Town Council - Regular Meeting

Call the town council Wednesday, February 25th, 2026 to order. Please, please stand for the pledge of allegiance. 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. Remembrances and acknowledgements.

I'd like to acknowledge the 90th birthday of our former clerk treasurer, Shirley Jazoric. Shirley served the town for about eight years as our clerk treasurer um when we were still in preservation hall as town hall in a very cramped, very unappetizing little office. And um she served us well. long long long time Newberg family. So we wish her well as her birthday month passes. Thank you. Any others? Roll call, please. District one, Steve Shoemaker, present. District two, Paul Perry, present. District three, Stacy Kger, present.

District four, Ann restaurant, here. Council at large, Lyanna K. Hughes, happy to be here. Clerk treasure, Nanette Angel, here. Administrative town manager, Chris Cook, here. Deputy Town Manager Andrea Baloni here. Town Attorney Christopher Wisher here. Town Engineer Drew Fleming here. All right. I'd like a motion to approve the February 11th, 2026 minutes. So move. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I.

Abstain. Motion carries. I don't believe we have any scheduled requests and appearances, but I do know we have comments by citizens and we'll take Melinda on solar.

Hello, I'm Melinda Mitchell, 101 Yorkshire Drive. I was interested to find out if you guys have been contacted by Rustic Hill Solar in regards to water, sewer, um you know, some of the needs that they might have as they um progress forward with uh installing solar panels. I was heard that a representative was here on Monday and Tuesday. I didn't know if anyone they didn't contact me. Nobody's contacted uh the town hall and nobody's met with us.

Okay. So, as far as like water and sewer, you know, their their needs, do you know if they would be connect I mean would they have to connect with with the towns uh water or sewer department? Are I'm not even sure what what's going on. Are they going to open up a facility here? Um, actually on the Boonville Koala Highway, um, they've purchased 300 3,000 acres of property. Um, that was approved by the county a couple years ago for solar panels to go in out there.

So, a solar farm. It's a solar farm, but there's also connections possibly with data center going going there. Um, so that's why I was wondering if nobody's contacted us. Melinda, I know economic development at the county level is aware of that project because there because there's a tiff district involved. Yeah. So, I have no idea. We have no idea. Obviously, we're answering, you know, with regard to the utilities, but you could contact economic development. I also sit on that board, but you should talk to Steve Raleigh. And yeah, and there's no plans for that location to host a data a data center. There's no plans.

Yeah, I I I'm aware of that. That's why I was asking more about solar panels. I know that's been approved. Yeah. I just don't know how many acres that that's been approved for. So that's why I was Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, David. That's going to be next. Our ordinance is going to be next on the agenda. So let's go ahead and get public comment on that first. Good evening. I'm David MacArthur, 1107 West Phelps. About these dang raccoons, I'm really uh standing here tonight to tell you that something is working. between the the years that you have had, the assistance that we've had from our legal representative or our counselor, our chief of police and his team, literally three times, uh Chris and Andrea. Uh something's working because we've come to a point where there's going to be I'm assuming uh a new ordinance in town to prevent the nuisance of mass feeding of animals. Uh what do you mean? Are you going to come over and measure the height of my bird feeder to make sure it's five feet?

No. Okay. Are you going to get the police after me if I throw a bag of apples over the fence where the deer are? No. No, of course not. That's totally not the issue. The issue is we we came to a situation where we were inundated with vermin. They are rodents. They're beautiful, but they are rodents and they're they're dangerous. And you guys have come to the table and apparently come to a good conclusion. So, uh, from the heart of the raccoon branch, I say thank you all and, uh, keep the faith.

Thank you. All right, Wade.

Hi, my name is Wade Taylor. Um, I just I stay down around Phelps area and I'm a trapper and I do it recreationally. I've fished and trapped this riverfront for many years and u just doing that there's been a lot of issues working with locals. Uh they see that I've trapped things and they have heavy concern. Um I know that the way to move forward with the trapping in the area is very touchy situation. A lot of people are animal lovers. There is a somewhat of a feral cat community. There's a all the animals are supposed to be put up, but setting traps out, there is risk of people losing their pets. So, that's a deep concern. Um, so I recently got the Indiana nuisance wildlife control operator license. So, I am now licensed to be able to I've had many people reach out to me asking to handle raccoons, but I I didn't have the license to do it and collect money. it as a project, but I do have that now. And part of that was actually to address this issue. I don't really want to be the local raccoon guy. I more want to do like beaver projects out of town. More like at farms and stuff like that. I've done work with beavers in the past, but if the neighborhood needs I do now have that license. So, but I do recommend uh doing this in phases and planning it out in a manner uh you're launching more on My dad was in the military. He said at a special forces association meeting uh he said that issues with wars is they don't have a a long-term goal. They just go into them without a plan and the goal should always be peace at the end of every conflict. So there's a lot of different views from different locals on this and there has to be a way to go forward peacefully that does not cause additional collateral damage. Uh, I

would recommend breaking it in phases and maybe starting with trapping cats and trying to get that issue addressed so that it doesn't start straight into the raccoons. Uh, but if you do not get the raccoons resolved, the cage traps and relocation. I do recommend moving up to heavier traps that actually do kill the raccoons. I think it would help resolve a lot of the issues. Uh, but the relocations is definitely what I recommend, but there's also the issue of where it's healthy to bring them and a lot of these animals due to overpopulation. You have mage. A lot of our local foxes have mage. I've been talking to the DNR about this issue for years and if it doesn't go into check, then it gets overpopulated and then more animals. Now, we're seeing more species local with mange. So, this this thing probably should have been addressed a whole lot sooner to be honest. So, if you guys need anything, Just give me a call.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll go on to ordinance 2026-01 prohibiting the feeding of wild animals within the town of Newberg and authorizing enforcement, civil penalties, and abatement of wild animal nuisances. I need a motion for the first reading of ordinance 2026-01. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Do I have any discussion? I have some suggestions to make. Okay.

Uh I think we should drop the first whereas and move the fourth whereas to the top to become the first one. So there'll be three short statements whereas to begin. Um my reasoning for that is that I think that concentrating in the first paragraph about raccoons doesn't really represent what this is about. It was the beginning of it, but it's not the end all beall of it. So, um I think we would be much better off to just use use I mean, and it's editorial, so we'd be better off just to use it in an explanation statement if we need one at some other point, but I don't think that it has a good place here. And that number four moved up to number one would be a better decision. Um, further there are a couple of other typo kind of things. On the second page, D at the top, enforcement official includes the town's town administrative manager. That's redundant. We don't need both of those. And then um B under section three, I'm sorry, under section four, the third line down um just take off the word an

and enforcement official. We don't need both of those. So just take off the and I think that's I think that might clears it up. That might be in an earlier version. We did make one change and I think I cleaned that up in that change. So Okay. Okay. But um and I have just for everybody's benefit, if you agree with those changes, I've already gone in and made the changes to the wherehouses and and cleaned up the the couple of typos and send it to Andrea so we could you adopt it that way. We could we could print that out for signature.

All right. I would be willing to uh change my motion on first reading to include the changes that that Ann has suggested. All right. Do we have a second to the changes? Second. Thank you, Paul. All right. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries. Chris. Oh, that was a just reading right. Ordinance number 2026-01, an ordinance prohibiting the feeding of wild animals within the town of Newberg and authorizing enforcement, civil penalties, and abatement of wild animal nuisances. All right. I'd like a motion for the acceptance of the first reading of ordinance 20 26-01. So move. Do I have a second?

Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed? Motion carries. Motion for the second reading of ordinance 20261. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries. Chris. Ordinance number 2026-01, an ordinance prohibiting the feeding of wild animals within the town of Newberg and authorizing enforcement, civil penalties, and abatement of wild animal nuisances. All right. I need a motion for the acceptance of the second reading and adoption of ordinance 2026-01.

So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? I'd like to just make a comment.

So I feel compelled just to comment on this mainly because I have a medical background and I really appreciated our health department weighing in on this. Um, I think there's a lot of reasons to do this, but I can't think of a a greater reason than the public health risk that comes with this nuisance. Um, you know, we want a community that protects our residents, their properties, their property values, but probably more importantly, we want a community that protects the health and well-being of the people that live here. And I think that this achieves that to some degree. And I don't feel although I know there's been discussion about unintended consequences of this. I mean I you know what can happen what you know what action can cause unintended consequence can always happen but I think this is carefully uh considered. It's mod on on other ordinances and I do think it will help address the situation that we're trying to address.

I agree. I signed up to talk about the wild light and I wasn't allowed. Uh, it just had um it just says Rustic Hills Solar. It has nothing else underneath it. Do you want to speak? I'd like to say something. Is that okay? Yeah. Let me see that so I can show it.

Melinda Mitchell 101. The only thing that I'm concerned about is um you're not be enforcing some of the things that are in the ordinance like, you know, a bird uh feeder needing to be 5 feet. You know, I I think some of this is kind of like a bit of an overreach. Um, you know, because of things like that that are that are in the document. Okay.

If if that could be kind of toned down or something because, you know, let's say someone has a bird feeder out it's only four feet. Um, you know, cuz like I'm five I'm 5 feet and there's people shorter than me and you know and then also I know that there's a few people that um that like salt salt blocks out. Is that considered food for a deer because you know deer are attracted to salt blocks? Not that anyone's hunting in town, but I know that there's few people in the town limits that do that because they want to attract the deer, but they're not trying to feed them necessarily. So, like I said, there's, you know, just I don't want it to be an overreach and people freak out thinking that they can't feed birds anymore because, you know, just one of the concerns that I'm I'm concerned about with the the wordage.

Okay. Thank you. Do we have any problem? Do we want to go forward? I can comment on the bird feeder. I mean that that that was taken from other other sources. U the rationale behind it is is that it's high enough that it's not that the the feed that is there would not be accessible necessarily readily accessible to other animals like raccoons.

Um and uh then so somebody's putting in a bird feeder and they know there's a rule and they may, you know, going forward we may end up with those compliant. I don't think anybody's looking to go uh send violations to people for low bird feeders, but we wanted to have a standard and not have it be too vague and not and try to limit the unintended consequences the best we could. Okay.

Change it going forward if we run into any problems because the intention is not to criminalize those things, right? It's to it's it's the the intention is to deal with to have the authority and the ability to deal with the wild animal nuisances and to to to stop those from being created and to remove them when they are created. Okay. And I think five feet is strong. I mean I think it's I think it's too high. I I think that we need to address the fact that hummingbird feeders and things like that are not supposed to be put five feet. They're supposed to be under five feet off the ground. I I don't know how we address it, but I I'm I'm fine with

you could remove the five feet and just exempt bird feeders if you want. That's what I'm that's what I'm thinking. What if it just said reasonable height? Would that be reasonable? I don't I have to ask the attorney if what how he feels about I mean I I don't know under what circumstances we're concerned about there being a bird feeding, you know, and and if I mean if you if you put a bird feeder on the ground, technically the feed would attract raccoons and do the same thing as some of the videos that have been shared. That would be my concern. It could that would be the concern. The difference is that two bird feeders on the ground or you have one bird feeder on the ground. what we're talking about. I don't believe this situation

well has bird feeder we has been created by bird feeders. So if we did eliminate the 5t and if some if later there was a bird feeder that was a problem we would maybe figure out how to address it different would be 50 bird feeders that would be the problem. Yeah and I think the key is not to inadvertently criminalize bird feeders that aren't causing a problem. So the target's not the birds, the target is the feed. The feed. Correct. That's the target. The target of that exemption is um is the feed that could be accessible to the other animals. But did you want to say something? Yes. If I may,

we'll have to come up here. Yes.

Um I'm a self as well a gardener and I have a compost pile. I plan on utilizing it this season, but uh the compost, we do put food onto it. We have zero intention of raccoons coming to it, but sometimes all kinds of animals do visit. I did notice that the compost pile was in there. And I think that there's a very large difference between people setting out kitty pools and filling up raccoon food versus somebody who's clearly gardening and actually composting. So we we intentionally don't add foods like meat to attract raccoons, but the compost pile I I agree uh is similar with the bird feeder. It is a little bit restrictive somewhat. Um but obviously you all it's like the bicycles. I think the ordinance for bicycles is everyone's supposed to have a little license plate, but no one really does it. Um it's there. So I'm sure if you had someone giving you a hard day, you could probably give them one too. So, but that's clearly up to interpretation. I would say that maybe differentiating between feeding animals and composting and if you do have new compost regulations um I understand and I'll follow them but at the same time maybe look into that as well.

Okay. Thank you. I think if you take off the place at least 5 feet above the ground and just if you if we come up with an issue where we've got somebody who's causing a problem with bird feeders, we address it then. But I'd be more uh I'd be happier if we just said bird feeders were exempt and if we have to address it, we'll address it later. How about if it didn't say bird? What about squirrel feeders? Well, I like You like the birds? I like I like making sure people understand bird feeders are I agree different different animal are bird feeders squirrel feeders too.

Okay. They found the loophole, I think. And I would change my motion to include the change to to allow in section three, number A, letter A to take off, to strike, placed at least 5 ft above the ground from bird feeders. Remind me where are we? Proceed. We're on the second page. We section three exceptions. They made a motion. I mean proceed. Yeah. Proceed. made a motion to adopt, but it's not voted on. Okay. So, the may want to just make a motion to amend to eliminate that language. That's what I was

have that pass and then proceed with the question on the overall ordinance. It's the best I can come up with. Okay. That's fine. That's what I'm doing then. You made the original motion to accept this so you could amend it. That's what do a friendly amendment. That's what I'm saying. Friend amendment. That's fine. I would amend my motion to in section three letter A to strike place at least 5T above the ground and leave it as just bird bird feeders are accepted. Okay. Do we agree with that? Is there your second? So you're the friendly second. Yes.

All right. Then all in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries. That was for the that was for the amendment. Yes. Okay. So, we still have a question on the floor as far as the second uh reading and then subsequent adoption. Okay. So, then I need a motion for the acceptance of the second reading and adoption of ordinance 2026-01 including the amendments. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries.

And I think what we can do is flag this, calendar it out, whatever. But, you know, we'll be going through some dealing with the situation, but we can revisit it after some period of time. And because I know it's going to be the health department may be using it as an example, we we may find that there are other changes we can make and we can make those at another time, but we won't just lose track of it. the the health department was wanting to kind of use this if it you know as an example for other municipalities because it's a problem that's happening elsewhere in B county. So uh you know as they go through the process and the other municipal groups we might need to make an update like

we see some changes to be made we can always bring them back but we won't just lose track. All right. Centerpoint energy assessment. Okay. Uh I have before you just like the last meeting three more of the uh program between Centerpoint and Dyke Brothers. The first one up and I'm going to group these together for one

uh the first one would be the police department. The equipment and labor cost is $3,60 for the uh project. We're getting a discount of $8.91 and our project cost is $21.69. 69 on that and that's got a three-year payback. On the second one, it is for the Newberg street department. The total cost of the project is $5,300. The instant discount from Centerpoint is 254. So, our cost would be $27.97. And this is another one like the senior center from your last meeting where the payback is in seven months. So, the target is three years or less for something good on that. And the final one for your consideration tonight is for the Newberg Volunteer Fire Department. That is a $3,100 project. The discount from Centerpoint is $1,266 with a cost to the town of $1,834 and again a 1.6 payback on that. And I would seek your approval so we can get that scheduled with DIY and Centerpoint.

All right. I need a motion to approve the energy assessment report for taking them one at a time. No, we're doing all three at one time. Okay. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Discussion. Uh I assume that the fire department has okay whatever it is they're going to do. I know it. So you have the proper lighting for emergencies and so on through this. Okay. And the same thing for police. He's nodding his head. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Sure.

It's not dealing with any of the emergency. You guys probably have some specialized lighting in some areas that they're doing everything efficiency on our aspect. So Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries. Drew, we'll go on to notice of award.

Excuse me. Yes. Uh so at the previous town council meeting, uh town council accepted the engineers bid recommendation to uh with the intent to give notice of award to Reynolds Construction LLC. Uh they were the responsive responsible bidder. Uh this is the followup with the official notice of award uh with one caveat uh to it. Uh we recommend giving tenative notice of award to Reynolds Construction LLC in a contract amount of 26,252,000 which includes mandatory alternate two and three and the tenative part is tied to the closing of the bond. Okay. The bond is set to close on March 3rd or March 4th. However, the 90-day bid hold period is up prior to the next town council meeting, but after March 3rd or 4th. So, we recommend and legal has we've talked to legal too with this uh to give tenative notice of award and then we would date it once the bond closes as long as we get your approval here tonight.

All right. I need a motion to approve the notice of award to Reynolds Construction. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Do I have any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed.

Motion carries. I don't believe we have any unfinished business. So, we'll go on to staff reports. Town administrative manager. Yes, I have my report and I gave it to each of you. Um, in the report I want to hit a couple highlights. Again, I want to thank our our town attorney and Steve for uh going up to the AIM dinner last week. We made some legislative headway on both the utility side and the civil town side the past week and it's now uh we we've actually had some success from some of the conversations the past couple weeks and by our presence up there. you know, again, that's a that's free of cost to a members. So, um, you know, it was a good time and I want to thank them for going. Under miscellaneous, I want to remind everybody that we're co-hosting the what's up 247 workshop on the 3rd at the Ohio Township Event Center at 1:00. Uh, we've got information about that on our website and social media. Also, I wanted to give an update on the boat dock, which I contacted you all last week. The original forecast for the river last Monday had it to where they thought they could get it in before the river came up. The idea was to get the con get it installed and they were going to immediately pull it up and turn it over to our staff and we were going to maintain it up top until the river level dropped. But sometime on Wednesday, the uh forecast changed by a matter of several feet. And because they're down out of the Kentucky Lakes region, they had to run back to their office and get like a boat and some additional equipment. And they did that and came back Friday and got it up to where uh it's safe and out of the water. Uh they will come back once the river level drops and it dries out. Um probably sometime mid to late March, depending on how fast it drops and how long it takes to dry what's left. They will complete the installation and the training of our

town staff. We will then take possession of it and judging on the river level and the expected river level, decide at that time whether it stays out or if we pull it out until it gets closer to boating season. Um, but you know, we still haven't paid them the final amount yet of the the balance due. We just initially put down the payment to get the construction going, but they're they're doing great work. Um they do a lot more on lakes than rivers, but they've also done rivers, you know, down in Kentucky. They did Mount Vernon's dock for the record. They're very uh very good at what they do. Also, from that, while I was up at the AIM dinner, I took a call on my town line from uh I can't pronounce his last name. I'll just call him Frank with the Indiana Coatfish Association. And because of our publicity online, they realize that we now have a new dock investment in the town of Newberg. And they're hoping to look at us for a location for a tournament potentially in the next year or so where they want to rent our lock and dam building and uh utilize our facilities to host a catfish tournament. So that that's already paying some dividends there. Also, I want to let you know the solar panel installation of the new Newberg Senior Center should begin within the next two weeks. We coordinated with staff there and our vendor. Also, um an issue in my packet were these tree grates along State um and Water Street. There are several trip hazards and they're cutting in and you can see the pictures where they're kind of cutting into the trees. And what we need to do and what I would seek your approval is for us to immediately remove the ones that are hazards to both the trees and the trip hazards. Fill the vacant space with black mulch in the short term. And I'm going to work with engineering on getting the replacements

that have the right size hole to accommodate for the tree and then see if we can work it either into this year's budget or then budget for that in 27. Um, I know Drew's and I have traded emails today, but I wasn't sure if I could just pull it up, but I figured I might as well get your blessing tonight if if that would be okay. Uh, to protect us from any trip hazards. Council, do you have any questions? How many are there? Roughly three or four if I remember. I think there's three of them that are immediate trip hazards and there's a fourth that I believe is getting into the tree without a trip hazard,

but it wouldn't be no more than four. Drew has the appropriate um um source data that just I have to contact the uh the vendor to get the actual price for us and it might take a couple weeks to figure out what it would cost. But in the short term, we would uh fill that in with a black mulch that would meet our ADA compliance uh needs as far as somebody being able to travel over the area and it would take away the trip hazard that we currently have. All right. Do we have a motion?

So move. Do we have a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed.

I'll get with John and we'll try to get that scheduled the next day or so. Also, I want to draw your attention to item 13 that uh the contract for the fireworks and the down payments been made. So, that will happen on the 3. and I'll let H&I make the rest of the announcements on the 12th at their annual board meeting. Um that's open to the public. Also, I I would be remiss if I didn't thank both our friends at AIM and Senator, State Senator Venita Becker uh for listening to us and our concerns about House Bill 1055. It kind of died on a second reading the other day. So, that goes away and kind of protects the municipal elections for the foreseeable future, at least until they meet next year when it probably will come up again. um so it won't have any impact on moving the municipal elections to the presidential year and also I want to draw your attention to the weekly website report and uh any questions

um not about that but can I ask a couple of other questions okay um remind me about this uh what's up 247 workshop can you remind me about that they've got phase two it's a partnership ship with the Secretary of State's office to where last year we hosted an event here as part of phase one. A lot of the stuff that was upper end level stuff that they used to charge for is now free through the Secretary of State's office sponsoring it.

So, there's some additions that they've had to the program. Again, we incorporate some of this program in our website for our business directory and our uh community calendar and some of the restaurant guides and stuff. Um, but this is something where a business owner or an entity, a nonprofit, a church, they can participate in and get free access to have a listing that's out on the internet and it would be picked up by several towns and other groups. Other partners can utilize the same tools through WhatsApp and add to their website as well. It's just another free way of marketing and getting the word out um to those folks within our community. And even though it's held in War County, it's open to folks all around the tri-state because this is a a statewide initiative, but it's also national as well. Um, so if you're a small business owner or a nonprofit and you want to get some free advertising and learn a little bit about Next Generation Marketing, I would highly encourage them to attend

for the businesses too or nonprofit. Yeah, like some of the nonprofits are sending folks. Um, I know some of the government divisions are sending folks from the different county and other municipality folks. If if it's a business, I think organizations probably would have more um access to information. But if it's a business, how are they being told about this? Through uh direct contact with email. We have some like are you talking town businesses or Yeah, I've I've reached out to several. Okay. that the list that I have most of them came the first time around. Yes. So, we've re-engaged some of those to let them know about this is phase two.

Okay. There uh there will be a reminder email sent out probably Friday from both myself and what's up 247. I know Chad at the township level is working on some of the Ohio township groups as well. And then there's also been some stuff sent out to the local media from WhatsApp uh to kind of open it up. And then there's some direct emails that came out from the Secretary of State's office to people that I believe are business entities in our region. And those emails came out earlier in the week, but that came from the Secretary of State. Right. Just talking about the program and the local opportunity for that. I think this could be important for growth and progress.

Exactly. And that's why I think like especially the small businesses that are in our town, they should take advantage of this. But one of the tools is they don't have to attend that to be a part of it. Okay? They can reach if you come across somebody that wants to know more about it. They can get with me. We can get them the resources or we can take care of it ourselves. It takes five minutes to sign up for the program. It's just they're going to have all their people there to answer more detailed questions. Sure. That's great. Thank you. Yep. All right. Any other questions for Chris?

Deputy Town Manager. Um you guys have my um report as well. Um the only thing I really kind of wanted to point out in it um is that myself, Russell, Riley, Chris on the one day that he was able to before he went up to AIM um we all attended the rural empowerment and development program. They call it red. Um but everyone was there from Mort County, Chandler, Booneville, Everfeld, Tennyson, Lynville. the sheriff's department, all the townships, um DNR, Okra was there, the school corp was there. Um but it was just a big kind of coming down the pike or ser surveys and meetings about what the public wants to see within War County as a whole. Um and so it was just kind of a meet and greet for all of us to talk about ways that we could interact with our individual community. So there'll be more to come on it's a three to five month program and it's more to come on that later.

If you remember uh you you wrote a letter of support for the grant application for War County last year and War County was one of two counties in the state that were awarded this grant. It's a partnership through Ball State and Okra and it's it's going to open up some some development opportunities and it's it's a lot of training based stuff for the municipal groups and all the entities. Uh so I think the last two days of last week were heavy on the training and kind of getting to know everybody but it's also helping us to and I don't want to take your report but the uh it's also helping some of the silos within the different municipal groups and government entities to kind of get to know each other a little better and start working outside of what we do in rooms like this across the county. And it was just interesting to hear, you know, what the issues are in Lynville and Nel and here. Some of them are similar.

Some are similar and what works in, you know, one community versus the other. So, it was it was a very interesting two days. Um, but other than that, I mean, I know my report was long, but if you guys have any questions, let me know. Um, that's all I got. Okay. Any questions for Andrea? the uh banners that have been put together for us by signs by design. I they may intend to do this, but uh I would like to see whatever we put up say Newberg, Indiana. And so when she so when she sent me that, I put it in there, I told her that most likely we probably want it to somehow incorporate Newberg. So she's working on another design for us as well.

Yeah. Um and I noticed that it says they could hang from the wayfinding signs. The wayfinding signs are already at a dangerous height. I mean, they're many of them are way lower. But so the ones that don't have way finding the ones that just say welcome to Newberg, remove those and add these. So they would hang I guess I Yeah. So not hang from them, but hang replacement of those. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Store them and reuse them. But then the ones that didn't have the wayfinding. Okay. Just to incorporate that 250 look throughout the town. All right. Thank you. Any other questions? Clerk treasure. I have one for Andy. How did you make me look so old in that picture you put in there?

That's probably Chris's phone. It's not me. Okay, good. That's great. That was no filter. Did you want me to filter him next time? Yeah, get on the filter bus. Man, I added a picture of them at the AIM legislative that I saw and it was the one that was posted on top. Is that that picture? Yeah. Yeah. beautiful. You guys all look young and photoshop put my jeans away and put like nice pants on. But that's all I have for you all. We had on the AIM dinner though. We were able to sit with the mayor of Oakland City and had a good talk with him as well. I forgot that. Okay. Mayor Deendall.

Good. Director of planning and zoning. Um Riley is not here tonight. Um but um she has the report in the packet. Um she's issu issued nine permits um since the last meeting. Um on there she has all the boards and committees. Um and then other than that um she and Gerald have been working on their code enforcement and the which one? Oh yeah, she sent notice inspections. Um the code enforcement. I would just wanted to make you aware that the state's coming down in conjunction Yes. with our inspectors on the fourth to look at that. uh issue. Look at that. Okay. And that's multiple buildings, not just one. Yeah. I would like to

all of them. I would like you to call me afterwards. Okay. Okay. Um also, I'm assuming that plan commission on Monday is canceled. Yes. Yes. Yeah. All right. Thank you. All right. Any questions for Andrea on um I can't think Riley's report. Thank you. You're welcome. Tell you what, I have a hospital brain. It leads. All right, clerk treasure.

Uh, it's this time of year where we are requesting um outstanding warrants to be written off. Um, I the town Newberg does not have any, but the sewer department does have a few. You've been provided the list from Susan, and so I need a motion for the approval of the outstanding warrants to be taken off the books according to Indiana State Code. I do. I have a motion for the approval. So move. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Okay. Is that it? Okay. Sorry.

I have some more. Um so the final our annual financial report is due on the 28th, which is Saturday. Um the town has been reviewed and we're good to go with that. Uh Susan was wrapping up the final review of the sewer portion of that. I anticipate it to be sent tomorrow with at the latest. Um, I will be out of the office next Thursday and Friday and then I will be in Planefield the following week for clerk treasure school, my annual clerk treasure school in Planefield. Um, Lannne will be here if anything is needed. Julie's, you know, Julie's aware with anything that comes up too and I will be reachable by email, cell phone as usual.

All right, any questions for Annette? All right, Chris.

Uh, just following up on one thing that Chris mentioned, just talking about the legislative session. Um, as you remember at your last meeting, I think it was your last meeting you approved hiring Free uh Drinker to lobby with us for us. Um and um that was we we were focused on House Bill 1348 which was which is grease uh grease equipment fog and um we did it it worked out really well. Russell and I went up most of you know this. Russell and I went up and testified on the bill um the day after the Super Bowl um that morning and uh Russell did a great job. We provided changes based on our testimony on the bill and our lobbyists Joe and Mindy were able to get all of those changes incorporated into the bill in an amendment and they were adopted.

So all of the changes that we felt we could reasonably make we got done. Good job. Joe also engaged on 1055. I think that was it which was the municipal election bill and I think had some impact in in being able to push that for us to not have our elections be pushed to the presidential session. So for for that um hiring them I think was a good good choice and it worked out really well and um solved some of the problems we had with some of that legislation. Good. Any questions for Chris Drew? Do you have anything? No additional comments unless you have anything for me.

Anything for Drew. We'll go on to commission committee reports. Air authority. No report. BZAN

BZA Matt Monday night. Uh we had one item on the agenda which has been tabled to the next meeting. It was a request um from optimal access on the highway just uh going up the hill from Yorkshire. They own um the property where their building is, which is a commercial property, and then they own two lots behind that that front York Shire. They have um two years ago they put in an art installation and they have added to that with a grant that they got and the addition is more of an advertisement maybe than actual an art installation because it has the name of the business on it and so on. Things that you would not normally put on a sign for on an art installation. Um, we had a number of residents from York Shshire and from Pleasure Club here Monday night to voice their concerns about this. Um, you the idea that it is in a residential neighborhood. Um, so they are coming back at the next meeting. Um,

so no vote was taken. No vote. Well, the only vote that was taken was to table it. Okay. All right. Chris and Andrea were both there if you have other things you want to. So there was actually two issues. It was the commercial sign. True. And then there was also since that property is residential, they are asking for permission to use it that residential property as for school purposes since it connects. So for them to have the kids walk down and use the trail. So they're using it for school purposes. Um so and that is allowed in our ordinance with um permission from BCA. So, both of those were tabled until the the next meeting, which I think is March 23rd.

It is. I really would suggest that all of you at least drive by and see what we're talking about. Um, part of the installation is was covered up. I think it probably still is. I don't know what they've done with the larger art installation, if it's still visible or if they've covered it up while we wait for this meeting in March. Is the broken bench there theirs as well or is that something we we put there? Is that is it the blue one you're talking about? Yeah. Is it broken? It was broken when they installed it. Yeah. Yeah. Mr. Taylor lives right across the street.

The bench is there. It's not part of the applications because the bench was allowed separately. It started as art, but it just kept adding more and more and more and it's just getting worse and worse for everybody that lives there. We really don't want commercial use of residential lot changing entire dynamic of our neighborhood, especially us directly. She's wanting to put a road in. It's going to dump into our yard. So, that'll all be addressed at the BA. Okay. All right. All right. So, we will have a meeting in March, at least as it stands now. All right. Any questions? Brian, fire. Fire. Our chief is here.

Um, starting off the year, we've made 51 calls. Um, you know, just our normal training, we have had a lot of firefighters that have gotten certified in various classes. I'm not going to attempt to name them all, but It's a huge attribute to the people we have volunteering. Um, I do want to give a quick thank you to Andrea and Chris. Last week on Wednesday, we suffered a power surge that completely fried access to our building. We had no keys, no way to get in. Uh, other than a couple hard keys. Um, we were able to get something together and had it temporarily repaired on Friday and as of uh Tuesday when I got back in town, everything's back up and running as normal. So, um, that was something that had needed to be updated for many years and unfortunately it just had to be done at this point because we again lost all access. Um, I'm not sure if you guys have received them yet from uh, Chief Z, but we did schedule our awards party. Uh it's going to be April the 15th. It's a Wednesday. It's a non-counsel night. I asked for it to be that. Uh it's going to be an awards dinner and uh engine 18 dedication. So

what's the date again? Uh April 15th. It's the third Wednesday in April. So uh other than that, I believe that's all I have for now. You have any questions for Chief? Thank you. Thank you. HPC, I did not attend the last meeting. Chris, did you I wasn't there. Okay. Michael was there. Yeah, Michael was there. I was there. Andrew, do we have My goodness, you're asking me to remember something, too. I couldn't find it in the in your report, so I I didn't know if you remembered. It wasn't much.

There wasn't much. I think there was one really quick COA that was approved um in no time. Oh, she didn't have it on hers. Um yeah, it was a pretty quick one. Sorry, my brain completely. That's all right. Parks Paul. Yeah, no meeting since our last council meeting. The next meeting is uh March 5th at 6 PM. All right. And plan is canled for Monday. We did not. It was also cancelled for February, wasn't it? I believe so. I'm sorry. I was going to say the um on the legislative there's a bill. So the housing bill 101

it's going to require us to take some action on our zoning code. So plan may this may be the last time that doesn't meet for a while because we'll have to dig into that. Okay. And there's some stuff in that bill that's a little concerning. We'll just have to weed through it. Okay. And we were wanting to look into the code. Yeah. We have to do it anyway. Yeah. But yeah, now we have to have to do now we have to and the the town managers association really worked hard on getting it to where it's even got it could have been much worse. Um so just keep that in mind with some of the changes. It just one of those things we're going to have to massage and work through. Okay. All right. Paul, please.

Yes. So the chief and I are working on it the next date for uh police commission. Chief, you want to anything else to report on your end? Okay. All right. Steve storm water. No meeting, no report. All right.

And streets street crew cleaned up a tree that fell across the entrance to the Lud Dennis Park. They also cleaned up limbs behind the railing at Jefferson and First Street. They have started doing pothole patching. They're going street by street analyzing what needs to be fixed and taking care of it. Uh they continue maintaining drains, inlets, and outlets. Oh, I love this one. They installed new heated wiper blades on snow plows. That's pretty cool. Uh they Well, it is heated. I wish I had heated wiper blades. Do you want me to explain why? Well, I assume it's to melt the

Yeah, because when you have like the snow like we recently have that's so deep that blade pushes it up over and then when it's that cold, ice develops on the wipers and we didn't have heated blades and you have to stop periodically and break the ice off so you can see. So, we won't have that issue going forward.

Good. I hope we don't have to use them this year or any other year. Um, they removed the adopt a highway sign at French Island Trail and Water Street and they repaired a street cut at a driveway on in the 200 block of Monroe Street with a cold patch. That's it. Any questions for an Steve? Utilities utility meets uh next week. The meeting has been changed from its normal Wednesday uh time to 9:30 on Friday the 5th. I didn't know that.

Susan said she hadn't been able to get or she wanted to talk to you, but she was asking around everybody else. So, I think there was an email that went out, but Susan said she was going to get with you. So, just FYI. Okay. Is that's not going to be our normal meeting now? No, it was just for this coming up. Okay. We we had people out of the office on Wednesday so to okay make sure we had good coverage. I can make it work. I just I was hoping it wasn't going to be every no time every month. All right. Finance. Our next meeting will be March 25th.

And personnel, we don't have anything. Arts Commission Lyanna. Um well, okay. Um, I have a question and it kind of relates back to Chris's report. I was going to do it under miscellaneous, but I'll do it now. Stacy, I don't think you know the answer to this, but maybe I I know you and I talked Monday. Um, so far as the public art and you were talk how how far along is that?

Okay. Chris and I talked today. Chris, you want to tell them where we are? We're uh we we've signed we're getting ready to sign the grant agreement to get the money and we're trying to identify the the final location and we're working with our contractor on a plan, but we're one of the locations um that we had originally planned is probably not going to be a good fit. Uh so we had some alternatives and we're looking at the alternatives. What was the question? Well, okay. The last you and I talked, Stacy, you mentioned a couple of the buildings that were possibilities, but the big one that I guess I'm the most interested in is the lock and dam building showing out to the river.

Stacy and I talked about that uh today, and we're going to try to pivot there, and I need to have a conversation with our contractor to make sure we're still in alignment on where we're at budget-wise. But I believe there um with the old lock and dam I I had a question that came up after we met. Would we have to take that to the HPC for you would have to you it'd have to go to HPC and not only HPC it'd have to go to um National Park Service and the Department of U Yeah. National Park Service and the Department of Security. Yeah. because of the covenant. We have a covenant and then we have um a restriction on what can be done on that

and and I wondered about the core of engineers since that whole property was

no that they wouldn't have any involvement. So just so you guys know just remember that that walkway that's next to that bath that the two person or not the two person but the two the two bathrooms right there that is an original stone walkway. We wanted to remove that and just put a paved one in for ADA and they won't even let us touch that walkway. So, I'm very concerned if they'll let us put something as permanent as paint or something on it. Also, HPC guidelines, we don't have say over paint in the outdoor stuff, but it's not really recommended on the historic brick, but I don't know. There's there's also alternatives that I wanted to talk with on our our vendor for that about doing it on a um you can do it on like a a material to where

Yeah. like a talked about that in the and I want to see what the pri if that would keep us within the grant dollars if we looked at doing something like that to where it could be um now granted when you do a material like that it's less permanent but it would at least open up the opportunity and I I believe now that my memor is joged on that that might actually be more favorable for the arts commission or the uh parks or historic national park service because you know this was kind of going to be in conjunction with the America's 250, they can kind of slide that into our argument to make it more doable if it's a not a permanent on the building, but just a fixed, you know, temporarily on the outside

because HPC. Well, it's like a it's not like that, you know, like that plastic sign material. You can get different thicknesses that are lightweight. You can they can put a a a mural on that and you can piece that to where it looks like one mural and it just hangs on the wall there and it wouldn't be seen. It would look like a painted surface but it would come off and be removed.

Yeah. I I would not support painting on the building. The only thing I supported starting more than 20 years ago was putting some kind of sign on the building on the river side that says town of Newberg, Indiana because people on the river passing our town don't know where they are and I think they need to know where they are. Uh that was one of the things we learned from our trips on the Delta Queen and um the other the other boat that's gone now. I'll buckle down in the next week and try to get something for you all to review before the next council meeting. But all the little towns that you passed by had some kind of sign that said here's where you are

and you know if it looked like an interesting place you can come back. So I wouldn't support painting anything bigger than a sign that says welcome to Newberg or town of Newberg, something like that. Uh, and if you're putting if you're going to hang something, you know, the biggest factor in that probably will be the wind. Yes. That the wind is so fierce that it would be it wouldn't it would be flush against the brick to where it would be up against the wall almost almost like an adhesive. It would it would appear like it was a he, you know, like that, but it would it would have to be up against the brick to where the wind wouldn't right get in under get under it or behind it. Okay, good. Is there a reason?

Maybe not something exactly like, but if you look at the symbol on the wall, right, could you put something that wouldn't allow us to attach to the building, right, that could be removable? Okay. Something like that. The other thing we worried about when we talked about painting a sign earlier years ago, um, was that the water would come up and it would have to be repaired every year. You wouldn't know how far the water would come up and depending on where you put it, it would have to be repaired every year. I mean, we have a good idea after last year where the line is. So, yeah, we could have painted it on the highway last year and it wouldn't have been safe. Is there a reason that we're not thinking about things other than murals? Is this limited to

for this

murals or is that just the rage right now and so it's easiest? The murals was the first, but there's this doesn't stop us from applying for additional grants. They want to do more art in the town and uh they're small grants of like 4,000. There's some bigger ones that are out there, but you know, we can apply for any public art through some of these grants. It's just because there was talk for a while about the murals, we chose to apply for that funding first and then start the discussion and hopefully it would lead through the arts commission with some additional projects and stuff like that. There's the uh I went to the ready uh the ready program just announced a new u statewide arts grant. Um I think it's like $60 million around the state. But the problem with that, like the ready two that we're utilizing for the parks is the size of the match. And I had some questions about could a smaller do you have to have a big project or could like a a small art project in the neighborhood of a couple thousand dollars, would that be something they were interested in? And they did not get back to me on that yet. So, um, to do a like a a townwide art project, you know, that would cost several hundred thousands of dollars. I just don't think we have the match money right now that we would need to participate in that. But, if you did a couple one-offs that that had some match money that were backed up by grants, I need to work through that process and try to work with our partners at REApp to kind of figure out what that looks like for the town. Um, but the $60 million is spread out across 500 communities around the state. It's not going to go very far.

Yeah. The reason I ask is because we had a merchant 10 years ago or more who had purchased tenatively two pieces of sculpture to be put on the walkway. Um, one of them had to be returned because nobody would nobody would say they would be responsible and it it just didn't happen. It was a catfish. It was actually a catfish that was put together like spine and ribs and so on and moved with the wind and probably would have been placed out close to where the um the flags are right here on the pavilion. The other one is in front of Moon River, the house going east of town. It's out where their mailbox is. So, you know, just thinking about other kind of installations, not just murals. Uh, let's face it, guys, everybody has murals these days. Maybe it's time to do something different, try something different. Okay, thank you for your information about the public art thing. Um, and then at the meeting that we just had, which was just this past Monday. Um, we talked about the different concerts for this summer that basically I'm pretty well booked. U, there are a couple of things that are still up in the air, but I have all the dates filled except for maybe one. So, I'm real happy about that. Now I need to start on publicity for those things and also then I'll start on volunteers for the different um different concerts. Um Chris, can you tell us that I you

told me to let the committee know that which I did uh internet was now buried there at the Yeah, there's a Wi-Fi out there for the axe and for the public. That was something we had some requests for last year. Uh, so the bands would have access, we get you the password and the bands would have dedicated access for their equipment for anybody that utilizes that facility. Now, that was a part of the upgrade when we signed the new contract. Uh, they they were able to put that in out there. That's great. You figured with the upgrades and the Wi-Fi, uh, it, you know, there was never any public Wi-Fi in that area, right? Now there will be.

That will include the houses up above, too. Yeah. They've had internet. I thought they did for a long time. But they've upgraded the the Wi-Fi P like the the thing that puts the signal out to where it extends and you know they have little umbrellas of coverage to where you're going to have most of that area between the old lock and dam the two cottages and the amphitheater. Yeah. Most of that area is going to have Wi-Fi coverage now. Okay. That's wonderful. Thank you. But there is dedicated Wi-Fi for the acts that use the amphitheater. have a password that would be just for that.

Just for that. Okay, great. Um, so anyway, our meetings will continue on the 4th Monday and so our next one will be March the 23rd at 5:30. Okay. Sidewalks, Lyanna.

Uh, yes. Um, let's see. our last sidewalk committee meeting. Uh I think that was Drew had reported on uh where we were with a few things. We we didn't have a full committee that day because there were some other things going on. But um we know that uh work is still being done at Driftwood. That's one thing. And then another thing is we're still working on Grey Street which uh there have been a couple of issues that were a little bit concern uh concerning and that is um something to slow traffic down as we begin some of this project. They're by the ice cream store. They're getting ready to open and they're opening what? Just right about the time

March. Oh, right. When some of the sidewalk stuff will be constructed. So, we're we're looking at some signage there. What to do? Yeah. And right now, I don't think um um there was a long-term game plan to have an actual potential crossing there. Um and we had discussed there' be no temporary signage at this point in time. Uh we want to make sure that we're not putting people to cross there. We don't want to advertise that from that standpoint, but the long-term game plan is to have a actual crosswalk there. Yes.

At the the ice cream shop and also we and the long-term plan is to have one at the museum as well. Uh we've evaluated and a crossing at the State Street at the elementary school. Yes. So, there's several good good projects planned there. Um it's just getting the funding to do so. And I do know uh Chris is is working very hard and seeking some other grant opportunities there for the town. It's a $10,000 grant. It'll every little bit counts. Oh yeah, definitely. Especially for a crosswalk and you figure about 50 to 100 depending on the ADA needs of the slopes and everything.

Okay. Um Yes sir. Just on a nautical note, you mentioned about uh highlighting New Year when people passing where it be on the river or walking along the front. A lighthouse eliminates any wind because of the shape. You could have the letters on the front at night time and daytime. What you got there, if you could just elongate that like a lighthouse formation, that would be nice on the front. That's what we do in England. My hometown's Liverpool. It's got a nice Liverpool bay and the ships. Ju just so you know this is a steeple. It was never a lighthouse. The fact that a lighthouse is round

okay and you can actually have it right against the huh okay bysentennial fountain right out here in front of the building is art installation. True. Thank you. Okay. Okay. And then uh let's see. We're on sidewalks. I guess that's about all I have. I told you when the next one was. Any questions for Lyanna on arts and sidewalk? And then growth in progress. Lyanna.

Uh growth in progress. Um met on February 19th and um actually we left there with everybody having a little assignment before the next meeting of things to check into. So, uh, we are active. All right. Good. Steve, do you have any miscellaneous business? Nothing for me. All right. Paul, do you? None for me.

All right. And well, responses were quick. Um, and the first one said that they sure hope that we would have respect for nature, for wildlife that was here way before we were and would be here long after we are gone and that we will take care in a proper manner of our for-footed and winged creatures.

Okay. So Lyanna, I can't top that and I don't have any. Nanette, hey, I'm ready for claims. I'd like to all the claims have been provided to council 5 days prior to this council meeting and request that these claims be paid plus any sewer adjustments be approved for payment in amounts of for civil town 374,000 or 373,832.84 84 37383284 for sewer $980,42162 980421 and62.

All right, I'll make a motion to approve all claims properly signed, including any sewer adjustments to be paid. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries. I'll make a motion for adjournment. And one quick thing I forgot. Um, okay. I wanted to thank Connor from Precision Pest here in the Newberg area for working with me as well as the health department on the uh wildlife ordinance and he's in the audience tonight and I just wanted to thank him for his help and guidance as well. Sorry. All right, that's fine. Do I have a second? Second. Do I have any discussion? Better not be.

All those in favor say I. I. I was a post.