Town Council - Regular Meeting

We could uh start with the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence. I pledge algiance 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. Thank you. Start with a roll call, please. Terry Reed here. Jeff here. Bill Neyer

here. Ryan Hartley here. And Ethan Maple here. Moving on to claims 2.1. Approval of APVs 28651 28718. Do I hear a motion? I'll make a motion that we approve APVS number 28651 and to 28718 as presented in our backup material. I'll second that. Ethan makes a motion. Bill seconds. Is there any discussion?

Uh I did have one question. the insurance payment. Um, is that for the the light? The person who ran into the light. Where are you? It's page six. Who are we paying? The insurance company. I mean, that's the bottom of there. N.2 insurance claim and one additional light. That is to replace the two that were hit and one so we don't have to wait for another year or two to get a extra one. Right. Okay. Cool.

Awesome. Answered my question. Thank you. Anybody else? All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. All right. And that passes. Um, here a motion for approval of SRF claims 28662-28700. I'll make a motion we approve SRF claims 28662 through 28700. I'll second. Motion made by Ryan, second by Terry. Any discussion? Those in favor say I. I. I.

Those opposed. All right. And moving on to the adoption of minutes. Uh adoption of the town council minutes from January 7th, 2026. I'll make a motion that we approve the minutes as presented with backup materials for the beginning of January 7th, 2026. I'll second that. Motion made by Bill, second by Ethan. Any discussion, adjustments? Those in favor say I. I

I opposed and that passes. All right. Now on to public comments. Uh we have a threeminut time limit for anything that is on the agenda only. If you are interested, please step up to the podium, give your name and address, and let us know what you're interested in.

It's recording. It doesn't work. Yep. Anybody who comes out to see us

love to have you all come out too if you haven't. Some of you have, but I'm not. Well, hey, shameless plug. All right, you already got Now, wait. For the record, I will say because I probably have the farthest distance. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I see I see you in there a lot. When I, you know, walk out the side door and I smell it, I am compelled to walk across the street. So, I highly recommend Smoking Barrel Park. No question. Thank you. Well, I appreciate you uh employing some of the fine young people in our community. Well, you you're most welcome. I know you talk. everyone but my son. But the other ones are fine young people. We're we're we're glad to have you here.

We are for sure. Thank you. Yes. All right. No old business and we'll move on to new business. Uh we've got some people from ratio and envoy to do a presentation.

Uh good evening. Uh so for the record, Dale Davis, I'm the director of planning for envoy. We have been hired by the town as your uh owner's representative to guide you through a master planning process here with uh you know focusing on this new development. So there's a lot of interest in this property and the town has expressed its uh interest in being in the in the driver's seat wherever new development happens here. We want to be the ones to to lead this and not just be a reaction. So first step in this is engaging some design professionals and really helping us go down the road. you know, in any mixed use development, there'd likely be uh participation by the town in terms of, you know, tiff economics. There would be some financial incentive to to have, especially considering it being the first uh project. So, what way can we show good faith to the to the community around us than by starting the master plan? We're the ones to do it. We're going to lead this forward. So with that, we've been talking to Ratio who's excellent at providing master plans and developments and all the way through very large development projects um to to lead us through this. So Chris Bordin's here to talk about that proposal, talk to you about process.

Good evening everybody. Uh do you all have looks like you may have copy so I'll just they want to not have a copy. Um I thought maybe what would be most useful to do is maybe just sort of talk through what's contained what the process might feel like what's included so you have an opportunity to ask questions about sort of the process and what what sort of the outcomes are if you will. So as Dale sorry Chris Bman uh architect with ratio located in downtown um as Dale indicated the sort of the parcel is about a 77 acre parcel that's certified for 55250. Um it's our services are sort of broken into two pieces. The first is is looking at the overall 77 acres to determine what are the appropriate uses that make sense whether it's housing, commercial, town services, um a variety of things and also test that against the market to make sure that it's things that make sense economically viable. If we planted something that doesn't make any sense, the plan is going to be useful for you. Um in addition to that, the Uh this plan would include then creating somewhat of a town center as we're calling it potentially park a splash pad and theater and a town hall and we'll sort of dial in exactly if those are the right components or not. That's kind of the point of beginning and our goal would be to find the right place for that in the 77 acres that makes sense for the town makes sense for as well as giving you the visibility but also not taking away good commercial opportunities that develop might have access to. So it's really our job to sort of look at both through both both

lenses to find right process. Um I'm going to just jump I'm going to read a couple things here. the master plan services is that 77 acres. So we'll look at it from a very technical level in terms of I know there's a regulated terrain that come to the the property that will understand what the sort of impacts of that are. We'll look at zoning and jurisdictional requirements. Um we look at there's a rail line there. Um there's also a cemetery potentially on the site. So we're going to look at all those kind of sort of circumferences to understand what limitations or opportunities provide. Very importantly, we'll do a traffic study to understand what density of development and uses would drive traffic off particular whether traffic signals or turning lanes or those kind of things would be necessary based off essentially and it would um aside analysis really just a general understanding of how it connects to things that are around it. There's neighborhoods to these schools over to the west that may just understand what what road networks might want to actually leave from that in the future. There's there's parcels to the south and the future like this develop farm field. So, we're just trying to look at what the current conditions are, but try to imagine what the future is too. So, whatever viewpoint here allows for the future. Um, and then we'll also look at sort of effects on utilities. So that's storm water, sewer, water and electric and gas and all the things would take whether they're size properly in order to to sort of serve it or vice versa plan it so that you know some things don't but that's all part of that initial analysis. Um then there will be a design

phase and this is really where we start to really draw plans if you will where you can come to you or your stakeholder group that will identify to review different options essentially and we'll go through a series of let's say two or three of those options and sort of narrowing on one solution that encapsulates what you believe is the right answer knowing that then we'll ultimately develop come in and say we really like this here's here's what that housing area would look like from our perspective. And really it's what it's doing is giving them guard rails so that they just can't do whatever they want. you always have a conversation. Um so yeah so the deliverable that is that plan that's another plan you have whatever you can share with the state after that we'll dig into what we're call concept design that is very focused on I mentioned earlier about the town the park amphitheater town hall something else our initial conversations that starts to sort of get in a little bit more detail and gives you a sense of you you know, the size, the scope, and ultimately the cost. So, the chief are in a position to move forward with that in the future if that becomes a project. And we're really looking again to see that as a it's it's not only a benefit to you all satisfies, but it's also going to be a piece that attracts development because it creates a center that drives up value, attracts investor. So that I think is sort of the thrust of this. We will have other partners on our team just to speak to that that bring some of the engineering expertise that I mentioned before editor group MS

engineering addition services um the total duration of the project that um you know in the in the range of six to eight weeks this is really long long process you know on a regular basis work process and then you can see we've broken the fee into the two phases you know and anywhere across those two things we can you know pause reconsider and those kind of things so that is it at high level nutshell so I'm happy to ask or answer any detail question do you guys have a breakdown of these numbers so master plan has a number and then the concept design services has a number do you have a breakdown of those more detailed

uh yeah I can provide detail So relative to the engineering side of it, the survey side of it. Yeah, we can provide more detail. Awesome. Yeah, that'd be great. No, makes sense. Understand this is something we've been talking about for a while. Anybody else have questions? Out of curiosity, I think I can probably answer this, but one of the questions I've had from our community is, so you're paying for someone to come up with a plan. That's something that not everybody understands. Can you speak to the purpose of contracting with someone like you for something like this? Because my answer is you don't want us coming up with a plan.

But how would you answer that from our community's perspective?

Yeah. No, it's a good question. I I I'll I'll restate maybe some things that I've already said just I don't want to be redundant, but I mean I think developers are are important people in the community because they're the ones that are coming with the money. coming with the opportunity to create things that this community needs. That's how community works. And what's important is for you all to have a say in that rather than let development happen to you. You want to create um a plan so that you're prescribing more what you get at the end. And it's really what a lot of communities around this region have done. ones that people are familiar with. You know, fisers is an example. Whether you want to be fishers or not is a different question, but I mean they obviously have gone through a lot of development. Some of it from an outside perspective has been very well planned, successful, and you've kind of seen it roll out over gosh, what has it been 20 years now? Maybe from their sort of downtown, if you will, has developed and obviously accelerated a lot in recent years. So, if there wasn't more of a plan there, it would have been much more hazard a sort of coordinated and sort of like we call it your vision like what's the identity of new what do you want to put out there in the world you've got to put that in writing so that when someone comes to you with an idea you've got some teeth behind it say no we've actually already put a plan together this is what we're expecting and give you some leverage in the process thank you any questions All right. Thank you.

All right. Uh the only other thing for new business, this is a late ad. Um I'm making an appointment to the RDC. Um one of the members has stepped down. So Rachel Strong stepped down. uh we want to thank her for her um commitment to that and appreciate um all that she's done um and her choice to to step away and focus on we all know happens all to all of us. So I am appointing Matt Lawson and I will get you his contact information so we get them set up. Um moving to continued council conversations. So, you talked about staggered terms. Anything else? You got some

I do. Yeah. And I can Here we go.

I can kind of um blend this into my legal update, but I've got uh the framework of a draft of an ordinance ready to go for hopefully next uh council meeting where we will stagger the terms. Um the Indiana code does prescribe a town to do it in the year preceding municipal election. So 2026 ahead of 2027. So uh we've got that um locked and loaded and ready to go. Um I'll probably reach out to you either later this week or next week with particulars on how you want to stagger those. I know you mentioned uh like leading vote getters four terms and then uh um thereafter three three-year terms or something uh to that effect. So we will get that um hopefully on the agenda for next meeting.

Yeah. Does anybody have a thought on how we should do I think we bounced around different ideas on how to split that up, but basically you're going to end up with a two three combo. So,

so when I turned in my CFA form uh yesterday um at the election office, I did ask them if there had been any uh new legislative uh changes that we needed to be aware of moving forward to do this because, you know, this is one of the things that we had talked about when we uh first came on council. Um there's nothing new to share from the election office, but I would highly encourage Zach, you to um run all this through the election office because from what I'm understanding is you kind of get one shot at this

and we want to make sure that when we do this, again, it's one of those things we we uh we're trying to set up these check boxes and go through the proper procedures on how we do all this stuff. And uh no better way to do that than running it through legal and the election office. Absolutely. So I would highly encourage you to reach out to them just to make sure that we're doing what we're supposed to be doing to do this. Um I'm looking forward to it. I do I really don't have any suggestions on how we set it up. I think the way that you had mentioned, you know, as far as vote getters, unless unless the election office has another way that they suggest doing it, I think that's a good option.

The only other option I came up with is flipping coins. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. But I think going with the four-year for I mean, we only do it once, right? So the first time we have it is where it splits. And I'd say, you know, because we're doing it once, the top three for a four-year term and then two, and then we just go back and forth that way. Makes sense. That's how it would be. You mentioned a three-year term, but it would be four and two, right? Four because it's five people. Sorry. Yes. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, three three people get four years. The last two get two years. We'll be on two years, but just that once. Yeah. Then it starts the rotation. Yeah. I like it.

Okay. Just wanted to talk that through here instead of having to call each one of you when that came up. But yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. And there is one um caveat prescribed by the code. It's no more than 50% of the members will be elected for terms of three years. So you you can't have terms. Does that make sense? So it be two at four years and three at two. Yes. Okay. But then the next time those three are elected for a four-year term, does that create a problem? See what you're saying. Yeah, it's tricky. We'll look into that. Yeah. Yes. So, I suggest contacting the election office. Yes.

Lisa Lisa Lof Green and her crew do a great job down there. They're very up to speed on how all this and I'm sure they'll help be more than willing to help us on this. They they're they're aware that we're trying to do this. Great. Uh I think it I think it would make for more consistent government moving forward. Yep. Other people do this, so we've got to be able to absolutely any other legal updates. That's all I have. Outstanding.

All right. Um for continual council conversations, um we talked a lot about doing a employee evaluation. Um, I took a stab at this and sent it to everybody. Um, department heads, I sent it to you guys as well before I clean it up and make it pretty. I want to get everybody's input. What do you like? What don't you like? Um, so that we can clean it up and then just create a document that's easy for all of us to manage. Um, tried to make it simple, but if we need to cut anything or do anything, just take a look at that and we can talk about at the next council meeting. Um, I think it just sets the groundwork for us to be able to have continued conversations about performance. We've got a great team here. So, I don't think anybody here is worried about it being a punitive action. But I think the good part is is it it provides framework for continued growth and talks about goals and what kind of things we can continue to do to, you know, build a career here. So, take a look at that. Appreciate it.

Anybody else got anything for continued council conversations? All right, we'll move on to department reports. Jim, uh, first of all, thank you for that evaluation. We were looking forward to that. So, Oh, we'll give you an evaluation. What's that? He said he's excited to give you an evaluation. There you go. Well, bring it on. No more dogs in the Yeah, no more dogs. I will say, uh, who showed up? Talk to Harold Gibson. Kids City is the daycare that's moving in out there behind the Wellness Center. kids.

They're at eight locations. Uh they have them in Planefield, Fisers, Green Point, Greenwood, South Point, Portsville, Beach Grove, and Franklin Township. And now they're looking to establish business here in New Palestine. So is that locked and loaded? Like are they Yeah. Do they have a contract and breaking ground? Yep. They've got a letter of intent and they're working on site plan as we speak. Wow. Yeah. So, you know, that's I don't know the capacity of that, but uh it's just glad to see something moving back there. Yeah. And uh I do know that uh Mohammed did hire u uh Hansen or Kim and Horn and uh I should have a site plan by next week to at least bring in here and just start looking at. So,

yeah, I'm excited about that. So, this is just to clarify, this is all under the hospital's UDP. Yes. So, yep. Yeah. Okay. They've, you know, it took a little bit. They're working out to Kroger's, you know, they bought some, they purchased some property off Muhammad. They had to shift some stuff around, but I just text him as we came in here and he text me back and said he would meet with me tomorrow, but he did sign up Kim Horn and I'm working on signing that. So, good deal. Awesome. Good. I give my back. Do we have any updates with Kroger at all? Just continuing the process. Just continuing the process. Yep. All right. Thank you, Steve.

So, we've got the community crossings and uh you were given the draft. You were sent the draft copy. I made a copy of the draft copy and sent it to you. Yes. And I don't know what else to do, but I followed your instructions. Well, I I sent you like kind of like it's like a Yeah. a 20page PowerPoint. I just sent you the four pages to like explain the nuts and the bolts. don't sign it cuz I almost signed it and then I was like hold on me I'm making sure to send me just go through that and it's pretty easy the they send a draft copy of the contract that

uh if uh you know pass it out among council it's like a eight nine page contract uh I can I've run it by uh Ted Noling before he said yeah looks fine and uh we're not going to change a word of it anyway it's in DOT's contract so and they're trying to give us money so Yeah, whenever uh whenever we get that signed because the INDOT's kind of wanting us to get this thing going this year pretty quick. So, uh while the funding's still there, uh February 4th, next council meeting is going to be the bid opening and I have to have uh a contract awarded and a contract signed in and end off by March 1st. So, uh, things are going to happen pretty quick.

Can you remind us what what this round is covering as far as, uh, the work the work Pacific roads? A lot a lot of crack seal. Um, probably should have brought that information in front of me. It's been so long since I did the uh actual application. Um, Artisian's getting a mill pave. Uh oh. West or U East Walnut is getting a mill pave. And then all those little side roads, Gray, East Elm, uh Sher Creek Drive, North and South are getting a mill pave. And then we're doing a lot of uh crack sealing as well in town. Good.

Um let's see, what else do I got here? Oh, shout out to uh it's been kind of a a weird winter. I guess I don't have to tell everybody that. Uh 60 one day, 10 the next. We haven't had a lot of big snow events. We have had a lot of small salting events. So, between us and what we give the school, we were really getting down there like our last 2530 tons. So, I put a call into the county. Gary's always been a good neighbor in partnering with the town of the cities in the in the county and he was kind enough to uh bring us over a uh a lot of salt to hopefully get us through the winter. But, uh stay tuned. Something something's coming this weekend. I've heard in the range of two to 10 inches. They'll know Saturday morning, I think,

probably what it's actually going to be. But, uh, just, you know, you know, careful out on the road this weekend and and we'll have a full, you know, call out on our crew and everything to do, you know, keep the roads best we can. Appreciate that. Where are we on the um installation of the slow sign, the light?

Sure. Last week it was spoke about the the sign that's going to be portable and Steve and I we've been looking into small trailers as well. We think that the the post might be a little hard and I've looked in Mccordsville up around Gist and I've seen little small trailers. I think they're about $300 $400. We thought we'd get the wheel lock that we could put on it. So it's it's quick. We can move it around. putting the post in might be a little tough, but uh that's one thing, but the light uh the lights should go back. Go back to do we have a goal of like a timeline for that trailer and however we're going to install the sign. Do we have a timeline that we're looking at? We can find once we get the trailer, we can find a location to put it at.

Nobody's called in with unless Bob lets us know if anybody's complaining about speed, but we're more than welcome to move it anywhere. Yeah, we we'd like to have it more mobile. U just because, you know, I might get a call from the subdivision one day saying people are, you know, flying through my subdivision. Uh and I could put it in a subdivision or I can put it down on Gym Road. We can move it over to 450 and just um and they do work. I've got one in my neighborhood and it it kind of gives me that finger wag doing 23 instead of 20. I I just know I just want to know if we're looking at, you know, next month or two months or three months down. I would say within the next 30 days. Good.

Got the trailer in that moment. Are you grounding to the app? Is that what you're No, I'm I just want to see it working. Like I would love to hope so. It is more concerning for me that it's working and then I'll figure out the app part. But the I want the sign in place. Fair. Yeah. I think the first spot we could put it is Copperstone Drive. Yeah, that's right. 2209. That's where somebody basically called out that we've got something. I think that'd be a great spot to to aim for and that kind of gives us a goal to march to. I like the trailer idea. I'm sure we'll have Kyle, you know, do some ingenuity to make it stable in that and move forward there. But yeah. Yeah. But as the light at 52 depot, uh, that should be installed within four weeks.

Wonderful. Thank you. Yeah. The other question I have, and forgive me if it's been taken care of in the last 48 hours, do we still have a Christmas tree up? Still do. Is that planning on coming down at some point? I got to make a phone call to the county. I know a guy. Yeah, let's get a hold of that guy and see you. The 12 days of Christmas, that's long over. Let's move forward and uh get I hear he's going to be back to work on Monday. So, well, he's taking he's taking enough time off. Yes. Yeah.

Glad you got a guy. All right, chief pretty quiet actually to share with you that I am going to come to the council tonight and ask for the authority to move forward with hiring the uh position that we had talked about last year in the budget for the new hire. Um it's no longer a necessity at this point. We're seeing our numbers go up. We're seeing the rest go up and after this last weekend it's The solo patrol needs to stop. We need partners and this community deserves u having 24-hour round the clock coverage. So if somebody's off, we need another officer here to be able to take that call and not rely on our partner agencies to try to take calls for us. We owe it to our community to take care of that. Um and an officer safety thing as well. These guys are right now from midnight to 6 a.m. those officers are working by themselves. That needs to stop and we did budget it. I know we have the excess le come in. Yeah, we got a little bit cut. I know budgets are going to be tight, but some things in our budgets are more on wants than they are a necessity. This is a necessity. So, I'm asking the council permission. We've already started the process um for lateral transfers. We have three gentlemen that are still in the process that are kind of hanging on um waiting to know where we were going to go with this. So, we put on hold because we didn't know where the budget was at. Um at this point, I'd like to move forward and continue that and hopefully have something maybe on board maybe February February

lateral transfer um coming in yeah we don't have to pay to send them to no they're coming in okay so we have three guys very interested in the town of Palestine they've seen the pal have offer two of us actually three very close to the area for some right in town. So, they're very familiar with the area. They have kids that attend our schools. So, they're invested as well. So, is this one of those situations where we would have to reimburse another department? No, they're on long enough that that's wait because that would be an additional expense that

right. So if we were to hire somebody that was brand new at the academy and be stolen right away, you'd be paying back cost that these all should all have enough time on. That's good. Yeah. And we budgeted for this already. Correct. Yep. A vehicle vehicle as well. Vehicle we've got pool. So

we've got we do have money budget for a new vehicle and it may come to decision buying a vehicle outright. We do at least purchase so we can get two vehicles. and pay if we start talking about that our vehicles being worn out a lot of calls and this time January 1st uh 2025 present day last year we had 546 calls here today eight case reports six arrests starting 2026 from January present day we have 811 calls 19 case reports and 13 arrests here today so we have almost double So is growing. That's that's great. We love to see it. I'd love seeing on boarding guys come in and have ideas for us, but we need arms.

I I mean I we we approved that budget. We approved that expense. So I'm I'm in favor of moving forward and hiring another officer so that we can get, you know, 24-hour coverage with partners. My curiosity is as you project out because I think since we've been on council so for two years I mean we're we're close to averaging an officer a year that we're adding to you. Yeah. We we've been behind the eightball for so long. So when we project five years out are we we feel like we're going to be in a good place for the next three years?

I would love to tell you yes but I think in five years if I see this community growing the way I see it getting ready to happen we're still playing catch up. I don't think I can say we're we're there. We're we're a necessity that nobody wants to pay for for the necessity have. And this community is getting I I feel like it's getting ready to explode. So we will try our best to keep you informed with what we need. But right now, this is definitely what we need. Five years from now, it could be five, six, seven.

Well, on the balance of that is, and I'm obviously big fan of big fan of you guys. You guys do great. But the the other part of it is the money we pay for you guys from the town limits is much smaller than what we cover, right? And I mean the town limits versus what we cover in terms of calls and runs. Well, the town limits of new pal, right? I mean we we cover we cover beyond that, right?

We help certain things. Yes. So I think what would be helpful to me is if you look at the town projecting like what what is your vision? What is your goal for number of officers based on the needs? Is there a way for you to say hey you know here's like a five-year plan that I'd love to see us whether that's adding five officers in five years or that's two officers in five years. A lot of that's going to depend on you as the council as to what allowed to come into this community. If you put the gates up right now one more office is going to hold us for a while. if you continue the growth, continue the expansion of the residential businesses, it's it's kind of a work together thing. I vote on what you guys have planned or what's coming in. I can only tell you what I can see now. So,

and I I 100% agree it's a work together thing. I'm just wanting that side of understanding as we if we have some of that information from your just from your opinion, right? It's nothing I'm going to hold you to. I'm just curious about what your vision is. Probably in five years, you're probably going to have another five to seven offers. underneath it. If I if I see what I see happening, I can see that happen very quickly, but you won't be able to afford it and you have that and especially with Senate Bill one going to be hitting,

right? And that's where the county commissioners are going to come in play to help the town out. I think that's where you as a council probably have those talks with our county commissioners to try to set help them have them set our rate because you know eventually that low expense go away and our general absorb that money. So that's going to be where county commissioners is going to set a rate because of our census. We didn't hit the high enough number back was right 2020. So when we get reassessed, we may make that mark where we're over the number for us to set our own rates. But until then, we're going to have to rely on county commissioners to set our rates,

right? the way the rules are right now. AIM is working hard to change that and allow us to let us set our own rates um for the town, but you know, legislature has to make those changes. I I guess what I'm looking for, Chief, is your assessment and and that would help me maybe all of us have a better understanding of as as we consider development as we look at what's ahead having your perspective and your voice in the midst of that. And I don't know if there's an assessment report or something that you can if you have I mean I once you hire this new person and you have you know 15 extra minutes but if you could give us something just from your perspective an assessment on the next five years I' I'd be interested in that type of report from you

and guys I will sit down we'll kind of look at possible growth I assume what we think is going to happen what you guys think is going to happen if we can be kept in the loop on things you hear coming in that also helps because like some things we don't know about like dayare be nice to know that that is coming in so we can plan appropriately as well. Yeah, absolutely. We can sit down as the guys next door crunch the numbers and try to next time we get budget. I think that'd be good. And Ivon, could you speak to that? As far as budget goes,

the budget was based on us getting the full amount we asked for for excess levy appeal. Obviously, we got we're getting a good chunk for 2026. um not for 2027 2028 and you know years beyond that um there's a significant drop um I think that we can afford one more officer but by next year there may be other things that you will have to not spend on. You may be limited and what you can give away and you know in other areas and what we may or may not be able to replace in here or donate to you know community efforts or you know there may there's other places where we're going to probably need to you know be careful. Um the next couple of years are going to be really tough financially. Is there enough for this year for certain? And you know, I think we can make it work. I think we probably should make it work. Obviously, what happened um is here in, you know, with a an incident in town this past weekend that it's very clear that at night you need to have two officers just like you do during the day if at all possible. Uh, random question. TIFF money can go to support things like this

if it was equipment. Correct. I think I think my plan we don't have to debate that. What what I'm saying is we're gonna, to your point, we're going to have to get creative with budgets and what we're going to need to to ask, you know, hey, can the RDC help cover this? Can they do that? We need C currently doesn't get large amounts of money in. So two years from now hopefully they

Yes. So there's going to be a a bridge you know we've got to cross for the next couple of years basically 27 28 29 may be really tough but after that we should be you know have some more flexibility again and like I said AIM our you know uh accelerated Indiana municipalities organization is really trying hard to get the legislature to make some changes in this, you know, SB1 bill that's, you know, really hopefully given us a little bit more flexibility because the legislature made it really really tough on municipalities for years to come.

I would also caution um using RDC funds or or funds like that. I I understand, you know, getting creative with it and stuff, but RDC funds are a lot of that's put in there by TIFF proceeds, which TIFF proceeds aren't um sustainable, I would say, you know, because TIFF has a life. So I, you know, compensating for a couple years or a few years with that is um probably okay, but uh we can't pay for officers with with our you need an influx of equipment, right? Things of that nature, a one-time expense to get you to this point where we get a census and then we can actually have control over that.

Yeah. Being that's what I mean, though. being creative with it for a couple years here and there I think is acceptable, but don't don't ever count on those TIFF funds being uh sustainable long term. So, um just just a word of caution, but I think since this is in the budget, um this is a no-brainer to me. You you guys do great work. You've shown that uh you're a team. You support this community. Keep this community safe. Uh this is a no-brainer for me moving forward. Any discussion? Oh, you need a motion. Motion going forward.

I make a motion for us to go forward making so he can have another officer. I'll second that motion. Motion made by Terry, second by Bill. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. Those opposed and that passes. Get us a good one. Thank you. Anything else, Chief?

No. The case from the weekend. Still an ongoing investigation even though we do have suspects in custody. It's going to be an ongoing work on the back end just to make sure we have the wrong. I appreciate all the phone calls, all the reach out people in the community. We had a lot of support which is nice. Good to hear. Ivonne,

c can you circle back to me real quick? Yeah. I apologize. I talked to Terry about it today and I I skipped right over it, but uh I think a couple of you met with Representative Shrieves. Uh they came here. I think it was uh John Holt Camp. He's actually left that office and there's a new gal uh Beth Boyce. So they they're still interested in uh a project here. So uh Thomas would like to set up a meeting. Uh he'd like the council president and another uh council member to He sent an email on that, didn't he? Well, he did send an email. He sent one to me. Yeah, but I don't It wasn't copied with the council. Yeah, I think we were on it, but yeah. Okay.

So, we'll get something set up. We'll get sent to you and then whoever wants to fine for sure. Thank you. Are you done now? Are you going to steal again? He's stealing my thunder. All right, Ivon, but I won't let him cut in this time.

Um, well, he made a good point. I think with um um Shreve looking to hand out some money, we need to try to come up with some um project that we can describe that fits their, you know, their idea to give us some grant money because that's what we're talking about is grant money. Uh, piggybacking on that, we got the thousand dollars from the hospital for grant money for AEDs. Then we also learned, and Bri would speak on this because she did the leg work, but she's out sick. Um, we also got the Gary Senise Foundation to give us $9500 in a donation towards AEDs. Unfortunately, we had already purchased the three to replace the ones that we desperately needed. So, um they cannot pay us for um expenses already incurred, but they did tell us that we can spend $9,500 for the police department on whatever they might need. So, um that's a awesome grant that we just received and we're we're very thankful for and um Brian and two of the officers are working together to come up with a plan how to best use this money. Um so, you know, we need to try to continue to go after as many grants as we can. They're hard to get. They're a lot of work. If we have any volunteers in the audience here or residents who like grant writing or have experience with that, we could definitely use some help with that. So, but yeah, that's all I've got for you.

I mean, that's awesome news. I mean, really, you're talking $10,000 that she's got us in those. Exactly. I won't piggy back on the back of this. As long as you don't cut front of I won't cut front. We also the police department file for body. So if it does go through five body armors we get 50%. Great. I like that. You may need to include one for the president of the council. I'll use the old one. The expired ones. And if anyone would like to donate, do just write a check and come to 42 East Maine. Bring it here. Okay. All right. Thanks. Is that it your mom? That's it for me. Thank you.

All right. Now, we are going to open to public comments. Five minutes on any topic. If you have anything to say, please come to the podium, tell us your name and address, and we'd love to hear what you have to say. All right. And we'll move on to council comments and start with the self-appointed sewer queen. Oh, I'm sorry. Uh, Terry Reed, it's a beautiful. It's a beautiful story. Bill was so excited to tell me that you self-appointed yourself, Mr. He couldn't even sit down without talking. I apologize. Sorry. I knew that came from you.

Not going to spend the morning with you anymore. Um well along those cleanup lines, uh spring is around the corner and so you know me, I like to tidy up our town. So uh within the next month I will put together I'll get my binder out for our dumpster day. And um don't know when that'll be, but like I said, I'll work the next month doing that. And I want to thanks to the police department for keeping us safe and smoking barrel. My husband does smoking meets. You don't have any competition.

He is a very good cook. Yeah. But um yours is great. There goes David. Hey, there's a new revenue stream. Apparently, if you want to teach people, apparently Terry is going to sign David up for your class. Okay, that's all I have. All right, Ryan.

Um, I want to congratulate uh Indian Hooers on a national championship. That was that was such a fun game to watch. Um just just uh if you ever watch college football, that was a remarkable feat. Um they beat Alabama, which that's the only thing I'm a little salty about. But I also want to say great job to New Police Department. Uh you guys consistently um do a great job of keeping this town safe. And um I just can't say enough about how professional you guys are and what a great job you guys do. Thank you for the uh from everybody from the team and the town that reached out to me when I I uh got my uh new knee here a couple weeks ago. I appreciate everybody reaching out um means a lot. Um also as we talk about the town center moving forward, uh having a ratio here talking about what they're doing. Um thank you to envoy for the help for that. But you know uh this is a coordinated effort to drive economic development uh provide some tax diversity and new amenities for the town. This is going to give a lot of opportunity to everybody in the town um to to watch the town thrive and enjoy the new things that come to town. And this is one of those boxes that we're going to check off that's going to help us do that. Um really I'm really looking forward to this project and watching it u grow and and the ideas that uh that we'll get from the community members on on things we can provide to them things they're looking for in this in this development. Um so I I think that's it.

Awesome. Thank Ethan. Um, lots of echoing of the things that have been said and in terms of uh this past weekend, Chief, I just my appreciation on top of all of that is the the communication that you've had with the council as well as the community. It's it's good to know that we can put information out there and you all do a good job doing that. So, thank you. Um, also want to just uh just publicly thank we got word yesterday that Katie Estus who had been a long uh she's served the community through the schools for 26 years. She was hired as Batesville superintendent. Um and so we want to celebrate that transition. She's going to be a loss for our community, but certainly want to thank her for the work that she's done for our community and wish her luck um in her new position in Batesville. Um, the other only other thing I have is I'll be doing another council chat. Um, that'll be February 6th. And since Tia is open, we might as well do it at Tia. Would anybody like to join me the 6th at 8 a.m.?

I will, Terry. Thank you.

Yeah, that's it. All right. Um, I just want to echo of course everybody and not make everybody sit through me regurgitating that. But the one point that I wanted to make is it's exciting to see the problem solving that the employees of the town are doing to try to help solve some of the issues that we're expecting with the finances in the next year. There's a lot of grant writing that didn't happen the first two years I was here and and trying to find creative ways to get these things that we know are a necessity. Um excited and hopeful that we are here to help solve some of those problems if they have. But it's awesome to see them see a problem and just go after it. So I'm just really excited and thankful for all the people that that work for the town. That's all I've got. Bill

certainly want to say the same thing. Bob, congratulations and thanks for everything that you do. The only thing I want to mention is that House Bill 10:01

recently passed out of committee and it was an absolute surprise to me when somebody asked me if I knew what House Bill 1001 was. I said no, I hadn't heard of it. This is a bill again it's passed out of committee so now it's going to go in front of the Indiana House of Representatives. This is a bill that is sponsored and created by generated from a housing developer in Elcart Indiana. The goal of this statute is to eliminate all local municipal zoning and architectural design requirements. So what that means is any community such as ours who has standards for housing that we expect a certain quality, if this bill becomes law, those local requirements are im immediately eliminated. And what that means is your vinyl villages, whole barns, whatever worst case scenario that you can think of for housing development will be allowed in Indiana. So, I encourage everybody to reach out to their representatives and request that they speak against House Bill 101 because the essence of community is that it's the local folks who set design criteria and what might be approved in Laguni, Indiana might be different than what is approved in Westfield or Noblesville or New Palestine or Caramel or anywhere else. So, this isn't because I want to be a snob, but it is because I don't believe

under the guise of trying to provide affordable housing and that is the buzzword behind the support of the statute. You shouldn't gut local control. So, I would encourage everybody to reach out in opposition to House Bill 101. Bill, is there a opt out period for that absolutely not. If this bill is passed, we it eliminates any architectural designer and we can't hop out of the states.

It was kind of scary. Very, very good. Yeah. Ending on a positive note. I'll make a motion we adjourn. I'll second that. Ethan made the motion and Bill second. All in favor say I. I. Thank you.