City Council - Regular Meeting

Public hearing of the City of Washington, August 24th, 2026, 6.30 p.m. to order, please. On the agenda, we have ordinance number 14-2026, an ordinance for additional appropriations from Rainy Day Fund of the City of Washington, Indiana. Any questions, comments on this ordinance, either from the council or anybody in the audience? What this is is moving money from Rainy Day to the police general fund for those police cars. We have it in Rainy Day safe, so we have to do this to get it where it needs to go. Any questions, council? Hearing nothing from the audience, we're going to close this public hearing at 6.32. Do you have to switch over or anything? Nope. You good? Okay. All right, let's call the City of Washington Common Council meeting, August 24, 2026, to order, please. First thing, let's have a moment of silence for our veterans. Okay, thank you. Let's have a pledge of allegiance, please. Councilman Lunsford?

Here. Councilman Brown? Here. Councilman Selby? Here. Councilman Hampton? Here. Councilman Emmons? Here. Councilman Dahl? Here. Councilman Showalter?

Here. Okay, all present, thank you. Approval of the minutes of August 10, 2026, public hearing, two public hearings, and the regular meeting in front of you tonight. Any questions about the minutes as presented? I move we approve those as written. Okay. Councilman Dahl makes a motion to approve these minutes as written. Second. Councilman Campton seconds. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? I'm saying. Councilman Brown. Okay. We have a presentation of the claims tonight. Any questions on the claims that's presented tonight?

I need to make a comment. Yes, go ahead. Among the claims is a prepayment. of $47,500 to Summit USA Incorporated. I'm sorry, it's for $45,000 for basically the down payment. KIPP had to pay that before upon placing the order. So then the balance of that, which is $140,000, will be paid upon the delivery of the slide.

Yeah, one payment first year and then one payment when the job is finished, right?

Yes, we'll pay this payment out of this year's budget. We'll pay an amount of $47,500 at the beginning of 2027 out of the 2027 budget, and then the balance will be paid upon delivery.

Yeah.

And that's the way the contract is.

Yeah, we made a contract for them to sign on the payments. Any questions for Beth on this or anything else on the claims tonight? Okay, hearing none. Can we have a motion to approve?

I'll make a motion.

Councilman Selby makes a motion to approve. Second. Councilman Brown seconds. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Councilman Lunsford.

Okay.

All right. Next, we have one resolution, reading of Resolution 11-2026. I will make a motion to read that resolution. Okay. Councilman Campton makes a motion to read this resolution. Second. Councilman Eamon seconds. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Jeff.

Resolution number 11-2026, Transfer. With the Common Council contemplating the meeting of certain emergencies, hereby it considers the permit to be necessary to expend and transfer certain funds to one category within the fund of the published budget of City of Washington for 2026 to another category within the fund. Fund 1101-550 swimming pool from 100.000 salaries and wages 22,000 to 630.000 pool improvement 22,000 from 320.000 office supplies 12,000 to 630.000 pool improvement 12,000 from 340.000, repair and maintenance $1,500, 2630.000, full improvement $1,500, from 390.000, other supplies, $1,500, 2630.000, full improvement $1,500, from 410.000, professional fees $1,000, 2630.000, full improvement $1,000, From 425.000 printing $1,500 to 630.000 full improvement $1,500. From 435.010 utilities $5,000 to 630.000 full improvement $5,000. From 460.000, Repairs and Maintenance, $1,000 to 630.000, Pool Improvement, $1,000. Total Swimming Pool Transfer, $45,500. This resolution will be full force effective upon passage of the Council's 24th day of August, 2026. Signature, David Rhodes, Mayor of Tass, Mary Beth Maguki, Clerk, Treasurer.

Questions? This is just what we just had the public hearing on. We just had to move some money around to... Would you basically do the same thing for the second payment then? We'll have it budgeted.

No, it'll be in the life of life.

Yeah, we'll have it budgeted. This wasn't really expected, and so we had to move some things around just to make this payment. Make a motion to approve. Okay, Councilman Shore makes a motion to approve this resolution. Second. Councilman Dahl, second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, this resolution is adopted. All right, now we go into ordinances. We've got some final readings of one final reading of ordinance number 13-2026. I will make a motion to read that ordinance by title only. All right, Councilman Campton makes a motion to read this ordinance by title only. Councilman Brown seconds. All in favor? Aye.

Opposed? Jeff? Ordinance number 13-2026, an ordinance amending section 151.20 of the City of Washington Code of Ordinances.

Questions? This is on the Planning Commission. Members? Reducing down from 11 to 9. Make a motion to approve. Okay. Councilman Campton makes a motion to approve.

Second.

Councilman Selby seconds. Any other questions? Roll call vote, please.

Councilman Lunsford.

Aye.

Councilman Brown. Aye.

Councilman Selby.

Aye.

Councilman Canson. Aye. Councilman Emmons. Aye. Councilman Dahl.

Aye.

I'm wondering, Joe, does Selby need to abstain since he's going to be on the planning commission? Oh, yes.

That's correct. Okay. Did he make a motion?

Yes.

He voted aye. Can he make a motion?

Yes.

uh shouldn't even make a motion she's really a get someone else for any activity on that particular okay and councilman all the same way so can i have someone make a motion make a motion councilman kemp to make some motion to approve uh can i have a second second councilman show our seconds any other questions roll call vote please Oh, you already did. We did that. So everything's good. You got it.

Okay.

Yeah. And so that ordinance. So I should change that to a thing.

Okay.

Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Okay. That ordinance is in full force. Okay. Next, we have a final reading of Ordinance Number 14-2026. I will make a motion to read that ordinance by title only. Councilman Kamsa makes a motion to read this ordinance by title only. Councilman Showar seconds. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Chair?

Ordinance Number 14-2026, an ordinance of additional appropriation. Questions?

This is on the police cars. I have a motion to approve. Okay. Councilman Campton makes a motion to approve this ordinance. Second. Councilman Emmons, second. Any other questions? Roll call vote. Councilman Munster.

Aye. Councilman Brown.

Aye.

Councilman Selby. Aye. Councilman Hampton. Aye. Councilman Emmons.

Aye.

Councilman Dahl.

Aye.

Councilman Showalter.

Aye. All right. This ordinance will be in full force. And next we have final reading of Ordinance 16-2026. I will make a motion to read that ordinance. 15, 15, 15. I thought we just did 15. I'm sorry. I just put it aside. 15-2026. I'll make a motion to read that ordinance. I'm heading myself. Okay. Councilman Campton makes a motion to read this ordinance. Second. Councilman Emmons, second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Jeff. Ordinance number 15-2026, an ordinance amending section 91.02G of the City of Washington Code of Ordinances.

All right. Any questions? Make a motion to approve. Anybody? Okay. Second. Councilman Kennington makes a motion to approve this ordinance. And Councilman Emmons seconds. All in favor? Aye. Questions? Councilman Dahl, what did I say? Well, they did say that. Yeah, they did say that together. Who wants to go in the minutes?

Yeah, just like it was stated.

All right, any other questions? Roll call vote, please.

Councilman Munster?

Aye. Councilman Graham? Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Councilman Lunsford, seconds. All in favor? Aye. Opposed?

Jeff. Ordinance number 16-2026, an ordinance due to the compensation of officers, employees, and certain employment positions in the City of Washington, Indiana for the year 2027.

Yeah. And there was, I think, eight different places where there's summer help that was raised. Councilman Lunsford's recommendation to 1350. So there's several places, summertime, part-time help. It's all part-time help that was raised from 12 something to 1350. You got the bad seat. Any other questions on this? On this ordinance? If not, can I have a motion to approve? Councilman Kemp makes a motion to approve. Councilman Selby seconds. Any other questions? We'll call vote.

Brown.

Aye.

Councilman Selby. Aye. Councilman Hampton. Aye. Councilman Emmons. Aye. Councilman Dahl.

Aye.

Councilman Shelwalton.

This is the one I'm supposed to abstain on, or is it both of them?

It's the budget that you have to abstain.

Okay.

Yay.

Okay.

Maybe when it gets to the one on the fire department. Maybe on the one on the fire department when it gets to that one, maybe. What do you think? I don't know. But anyway, Councilman Okay, this ordinance is in full force. Next, we have a final read to Ordinance 17-2026. I will make a motion to read that ordinance by title only. All right, Councilman Kemp makes a motion to read this ordinance by title only. Second. Councilman Dahl, seconds. All in favor? Aye.

Opposed? Roll call. Ordinance 17-2026. In order to seek some compensation of firefighters and police officers in the city of Washington, Indiana for the year 2027.

Okay. Questions? This is one I do. Do you think, Councilman Shore, should we stand on this one just to be safe? Okay. Make a motion to approve. All right. Councilman Campton makes a motion to approve this ordinance. Second. Councilman Munster seconds. Any other questions? A vote call vote, please.

Councilman Munster. Aye. Councilman Brown.

Aye.

Councilman Selby.

Aye.

Councilman Hampton. Aye. Councilman Hemmings.

Aye.

Councilman Dahl.

Aye.

Councilman Showell.

Abstain. Okay, thank you. That's the ordinance in full force. We have one more. We have final reading of ordinance number 18-2026. Mine says number 8. Yes, and mine did too on the agenda. So the ordinance says 18, but we'll correct that on the agenda.

Make a motion to read that ordinance by title.

Okay, Councilman Kempner makes a motion to read this ordinance by title only. Second. Councilman Dahl seconds. Thank you.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Yes. Ordinance number 18-2026. An ordinance fixing the salaries of elected officials that sit at Washington, Indiana for the year 2027. Questions?

Okay. Make a motion to approve. Councilman Kenton makes a motion to approve. Second. Councilman Dahl seconds. Roll call vote, please.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. questions for Mike or any questions yeah I saw that I left it like it is you know both of them just came both of them for one in both those line six and line seven I mean that which is so there's really just two minutes They received this and they filed this. And they're both finished? Micah, they both finished. Okay, thank you. All right, make a motion. Okay. Any other? You good? Councilman Kempton makes a motion to approve this tax abatement. Seconded. Councilman Schor, seconds. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right, thank you, Mike, for coming in and squaring this up. No problem.

Thank you.

Yeah. And then we have one more, RGA Community Builders. Jeff Stimel's here representing his company.

Okay, so on this one, I talked to Jeff and talked to the assessor, and basically the way that this is going to have to be – you're going to start being the tax is going to be for this year for building one and then building two and three will start 27 pay 28 and the fourth and last building is whichever year that it may end up being with the two and three if you're completed in the same year So there's either going to be a request for a second abatement or a third one also to get these correct as the buildings are completed and on the tax roll, if that makes sense. Right now we're only doing one building. So that's the one that's for... One of four. Yeah.

Jeff, do you have anything you want to say on this? Yeah. Yeah.

Well, we want to try to get it right. Yeah, I just want to make sure that we were going to get it the exact way. The exact way.

So what did you answer the question you had originally asked her? It's not when you break down then?

So that was a question that really didn't get an answer. It's at their discretion. Okay. So if you start building something and you take five years to build it, they're going to start charging taxes before then. If they see progress on it, they're going to wait until it's done. But if it sits there... So it's kind of a discretionary answer.

Okay. Any other questions on this? Make a motion to approve. Okay. Councilman Hampton makes a motion to approve this tax abatement. Second. Councilman Emmons seconds. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. This abatement will be enforced. Thanks, Jeff, for coming in and bearing with us.

All right.

Thank you very much. All right. We have one other thing. We have a review of a conflict of interest statement. Chief, do you want to say anything on this? I thought I'd get you to say a few words on this.

Sure. We're wanting to buy a new canine.

We're wanting to go through Chad Batten. He has some.

And so this, since Chad worked for the city. So what is the procedure then?

What do we need from us?

We just need to present it to you guys. And approve it. And then we file it with the county and the state.

Okay.

make a motion to approve. Okay. Councilman Kemp makes a motion to approve this conflict to enter a statement and Councilman Schor seconds. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Alright. So do I sign this? Do I sign this back here later on? On the back? Yeah. Back here. Number five is that? Appointment date and Okay. All right. Okay. All right. And that's all that's on tonight's agenda for the Common Council. Does anybody got anything for the council? Okay. Councilman Selby, you got anything for the council?

No, sir. Councilman Dahl?

I do not. Councilman Shaw? No. Councilman Brown?

Jeff? No. Councilman Campton? Just real quick. The renter thing's coming up real soon, so did we ever get an affidavit form for relatives?

We worked on that. I know we worked on it.

If it's on there, I did not see it on the website. I did not see it. I'm not saying it's not there.

Yeah, we'll ask John and see where we're at there. We are getting a lot of people registering. I mean, they're coming and we're getting a lot of them. I'm not sure how many we've had now, but we've had several. So that's a good thing. I mean, I don't know if we'll get, you know, we might have to handle some of them, but we got a lot of good response on the registration side of it.

And the other question that a lot of people ask me, what are all these semi-trailers? What's going on there?

Well, we should have asked that question when Mike was here. Isoflex has got a lot of plastic in those trailers, plastic that they can't use, but they say plastic that is good that they are putting there. And basically, I think, what I've been told, they're waiting for the market price to change so they can sell.

Well, no, they're not hurting. I just keep saying that. Yeah, but there's a lot of them.

I don't know if they've ever reduced down any, because I had to ask the question, you know, why and why so many? I wish we asked that because that's where they're at, what they see with the future for that. I mean, you know, how long? over by the old twin river shoot yeah we got them there we got clear they're gone oh so they maybe they maybe are reducing down or maybe just move them down i don't i don't think they're thinned a little bit down in there too because down on the end of maxwell but i will that's a good question i need to call and talk to mark sometimes just see where they're at and see what the what their plan is on that because i'm interested too because there was a bunch of them And, you know, they've rented these spaces from all these people. It's hard to believe you can afford to hold on. Well, yeah, that costs you. Yeah, that costs you, too. So I assume they want to move this stuff as soon as they could, I would think. But I'll follow up on it and just ask the question to him, because that's a good question. I would ask that if he was here, and I wish we would ask him. Okay, anything else? That is all I have.

Councilman Edmonds? I've seen Great X surveying today. Are they thinking about smoothing the highway out?

They're supposed to be working on that, yes. Thinking about it, yeah, they've got to do it. And every meeting we have every two weeks, NDOT is still on them. They were supposed to be doing that, it was the last week or the week before, they were supposed to be on that. But it didn't happen. So by sending a survey and maybe... They were out there today. There's a punch list that we're working on, and it's all about, because of Grade X contract, about getting Grade X in here and doing that punch list.

Sidewalks, where they put in the... ADAs. Some of them's got that, like, orange... Mm-hmm. It's getting really bad in a lot of places. Oh, really? They've got holes in them and... Is that something that we're going to go back and look at?

Yeah, because, I mean, there'll be a walkthrough. I mean, another walkthrough. Not for them, for other parts of this. Oh, and not for this project? Oh, okay. I was worried that you said those things are coming.

It would be some from the original when they first started doing them ramps.

They're not holding up. Okay. Well, the first ones that I know of before I took office was part of that, you know, safe routes to school. So I don't know if that was some of them. But then since we did CCMG, they requested you do those. And the last year or two, we've had to add those to it. Aaron, have you seen any of those ADA ramps starting to come apart?

Yeah, on the ramps. And you can cast iron plates. And one of the ramps you talked about was part of the last.

yes you think that was part of that safe route to school thing so i guess what i was wanting to know is that if we're not

doing it, maybe we should have a program to where we check them.

But we'll have to. To make them hazardous. The other side of that is, you know, we'll have to address it. And maybe you might have to look at them and change them out, you know, to the newer stuff. They may need to start doing that on the older ones.

I wasn't aware of them coming apart, but you walk around and count them up more than I do. Almost all of them fiberglass. You can see the fiberglass in them. They're going to deteriorate.

Yeah, we'll keep an eye. We might make a list of what ones we see and maybe look into addressing those. I wouldn't think they would be super expensive to do, but I don't know what the process would be.

Some of them look like they've got screws.

They're bedded in how they... We can look into it. If you see any, start making a list of ones you see or so. They're still on 11th Street.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

We'll look into it.

Councilman Lunsford? September 14th, I will be in St. Louis and will not be here.

Okay. And the only problem we have there, we just need to make sure we have a quorum right. I want to make sure.

What day did you say?

September 14th. Yeah, Monday the 14th.

Okay, so you won't be here and Councilor Showalter can't vote.

Oh, wait a minute.

We're just going to read it the first time. Yeah.

So the 28th, I'll be flying back from Vegas, but I have one of the first flights out that morning, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Okay.

So it has to be at least four of them vote.

Yeah, on the 28th. On the 28th.

Yeah.

Okay. Okay. That's all I got. Okay.

So stay well.

Beth, you got anything?

No, I don't.

All right. Anybody else got anything for the council? All right. Hearing nothing, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Okay. That's for appointed. Okay. So I guess we signed it. Okay. All right. We did discuss it. Yeah, I got some ideas. Yeah. Okay. Very good. I didn't really want to sign it. Yeah. But I wanted to ask about it. Okay.