Montgomery County Council - Regular Meeting

order. If you'd join me with the pledge, please stands one nation with all you pray with me. Heavenly Father, we again come to you and we thank you for this time together as as free people uh to do the people's business. Just guide our thoughts and our give us wisdom uh with the money issues at hand and we thank you for this opportunity. All right, good morning everyone. Um, first item up is the consent agenda which consists of the September auditor report, the same series transfer report, cash balance report, and the commissary report. You should have all gotten copies of those. Move to approve Joyce Gramble. Got a

motion and a second. Is there any question or discussion on those? All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? All right. Any public comment on any of the agenda items at hand? See any public here anyway? Um, money matters, additional appropriations. Sheriff Ne, how you doing?

Good. Have a motion to second. Any other questions or discussions? All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? Thanks, Ryan.

Good morning.

A motion to second. Any other questions for Andrea? All those in favor signify by saying I. Any oppose. All right. Thank you. And then the corner. I don't see him here. I know he's short some money again. So just needs additional autopsy. 30,000 what he's asking for. Yeah. Is that for outstanding bills or is that just for potential? I asked that question and I'm gonna go with yes from his response. Okay. give us a little go ahead.

Yeah, I think I think we we've been obligated to pay for uh two autopsies that were where residents of McGomery County died outside the county. And I think that's what it's about. Which we're obligated to do under statute, right?

Got a motion in a second. Any other questions or discussion on that? All those in favor saying I. Any opposed? All right. Transfers. Pretty sure So, is it just we were off on the budget amount or just different amounts or We had taken some money out last budget to cover payroll increases. So, this is just refilling the line as we go. I didn't realize we hadn't done that. Sorry, Sherry. That's that's the reason my face was

It just wasn't wasn't Okay. Okay. There you go. All right. Thank you. Second motion second. Any other questions or discussion on that? All those in favor sign by saying I. Any opposed?

Thank you. How we do it on staffing short next one was superior courting claims out Office.

Okay.

Second.

Got a motion and a second. Any other questions on that? All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? And sheriff's back. We like Does that request include benefits? Anything else? So we'll be okay on the other lines too.

I move approval. Motion a second. Any other questions for Sheriff? I assume that that's retiring. How long has he been? He's been there for

Been a long time. Yeah. Appreciate his service. I would think so. All those in favor signify by saying I. Any oppose?

Thanks. Uh clerk has a transfer from one court deputy to another. Looks like Motion a second. Any other questions? The clerk. All those in favor sign by saying I.

Any post? Thank you. Commissioners transfer some money. Oh, there you are. So we just miscalculated for this year increased.

Oh, okay. Increased the middle. a motion and a second. Any other questions for Lori? All those in favor signal by saying I. Any oppose? And last but not least,

um, we have a request to move some funds from a property deputy position that was, um, empty for a few months into the part-time line. She worked more part-time because we were short a property deputy. So, um, we're just short in our part-time line this time. And Steve, to answer your question a little bit better from earlier, um, when it's one payline to another payline, the And those types of benefits are reduced from the one. So they're it's usually enough to cover the second. Does that make sense? Okay. All right. I'll entertain a motion. Any questions?

Have a motion, a second. Any other questions or discussion on that? All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? All right. Reductions. We like reductions.

I'll just handle all of these if you want. Yep. Um we asked the department heads for reductions. Um most of them came in in county general. That was our main focus. As you guys know, any reduction um to appropriations this year adds to our cash balance for next year. So the um the department heads came in big time. We ended up with 487, $28249 in reductions. Some of that is health. I think it's about 19,000 um is out of the health fund, which is also helpful uh because it is a levy fund. But I wanted to personally thank all of you for getting those into us so quickly and um more than expected. So, thank you. Um I will say that 225 of this um there's a few council items on here. 225 was your special appropriations line that you have left over. Um 5 um,500 is a special legal that you haven't used and 575 is what's left in your dues and subscriptions line. Those are the three council ones that I added. Okay. I guess the only concern with the council special appropriations is potential using that for radios or I mean this wasn't discussed beforehand so

yeah it just if you want to take that one off we can um approve this and not and submit less than what we've approved if that makes sense. We can't split more than what we approved but we can go ahead and add it and if we don't get the money elsewhere we can use that and remove it and then Just so we've got that option available. Y

All right. First of all, I want to thank all the department heads for going through all this and looking at uh looking at your budgets and kind of clean that up and giving us some opportunity to save quite a bit of money for the county. And um we can take this all as one. Uh so the I entertain a motion to accept all these reductions other than the council special line. Have a motion, a second. Is there any other questions or discussion on that? All those in favor signify by saying I.

Any opposed? All right. Thank you. Okay, moving on to new business. Uh the first item just very quickly, the November council meeting falls on a holiday which uh Veterans Day. Uh So, we had a conversation in our administrative meeting about moving it to Monday at 9:00 am right after the commissioner's meeting. Does that work for everybody? Monday the 10th, 9:00 a.m.

Oh, joyful. So, I'll be in a real good mood that day. Um, the motion. Yeah. I'll make the motion that uh we move the November meeting to November 10th at 9:00 a.m. Okay, we have a motion to second. Any other discussion or concern on that? All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? Okay, Sheriff Nem, you're back up. We're going to discuss this radio situation. I know this kind of been a quick turnaround for you trying to get information, but what do you got?

It was Can you go over that again?

And by mobile you mean car, right? Okay. And the are currently suitable for that as well to make them encrypted. Understand? Right.

Right. Okay. So, I guess just to clarify for people aren't aware, the mobile radios, at least on the county side, you guys tend to use those more the farther out you go, they're a little more powerful. Is that correct or Sure.

What kind of time frame are you looking to get this done? Understood.

Okay.

Oh, okay. Okay. So, as we just said, you know, I I kind of had reserve that special appropriation of the council money just to have that option. And then I think somebody mentioned uh was it Gary? Did we talk about the CCD money potentially using that as well? That was Jeff Peters recommendation. It is the most restrictive fund and we use those funds first because they are channeled into specific things. It's good for any legal purpose. So it gives you a lot more. Are there any other commitments on that CCD money right now that we've got we're aware of?

Not that I'm aware of. We had also talked about um the RDC money and we're going to discuss that at the 11:00 meeting. So um possibility of getting that back, but Jeff Peters did say that he felt he we could cover it out of CCD. That's the way you guys want to go.

I'll second it. Brett Kading. So, we have a motion and a second to uh fund the project out of the CCD fund. Is there any other questions or discussion for the sheriff? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Make it happen. There you go. Sheriff, I do have a question on your portables. If we were to replace those, what kind of money are we looking at? Round numbers.

Yeah. They Sure. One of the thing though might suggest is, you know, in the next few months maybe look at a I don't know, three year plan, five year plan on those. I don't know. Gives us something to think about. Not saying we will, but kind of see where you're at. Maybe it's something we can do over the next few years.

Thanks. Okay. Thanks, Ryan. Uh, next up is ordinance 2025-2, final reading of the recorder's perpetuation fund expense. And Dan can elaborate. Yes. Each year, in order for the recorder to use part of her perpetuation fund to pay for expenses outside of the maintenance of her equipment, she must uh certify to you that she has sufficient funds in her perpetuation fund, which would allow her to expend the money for her staff, salaries, and other She has done that certification. This is second reading of the ordinance and this uh approval of this orders will allow you then to do so in your budget.

Got a motion in a second. Is there any questions about that? Again, this is just a routine thing we do every year. All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? All right. All right. And budget adoption hearing for the solid waste management district budget. Do we have a copy of that? Sorry. Indie buyers auditor. I guess um it is in the version five worksheet that I sent you. Okay. So it's in there. Yeah. you scroll past

and we just have to approve that as a that we've received it as a separate budget. Yes. Yeah. We we looked at it. Um yeah. Yep. Okay.

Words are hard for me today, I guess. So, thanks. But the solid waste is looking at a $156,000 budget, which is up from $17,000 last year. Okay. Have a motion in a second. Any other questions or discussion on that? Is this working out for the county? There's a lot of turmoil system.

Matt Nelson's on

huge complaints. Okay, we had the motion second. Okay, sorry. Got sidetracked. I apologize. Uh, all those in favor of sign saying I. Any oppose? Okay.

And then 2025-3. Uh, is this this is our budget? Uh, actually, no. But we're still in that the next thing. We're doing a budget adoption hearing for the county budget. Oh, okay. So, we need to look at the county budget. So, the county budget.

So, I thought the easiest way to do this was just show the changes that we all spoke about. Um, just make I'm going to start with Monday. And again, these for the department heads, it's just the days you presented. It's I kept it that way because it was easier for to follow your notes. So, if it's not highlighted in yellow, it didn't get changed. First change we made was in PAP lit. There are three line items that cover part of Mike Davis's budget and his benefits. Mike Davis is wholly covered by the commissioner's budget or by his by the county general budget. At one point when CCC was well funded and county general was struggling, the decision was made to have CCC refund county general part of his salary. Now it's flipped. CCC is well funded or I'm sorry, general is well funded and CCC is struggling and it's there's really no reason to refund um county general from lit pap. He's been covered under there. It's kind of a double hit on the budget actually. So um we just reduced those to zero if you want to talk about that at all. like you good with that.

Okay, good.

Ariel for photography. Back to Mike. Uh we just moved he has a secondary fund, a mapping fees fund that is has 67,752 in cash balance and he moved um almost all of his budget to that fund to help eat on that. Thank you. But we did have an aerial photography um line still in county general. It was 39.94 and we're just asking to move that into the mapping fee fund. So reduce County General by 39.94 and we'll increase the mapping fee. The reason you don't see the increase in the mapping fee is we did not um uh advertise that amount. We can't adopt for over. So we'll just have to come back and do an additional for that 39.94 and 4950. Okay. Is that okay with you, Mike? I mean, you understand what we're doing. Okay. Thanks. I'm going this way just so I don't get caught up on anything. It was It was yellow to the side. Sorry. It was just a note to myself. I was just putting was included in that because we had moved some other things in other places. So, disregard that yellow. Next, we have the commissioner's budget. And I'm going to quickly go through these. I had highlighted the intern line at um 10,000. I feel like we discussed this because it wasn't used this year.

Um but I don't remember who talked about who asked me about that. So, you can keep it in at 10,000 or reduce it to zero since it hasn't been used. I don't know if that was intentional or if they're planning to use that.

Okay. So, that that was the line we talked about. Um we did change the group insurance line. We adjusted those group life insurance. Um the HSA line was adjusted for the number of employees being covered out of county general. Workers comp was adjusted down. Um inmates and institutions as well as burial soldiers both came down. We have a note out about the cell phone. Um but that was just a general note. And then we did ask they had requested 563,000 in contractual services. We asked for them to um break that out into what it's actually being used for. So now we can see contractual services for like 4 rent safe hirings at 135. The grant match for CCMG is in there 393 394 and a property cleanup line for 50,000 and that did bring that um line down about $100,000 and and we adjusted down insurance, ADA, Valley Oaks, and attorney fees. Um, we moved or we that was all in the commissioner county general budget. Thank you guys for working on that. Um, we removed or reduced rather it the IT budget we took 60,000 out of equipment. We're moving that into CCD and the firewall line was reduced. Um, I think Windows 10 is being there there was some there was an increase in the IT budget and it had to do with Windows 10 going um not being supported any longer and they're going to have to move us all

and many since Brick Kading since we're on the IT any update on guts or the IT issues on that? We are holding on that for right now. We're going to talk to both vendors. Um there may be a delay in the start of that project. Um

for for everybody that doesn't know, there's been an issue with some of the counties and guts and so and that may put us in a issue where if there does have to be changed then we'd have to look for another Then in the CCD budget, you see where we've put in a line to add the 60,000 that we removed from it. Again, we we will have to do an additional appropriation for that because it wasn't advertised that way, but they did that in order to help relieve the general fund. The last few things that I have highlighted, um, actually the RDC local program grant shouldn't be highlighted. The contractual services, the 500,000 and the non-tip general fund is not supported by that cash balance. So, but we're going to have a discussion about that in the RDC meeting at 11. So, um, for right now, it's it's and it's really it's not um relevant to the adoption today. We can move that down and it's not going toffect it shouldn't affect adoption today Tuesday's meeting which would be all of the so that was Monday so that would be everybody who reports to the commissioners so everybody who reports to the commissioners knows what you're looking at now the department head that don't report to the commissioners and the elected officials. Um that day's budget. Oh,

there were three there were three departments that had longevity in their line. I removed those because that's being covered by the council. So that's what you're seeing there. The three courts all have a law clerk line at $10,000. Um, it was discussed, this line hasn't been used in a long time by any of the courts. It's used usually put in for $10,000 and then moved or appropriated, transferred to a different line. So, there was discussion on removing the law clerk lines for all three courts, which would be $10,000 each or $30,000. I didn't

it. She asked if anybody had spoken to the courts about it. No, we need to talk to them first obviously. Okay. I I was at town last week and I did not. No, that's fine. Um but they they haven't used this line in I don't even know how long. Well, then it should be paid out of an intern line, but I don't

Yeah, they they haven't used this law clerk line in years. They they literally use it to transfer funds out of. Yeah. And we did take out a $5,000 line for unappropriated from the clerk. That was an error. Um, and we were asked to remove that. So, um, we had a note or a highlight here for pre-trial diversion special equipment, what that was being used for. Um, that's also a fund that has a hefty cash balance. Um, we could always move some of their appropriations into that fund. That may be it. Yeah, that that is it for the changes that were discussed. Anybody has any

The only comment I would make, I know you talked about the RDC fund a couple of times. Uh I would like to see them keep some funds. I don't I don't have an interest in moving all that money back in. So yeah. Yeah. I I um the last request that I had talked about or suggested was um paying for the radios out of that and letting them keep like it was like $250,000 or something like that. Yeah. Um but

Okay. Thanks. the RDC fund they they have to vote to return that. Yes. So it would require you can looks to me like you can zero that line because RDC is not asking for and they'll probably return half of what they have. That would be most likely thing. So zero out the appropriation because we're not as a council we they're not going to ask for any money so we don't need to

if they want to spend it would need appropriated they have 200 430,000 in that line today and they don't have to give any of it back no but if they want to spend it they have to have that appropriation then it would be reduced to 230 or something like that you're saying Yeah, whatever you guys decide, I would I would suggest you match that appropriation. Questions, too, because this meeting is an RDC meeting. Yeah, we're going to discuss that thing. Yeah, I would just say whatever you end up doing from the RDC meeting, we match whatever cash balance would be left to that appropriation. Yeah, I think that's probably Yeah.

Well, that's the way they feel. Yeah. The issue is and they have no particular plan today as to use that money, but you never know what tomorrow brings and the time you wait for the council meeting to come and request it and get it all done. It takes quite a bit of time and so many get things moving.

Yeah, I would just Yeah, Gary makes a good point. I mean, we're talk we're not talking about cash, talking about spending authority. So if you zero out the line, then they can't spend any of the money even though they have a cash balance of $400 and some thousand dollars. And the purpose of that money, as you recall, which was when the temporary opportunity came, the RDC had no money to do studies and get things started very very quickly. That's why they asked that money for from you. That authority to spend that appropriation was so they could act more quickly. But remember that we shouldn't mix cash and appropriation because they're two different concepts. This is spending authority you guys are voting on today appropriations.

So even though they have money, you're not giving them any new money. Uh the appropriation just says that next year they could spend the money that we have. That's really what that is. So just keep that in mind. Okay. Okay. So, Gary, you're saying to match the the appropriation to the amount that they currently have, but then you may change that at the next meeting at your meeting.

Okay.

Oh, yeah. some of the questions that I had um we've gone over most of them. So the Mike Davis uh commissioners did approve this morning to move Cambridge rate to 5.85 cents. Um that matches the Peter's plan. Um and we also matched that when we were doing our numbers. Um this keeps the right now keeps the raises at 3%. Um, and we have the intern line being kept at 10,000. I did have one question on the longevity. Are we including elected officials in that?

I guess have we traditionally? uh we used to and then in the last year's plan we did not. It equals 26,500 which should be fine in the line that you have set out for longevity but um it just wasn't addressed this year and I remembered it in the shower. We didn't last year, but we have in the past. So,

I've been asked. So, that's did it before and how many years? I can't answer that. Do you know Do you know how how long we've

Well, it was built into the It was built into the salaries prior to the new compensation plan. So we we used to do it I mean the whole time I've been here so at least 10 15 years. Um we did it and then we took it out last year when we separated it. And did you put that you say that's in here now or it would be covered under the line that you have currently? I guess personally feel like something we ought to do.

Are we just are you going to do it off of how many years they've been in the elected position or the position from how long they've been employed? Traditionally, it's been just like an employee how long they've been with the county, but you like Dan says, you can do whatever you want to do. I guess for now, the money's there, so we don't necessarily have to decide how we're going to do that down.

Yeah. And it might be something we run by add That's important. Yeah. Well, that's true. And being able to keep it at a 3% like you and I talked about, I think if we can keep the raises at three. Yeah. Yep. Okay.

Okay. Uh and talking with Dan here, we can go ahead and vote on this budget and it can reduced uh after the after the adoption. Like I said, once we know what RDC wants to do and that kind of thing, I will talk to the judges just so we don't blindside them, but I'm I'm in favor of removing that clerk line, too. Save $30,000. And Mindy, I got the Cune Bridge went back to where it was at LA the year before. Is that where bridge went to 585 this morning? Okay. So, it went down to where last year? Yeah. Well, last year I think it was at 55 5 and a half cents. Yeah. Okay.

Um, so it's up a little bit from last year, but it's down from what they had set it at. Seven and a half cents. They reset it every year. So, right. And Jake, you're good with what's coming up. Okay.

You got your finger on the launch there. on county general or by department. So is this the one you're talking about?

Yes, sir. You want to see the bottom? So the 2026 budget right now is 17 um 17 million 32,748 which is up 11% from 2025. Yeah, when I broke out the commissioner line it up a little bit. This is what we just

Okay, the original one I sent out um sorry I forgot about that. Um wasn't capturing some of the changes that we made with the commissioner budget. So this is the this is the most up-to-date number with the current changes. So what I'm looking at version five you sent out last Wednesday, I think. So, it's been changed since then. Yes.

Only in the background. The the calculations weren't adding in some of the things that we changed from the commissioner's budget. Can I see the uh just the county general? Yeah. Not by department. You have that one.

Because the one I had was uh 476,000. So it changed a million dollars. Just um Friday afternoon when we after we were done with all the meetings with you guys, we went through the spreadsheet and just balanced everything And I noticed that and I put it in the other two systems that we have to put all these budget lines into. And when I did that, I realized that the new lines in the spreadsheet that you guys had originally received, the new lines for the com that when we broke out all that stuff for the commissioners, you know, they were originally asking for what 560ome,000 in one line called contract contractual services. We changed that and then added the grant match and the property cleanup lines. And uh when we did that, those two new lines didn't get added into the formula. So they've nothing has changed in the individual lines. She just went and cleaned up the formula so that they were included.

How much did the commission budget go up? It went up 19%. Dollar wise, how much? Uh 6,679,600. Well, no. What did it went up? Yeah, about a million

because I know looking at all the departments I think departments did a good job this year most increases was 3 to 4%. So line share increases in that commissioner's budget I think. Absolutely. I know a lot of the changes, you can help me here Lori, but a lot of the changes was like we used ARPA funds and things like that before for things and now it got transferred to county general.

Right. Right.

Right. Right.

We did ask um that they increase their group insurance line by quite a bit. If you see it's it's historically been um conservatively budgeted and a lot of times we have to back and ask for an additional knowing that additionals are going to be um scrutinized a little bit more. We we did um the auditor's office did ask the commissioners to make that a more realistic number. So um that 1.6 million might be a little high, but it covers us from having to it should cover us from having to come back. and it's based off the employee count that we have today and our best guesstimates as to what they're going to request. So there are some things in there that we have asked them to come up. Um the other thing is that CCMG line I mean that's almost four 400,000. So um it's a lot when you look overall So, as uh the two of you look at this budget, what's your comfort level? Money coming in, money going out.

We're going to eat into the cash balance a little bit, but I think with everything we have going on, um I'm comfortable with moving forward with it. We're at, you know, I mean, everybody knows this. We're having growing pains. I I mean, let's face it, the county is we're moving and shaking and we have a lot of things going on. And yeah, it's going to eat into our um cash balances here and there, but I think that the the final product of all of that is going to be beneficial enough that it outweighs that. So that that's my take on it.

The only thing I would add is like and I said it before, you know, it's been really easy to say yes in the past for additionals and this year I think we really need to look at those each of those carefully and careful on on what we ask for. But I mean, we have looked at this budget and scrutinized this budget more than we have in a long time. So, and we're fairly close. The only thing that's different between our numbers and Jeff is the overall budget itself. And I I like you said, I think the department heads did a fantastic job staying within the 4% growth quotient. Um the the exception to that is the commissioners. and I think they're just faced with things that no other department has to deal with. So, um just those overall costs. So, um I I do think we're going to eat into cash balance, but I I think we're healthy enough and if we're careful just moving forward that we'll be okay. um we we've gotten oursel into a position that we can um support some of these projects that are going on and stuff. And that's what we needed to do. It's what what the intention was.

Need to stay out of rainy day. Rainy. I said you need to stay out of rainy day. We I would um at the end of this year, I'm going to ask again that we um put some money into rainy day. We have not done that this year. Um when we know what what we're going to get back in settlement, I think we need to take a serious look, put some into rainy day and keep people out of it um if all possible and keep it for a true rainy day because we don't know what's coming in the next five years with this sea one. We have no idea. And I know that the last time I looked at our rainy day funds, we were one of the lowest levels in the state of Indiana as far as balances in that fund. And I think it could save us potentially down the road. So I I it's kind of my little baby project. I want to get rainy day funded back.

Yes. Yes. Yes. I believe we snuck that in just before publishing. No. What they are concerned about when you publish is the overall amount in the fund. And since the council decreased their special appropriation lines by I don't know 700 and something

then that gave us a little leeway in some of the other lines. So it you know the overall amount of the um general general fund that got advertised is still higher than what we're going to adopt or what we're planning to adopt. So it's fine. We all seem to be building lot to process. Any other questions or comments?

The only other thing I know meeting with um Jen and and Mindy um they commented that u there is some conservatism in some of the numbers. Don't you feel? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thanks.

All right. Like I say, I appreciate many and Jen's work on all this and meeting with all the council members coming and meeting with them to kind of go over this a little more detail than we have in the past. Uh again, to the department heads, thank you for all your hard work and keeping things in check as much as possible. I know things go up and expenses happen and as we saw with the insurance, I know the commissioners, that's the big hit. Insurance everywhere is going up. I know mine in my business has too. So, That's kind of part of it. So I at this point I'll call or entertain a motion to adopt the Montgomery County budget for 2026 with the thought that there will still be some reductions once RDC makes

and you want me to go ahead and put the 30,000 back in in the uh law clerk line or do you want me to keep that at zero? We can it. If you want to put it back in, go ahead and leave it in there for now and then Okay. I I just would prefer to talk to them first. No, I I Yeah,

I'd like to make a motion that uh we approve the budget as proposed with the changes of the courts. I have a motion, a second. Any other discussion, questions or concerns? Right. We can adopt the budget today, but then still reduce line items out of there. Like I say, I'll talk to the law clerks. We'll get that 30,000 potentially back and then whatever the RDC decides, that'll be another reduction.

Would you like to go ahead and send out this version to us too. Yes. I I'll do it with all the changes that we just discussed. Um and then whatever comes of the RDC meeting, I'll send it out to you. Okay. All those in favor signify by saying I. Any oppose? Okay. Thank you. And then ordinance uh 2025-3, the final reading of the Montgomery County Appropriations Ordinance. We did this last month. Yeah, we It's with changes now. So yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. Second motion to second. Any other questions or discussion on that? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? All right. Thank you. Moving on. A funded organizations. Department heads. Okay. Elected officials.

I will say I'll go back. Um it takes some I have to put a bunch of stuff into Gateway to get the sheets that need to be signed for the budget adoption and the appropriation ordinance. Um, once I get that complete, I will print that out or get it sent out to you. But I also need each of you to stop by the office. I will text you when that's done. Um, it may well hopefully be this afternoon. Um, and then we have four, yeah, to the end of this week to get that finally uploaded and submitted to Gateway. So, um you know, if you can't come back this afternoon, that's fine, but we we have to have each of you come in, at least a majority of you come in and sign that by, um the end of the week. But I'll text you that detail when I'm ready.

Okay. Oh, sheriff, he's back again.

Okay, that's always good. should be done next week. Okay.

Yeah. All right. Thanks for the update. All right. We'll start down there with you, Mr. Kenny.

First of all, I want to thank the department heads, elected officials for what they did. I know it's a tough thing to go in and and do that and it's very appreciative. Uh we appreciate it. Um I do want to ask Mark Bonwell since he's here a question about the courthouse and how it's coming along. And I've had a few people ask um about maybe when the scaffolding and stuff might be coming down. So if you give us update, I know you're probably not taking it down, but if you need help, I'll help. I'll I'll come help you. That's all.

Interior. Somebody else. What's next?

Yeah, thanks folks. You did great job this year. Um, Motocross Nations, I know several of you have been involved for a year. signing of that. That was just an awesome event for our community. Folks from other countries have to be happy with the reception that, you know, Montgomery County and Crawfordville gave them. The parade, I couldn't believe the parade. Uh went out to the race on Sunday and how smooth things went. So, yeah, it was it was good. Thanks for all your work. Um just just thinking out loud here. Um I I I know the roads are a priority now, commissioners. I think they're high on our radar screen. I don't know if it'd be worth while maybe thinking about a study group, few council commissioners, probably Mindy, Jake, Tom, and Jeff Peters, and maybe looking at how we can fund these roads over the next three to five years. just thought it out loud. Thanks for all your hard work.

I like that. Thank you, Wendy and Jen. You know, you got numbers out good early for us, so appreciate it. Ditto did Ditto. The the race thing was awesome. And I know the behind the scenes. You may have We didn't see it. So, if there's fun stories, you could share them though.

Yeah, they they kind of stole all my thunder obviously. Thanks everybody. And again, Sheriff and Jessica and Sherry and all your staff. Uh thank them for us for the motocross nations. I know that was a a big effort and a big push on all sides. city, county, the cooperation, uh, state, and I know federal assets and everybody else that was involved in that. So, uh, that was a big deal and and it's much appreciated. And I will say that was probably the wildest parade I've ever seen in Crawford'sville. So, I Yeah, it was. Yeah. Go ahead. I I just want to play Tom for a minute. I Joyce had a birthday yesterday. Last week. Okay. Last week.

Happy birthday. All right, moving on. Any public comment? Last item here. Approval of claims. Uh, Minister Taylor and Mr. Peters always like to be paid every month for some reason. So, I'll entertain a motion for those two claims.

You guys sort that out. We have a motion in a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. Any oppose? And our next regular meeting uh will be on the 10th at 900 a.m. uh right here after the commissioner's meeting. And with that, there we go. Thank you all. I got some signatures for everybody, so hang on.