't looked at those, but you cannot buy used of the other. I'm just saying for the little amount of the safety, I mean, I can have them look into it and see if they can find anything, but can we get approval on the gas meter tripod in the meantime? What's that? I don't Yeah, I just Google. Yeah, I'm not sure who does

Yeah, I just We'd have to do some research on rental. I'm sure there's some probably whoever does cranes or um the other things as well. Yeah. where Sunbell if she might Sunbell once we end up

for Facebook marketplace too I've actually bought a lot of stuff at the dealership I'll have Check and see if there's anything on there. Yeah, I would. No. Which part of the equipment was it that you needed? The gas meter and the tripod. Can I have a motion for the gas meter and the tripod? Motion. Make a motion purchase the gas meter and the tripod. I'll second it. All in favor? I have a seat. 40 minutes. Yep.

I can hear it running. I think that's the probably get further. It was 77. So, yes, it was more.

I'm old. It was feeling great. Health's insurance for 2026.

So, I had Dan Hilton um give us our um cost comparison for 2026. It's gone up and it will never be announced. Um there's if we stay with uh PHP or we can move to Anthem. Um, I have an asterric by both of the ones that I was kind of looking at. Um, I did talk to Paul. I didn't get a chance to talk to you. I talked to Scott. Um, and there's no real benefit other than the like some of the out- of pockets that are more. Um, if you go to Anthem, um, there's some that are more if you stay with PHP. The cost is about those just over $100 difference depending on what one we stay with. Um I'm also reached out to um Trust Indiana no a medical trust um there for Indiana municipalities. Um the gentleman that I needed to talk to last week was out for spring break. Um he sent me an email this morning and I gave him all the information that he was requesting. Um and so he was going to look at that and review it and hopefully get us something back next week. um and uh schedule a meeting with us to see if going to that medical pool type insurance is going to be beneficial or not. So, I don't want to do anything to hurt any other town employees or like take any coverage or anything away. It just might be something that's a little bit more cost effective for the town. And so that's why I would I looked at them a couple times, but I don't 100% understand how they work. So, I'd like to like have them give us a quote and sit down with us and explain how they work and how the coverage would be for the employees.

Is anyone having issues with the insurance we now have? I know some people have complaints about it, but you're going to have complaints about the insurance. What about adding the health savings plan? Yeah. I mean, that would help with some of the expenses that they would have out of pocket, right? What's our deductive? Um, right now it's 500 and 1,000. If we say the PB 500 and,000. So, how many people do we have? Uh, there are 11. No, there's 15 on insurance right now. Is it the programs where we can um go with building though?

That's she's waiting she's waiting for them to get back to her. I know in the past Brenda checked into that and what happens is it the people that go into those pools are people that can't really get insurance because they're they've had too many claims. So then they're in the pool and then you're in the pool paying more because it's where everybody goes to get insurance because they can't get it anywhere else. But it might have changed. So it's not it probably be a good thing to check into and see it's Yeah, because I don't think more people have gone into it and I don't know it's changed

because the insurance is continuing to go up to like it went up 11% this year. How much is it?

Yes, families pay more. Um, individuals pays a lot. Daniel pays a lot. Dustin pays a lot. They're the only two that have Yeah. So, we can table this for next month until we get back from Okay. The sounds good. because we've got until May 1st or no, I'm sorry, June 1st to make a decision. What will give us to make that decision next month? I make a motion to table till next month. All in favor?

Comm manager report.

Nine meetings for the month. Um we have six building permits. One electrical one instead. Um one porch and then an enclo and then another he's doing a porch on the front and an he's enclosing a porch on the back. Um and then a full barn. We had three variances um for the month. One was on Lakeside and that was approved for reduced sideyard. They're going to put a second story house existing there. They're just adding the second story, but when you add to it, they still need to get variance because it doesn't need the code. Um, the second one was a house that's being torn down and they're rebuilding in the same spot, but it's an undersized lot. So, they asked for reduced side yards because it's only 35 width on their lot and they also would have re went over their lot coverage once they put the house on. So that was approved. And then the third one was a pole barn for size and height and that is basically at the end of Hilltop Drive and that guy has a lot of land down there. So, and it's going to be basically what we would consider back side of the road.

Yeah. Splitting on the other side of the driveway. And that one was approved. This month we have three variance requests. One's um off Spring Beach for garage height, size, and sideyard. And where that is on Spring Beach, it's a quite a hill. So, he's going to build into the hill, which makes the size more because it's going to have a lower floor on it that most people don't have. You don't normally have a twotory garage. Yeah.

But he will end up having that so we can reduce some steps on the exterior during the winter. And then web, which is Kane Basin Drive, Lumber Landing, he wants to and put in another pullb bar and he's going to exceed the size and the height that we allow. And then a pull barn on Bay View. It's basically a replacement of a garage that was there. They tore the barn down last year and now they're wanting to put a pull barn in. Height will be fine. It's the size. They're asking for variance on that'll be this Thursday. And it on the Weisenberger suit that's still in the chain. I still am working my way through getting their numerous pieces of

How long's this been? Feel like it's been for forever. So it was a year. So Swany was a year in January. So is it coming up on two years? I can't remember that first meeting. We had like three different meetings about Weisber. Three different separate appeals because every time something happened I can't remember. I think it I'm thinking it was the same time as Swanies because it we it seems like we had them both on the agenda or he was older. He's older than Swain. Thought it was like March then there was. Anyway, it's been over a year. I can tell you.

We're moving into year two on this. We have a pre-trial conference call like a phone number just to let the court know where what's going on. When's that? So, I need to get the stuff into them before you have the pre-trial conference. Is that what you're telling me? I I mean my argument is just going to be that we thought we had it all done and you know they brought it to our attention when they're trying to Well, when you certify it to the court that I mean everything's there. I'm not sure how you go back and then say you need more. It's actually in person. I don't know. So it's April 27th at 10.

I should be able to get status conference that before that. So it's just status for the court to figure out what's going on. our brief dates.

So, plan commission for this month, Spring Beach, the gentleman that wants to put the garage up, we found out there's an old alley that still runs through there that's not been vacated. Portion of it's been vacated, but not the portion where these house is. So, he's going to vacate. He's asking requesting to vacate that. So, that'll come in front of the plan commission and then since it's a um public way, it'll come to you guys for final approval at the main meeting because there's really no reason to leave it open. It's right in the middle of their lots. I assume that was supposed to be the road and they built the road behind it. They didn't built the road where

Well, it may have been a fire lane. It could be, but built over it now. Yeah. Because at where the Norman's in Dorothy Chammans is, when they vacated that, it was Firelane. Okay. It was an alley. And beside my house that the trucks and all use, that was Firelane. That wasn't supposed to be an alley or anything. that was just supposed to be a fire lane, but it just kept being used as a roadway and um became one. Then it became one. It's now it's now paid and used. as well.

So for conservancy district, we I Bill's admits um the district did a review with the board members and we had some other um individuals from Paul was here um lake association just to go over the emergency action plan. So if there's ever an event that we need to enact it that there's few more people than just Paul and Jay our president and me and Heidi that know what's going on. So it that went really well I think and we're going to continue that kind of review process off and on. I was I was impressed with it. I thought it was really a a good meeting.

And then we will have the um tabletop exercise in August when we do the damage inspection. So that's where we have Red Cross and the sheriff's department and counelor's office and DNR everybody's call and um park board. We've got our concert series scheduled and our food truck scheduled and the guys are working on installing new posts on around the perimeter there at Sycamore. Um those are all starting to rot off and fall over and somebody ran over our um historic sign down there. So we're in the process of getting that back up and and I have no idea. I think it had to be a construction truck from the bridge project because

that was put in and it had six pieces of rebar. It was concrete post. Six pieces of rebar that went up into that post. Yeah. And they just so it had to be a trailer because it with a backhoe on it.

Had a metal casing around it and it skinned that metal casing right off. So, it had to be a trailer that they backed up and I don't know how they didn't know they didn't hit it because it had that rebar in it. Um, bike trail the concrete area that's going to go in around the musical bells. I don't know if you've noticed or not or been the bells are all removed. They're in the process of trying to put the concrete in, but we'll wait and see with the weather. So, it could be a couple weeks before they get that all installed. So, that'll all be ADA compliant. And once that's done, um, Noble Trails, we have the 5K on the 25th. So, they're trying to get 250 people to sign up and and do the walk. It can It's a walk and a run, so you don't have to run.

So, we're not expect to see everybody here, correct? The chamber has the roadside clean up. That's where we go out and clean up the actual roadways. That's on May 2nd from 9 to Z. We meet here at 9 and then everybody gets bus and bags and we go out and pick up garbage and then we come back and Vineyard Christian Church provides lunch for everybody because they are the ones that clean State Road 9 headed down towards six. And the buffalo, if you've noticed, it's missing. We took it in to get it repainted. Nobody stole it. It's just out for refresh. And we're going to add the America 250 logo to the

Yeah. side of it, too. Um, certified letters were sent out to the industrial park owner. So, Precision is one of the groups that I haven't gotten contract back from. So, I did mention that today when I talked to him on the phone. And then I will have Bill send a notice out to the other um entity that I haven't heard back from. This is I've sent letters I know three times I think. I'm trying to see what's important here. Oh, the video store. So I have been in contact with M Mr. Shapper um on getting that cleaned up only because he he needs something from me. So can we get like a timeline to where he abs has to or we start? That's That's what I'm going to do. Okay.

Um but since he now it seems like something has been on the agenda, but now since he needs something from me, I have pretty good that he will get it done. Okay, good.

So, if there's anything that you guys want me to ask in DOT on the bridge project, let me know because I meet with them every every other week. We have a meeting about that. That's pretty much it. I told you all the other stuff except for me. Does the fire department have something that can do you guys have something you can put in both directions to stop so you guys can personel like to where you guys can control the stop light? Is there any way we could or school we could? No, because

well they have a timer set on each light. So if we were to change that light to get through it would impact you catch PE you probably catch people in it or throw things off. Um, so we either go out and around town or take Yeah.

I talked with the in supervisor down there, Chris, the other day, last week, and so they plan on having everything done where they're currently working. by July. So it'll be everything will be done on the lake side for the fireworks. After the fireworks, then they'll move to the opposite side

to the opposite side. So traffic then will be on the right side and the work will be on the left side going north. Um, so that's the plan of expansion is that they will have the lakeside all completed before July and that's the side that takes the longest because they added to it. So the other one should take it might be done by August then because originally they said September they might get Was there an Yeah. Okay. Why didn't there any sire? Did you not run them?

No, there was it was property tax. Um Brown and Sons. Yeah.

Oh, great. So apparently he fueled some of the vehicles and stuff up there and then as he was driving down through the shootute, he still needed to do some fueling over there. So as he was driving down through the chute, he was trying to figure out where he could get in to back back up. And while he was looking down here, he wasn't paying attention to here. and he drove right into the guard rail and they had to tow his truck. Yeah. So, it wasn't in the concrete part of it. It was in the guardrail. It was in the guard rail bumper.

Um, so they had to come out and replace that whole piece on the guard rail. Which I found out those run roughly 11 to 12,000 for replace that little three little section of guard rail. You make the money on you for trenches. Everybody's okay though. Didn't blow up. So that's a good thing. It's just going to you Paul

vehicle mileage 1529 miles squad 3491 miles squad 4 882 miles hours worked I worked 136 Dustin 161 Daniel 197 part 9 11 and reserve 29.5 ordinance violations. Town ordinance uh preventive vehicles four nuisance three curfew violations one officer initiated events business checks 40 assisted other departments 12 times one warrant served 81 park security checks seven community policing events traffic violations 12 tickets written 84 Four warnings written. Other events, four VIN checks, two H checks, five golf cart inspections, three OV inspections complaints, one animal complaint, two juvenile complaints, one drug complaint, 12 miscellaneous complaints, two suspicious vehicles, one suspicious activity, one disabled vehicle, two welfare checks, one family fighter disturbance, two accidents, six medic assists, one alarm. um says one criminal arrest, but there was more than that. Um two driving complaints, two citizen assist and one found property. So on criminal uh March 8 endangerment with a minor passenger involved March 10th, a theft of prior offense.

March 18th, refusal to identify self. March 20th, resisting law enforcement with a vehicle, false informing and possession of a controlled substance. March 26, leaving the scene of an accident, possession of cocaine. And March 28th, false informing meetings attended. March 9th, town council meeting. The 12th, training council meeting. The 19th, police prosecutors meeting. the 19th, another training council meeting. The 23rd, um met with uh Brian Walker and one of his deputies, Chris Morardi and Orange Township Fire Chief for uh the funeral procession for Larry Hans. And then March 25th had the conservancy district's emergency action plan meeting. training our attendant conducted March 3rd was our department training for situational awareness. March 15th to the 20th, Daniel Reinhardt went to defensive tactics level one instructor's course. March 17th, I sat through a webinar for impaired driving that dealt with drugs gabent and hydroine. And then March 23rd webinar for something hurts smart sustainable recovery which was um for police wellness week special events activities. The 25th we did the funeral procession for Larry Hamshshire and then notes. Uh we emptied the drug dropbox had 94.774 pounds of prescription medications left in that thing.

Excellent.

Quad four went to Sheepard in Auburn. It had a cracked oil filter housing which was replaced. Uh the oil pump was replaced. oil change and tire rotation spark plugs were replaced and they flushed the engine uh and the coolant and replaced that uh to the tune of $3,399 87 and squad one went to Max Plats in Kendville for a purge valve that was valve that was leaking which was replaced. A turn signal socket bulb had corrosion that was replaced. Uh the rear brake pads were rusted and falling apart. Uh those were replaced and rear to links that had a recall that were replaced to the tune of $1,082 for incidences in town. Um, December we had 138, January 180, February 145, and March 147. Outside of town, we had 79, January 86, February 104, and March 124. the sheriff's department had in town in December 27, January 12, February 10, and in March 14 incidents that they responded to outside of town in December. February 78, January 67, February 16th, March 78

on Front Street. I was going to move over to Grant Street, but where they have one of the street signs for the detour, which is supposed to go down Grant Street, um is right where we put the post in for our streets for the speed sign. Yeah.

And so I can't uh get it in there. So it's still setting over on front streets. Um so during the month of March, average speed was 18.88 miles per hour. Minimum speed five, maximum speed 53 miles hour. The average value per day was 374.1 vehicles and total value of 11,500. That's a lot of vehicles for the road. They closed up. Yeah. How do you get going 53 mph?

Hold it in time to get around the It's still collecting the speed. um probably about where it hits the 25 speed zone which is on the other side of the pyramid but um still those barricades are sitting in the road. So yeah. So Paul, was there a particular issue that caused the late reporting on the accident report other than just been busy with lots of stuff and just kept getting pushed off. So that's all on me. Yeah,

we have two other guys. They couldn't help you out. That's well on on the other things so that you could do your report on time. Well, considering they don't work, a lot of the stuff that I do now. Well, you you will try to improve greatly on on that in the future. I would like to see that. I don't know if we what we

you know, I I think we ought to have a a timeline to to our clinic, you know, hold you too. We should be taking, you know, I'm I'm thinking, you know, 48 72 hours a week at the most. Um, there ought to be enough time in there or you I don't care if you have to stay over to get it done. You know, these people need their vehicle taken care of. They can't do anything because if they come into us, we can't do anything with them for sure purposes.

Yes. And that was tied to another individual who donates quite a bit and he called me and ripped my ass and he said, "You are lucky you are on board with him because you almost it was John Wicker. It's very very I'll let you know what you say, right? Well, it's not just because who you know or whatever.

I mean, it doesn't matter who it is, you know, my husband hit a deer. I want my car fixed. You know, one of those kind of things. And insurance won't do anything if you don't have your report. So can we make a policy for that?

I I went through our current policy and it is really big. Yeah, I need a motion to change this to 72 hours for report. Change the research of those mean. No, I I did I talked to report different towns. So, I mean, you're more than welcome to. Go ahead. You can go ahead. I'll second it.

What's that? You can go ahead and do it. I'll second it. Okay. I think we make a motion for 72 hours business days or what would what would we call that? How would you call that in the world? So, 72 working days, working hours. I don't know if this sounds I don't know hours and business days 72 72 hours minus weekend 72 hours if you have holidays happen

weekend including weekend within three business days. There you go. Sound good to you guys? Three business days. If I make a motion, make a ordinance or policy policy. It would be policy 72 hours business. Second.

All in favor?

All right. has mileage of 436 miles for $29384. That was for training down the claims building back. And then you have the claims for town funds. Um it was a total of $143,8648 and $4834 second. And when will our next move?

May the 11th at 6:30.

May the 11th at 6:30 for our next Of course, my bedtime is a motion. Yeah. Motion to motion to adjourn. Second thing.

All right. Thank you guys. Thank you everyone.