Board of Public Works and Safety and Common Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, here we go. I'd like to call to order the July 27, 2026 Board of Public Works meetings. Roll call, please.

Mayor Lustenberger?

Here.

Paul?

Here.

Ecker?

Here.

Milner? Here. Morrow?

Here. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes from our last meeting. So moved. We have a motion.

One is it had Shiloh not attending the meeting, but then voting. And then the other one was when we were discussing the Northgate properties, it stated that I had concerns about the property owner not bringing new trailers in and living up to his bargain. And that was listed before the motion was made, but it was after the motion and secondary discussion.

All right. We'll make those corrections. Okay.

Anything else? Okay. I've got a motion and a second with some... Corrections. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. Thank you. All right. Jumping up to Donnie.

Thank you, Mayor. I got a couple projects we wanted to inform the board about that it could affect sea traffic and so on and so forth. The first project is we have a large cohort replacement at the intersection of East Jefferson and Richter Road. We do not know exactly when that will start. We're coordinating this with a contractor, forcing assistance. We anticipate the road being closed at that juncture for between four and five days. We want to It'll be open cut, and then we want to asphalt it right after the installation of the pipe. So we will coordinate it so it doesn't interfere with any of the blueberry happenings. Hopefully we have it done before that, but if it gets too close, we'll just delay it a couple weeks until after that's done. The next project is a water main replacement project on Angel Street. It'll be going from Ewing Street south. We want to replace that. We've had multiple breaks on that line over the last three to four years. We probably had four to five breaks and the main was actually installed a little bit too shallow and it was cast iron. It's very brittle and we just want to eliminate that problem. We're going to do that in-house to save some money or stretch it a little bit further. We'll have an excavating contractor do the digging. We'll do the pipe installation and the reconnections to the homes. And if there's any questions, that's all I have. Will those property owners be out of service for a while? Long enough to make a connection to the new line. What we'll do is install the line, we'll test it, and at that point, then we'll drop back and start connecting individual homes. So if you're out, it would probably be maybe one to two hours. And you're going to let people down? Yes. Okay, thank you. Actually, we're starting, if the contractor is... available still this week. We probably, Wednesday, we'll make our connection on the north end. We'll probably take a week to install the main. And then at that point, then we will contact the homeowners, let them know that their service will be up for a short period of time. Thank you.

I have another unrelated question. I don't know if it's for you or just to... the board in general, but I was going to bring it up to open if any of the members had any concerns. But in last meeting's packet in the TRC minutes was mentioned of Bradley Group doing a development on the corner of Glen Overbuyer Drive and State Road 17. And in those minutes, it was talking about sewer and water hookups. And to my understanding, that's not in the city. This has not yet been annexed into the city. And I just wonder, what's the protocol for that? Does that approval need to come before the board?

In my opinion, yes.

Okay, so traditionally, whenever a customer has requested to connect to city utilities outside of the city, we require an agreement. We have required an agreement that. Number one, they're going to pay a higher rate. We have a set rate for customers outside city limits, but we also have an agreement that they would not oppose annexation in the future. Now, that particular property and that development, their intent is eventually to request annexation. I don't know exactly when because they were granted a tax abatement. they request annexation. But yes, it would require approval for that connection outside the city limits.

I guess my question is, why wouldn't we require annexation if we're providing the services?

I think you should. We can. And that'll be a decision the board will have to make when that request comes. Okay. Any idea when that will be coming towards us? I do not know their timeline.

No. Brent's here. He's pretty much the point person that I deal with. The intent was originally for that to be annexed immediately, but due to some of the tax abatements and things like that, I think that has changed a little bit. But regardless... If it's not going to be annexed immediately, there does need to be approval.

Thank you. Thanks. Is that your car, Randy?

All right.

Sweet. Dan, did you see that?

I just have a couple quick announcements. One, we did get the sidewalk that Marilyn King complained about fixed. The contractor did step up and fix that for us. And then the other announcement I had was that the repaving project for the beginning and bolts will go next, actually this week, actually starting tomorrow, they're going to be working on concrete first, curb and sidewalk in the area of Center Street and Parkview. That is over by the KFC. They also have some curb work to do on Adams Street. Adams will be done, actually went on to go through this, So Parkview Street from the Dead End to Michigan is one of them. Center Street from Novelty to Parkview. Adams Street from Plum to Michigan Street. Madison Street, 5th to the Railroad. Kenwood Avenue, Oak Road to Sycamore. And then Sycamore Street from Lake Avenue to 7th Street. And then the final one is Harrison Street, and that will be done from Oak to Michigan. That's really all that I have. But they will be starting tomorrow, working hard on Parkview. And they assured me that those would get done before Blueberry. All of that? Or just Parkview? Probably just Parkview and some of the other ones. But it could happen quick, depends on the weather. Very good. Thank you.

Thank you. Dennis, your one item.

Today is the 90th day for the Red Rock Inn. Not complying, so I would like to issue another $1,000 fine.

So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion?

Yeah. Is the courts the one stopping that right now, or is that?

So there was a hearing on the owner's complaint for immediate possession, which is an eviction. And that hearing was in June. The court gave the occupants 60 days to vacate. And if I am calculating right, that would be August 16th is their deadline. I did have a conversation last week with the demolition contractor. They are eager to get in there. They hope that if the eviction is done and it's vacant, that they could start at the beginning of September and be finished by the end of September. I did have a conversation with them about Blueberry Festival, told them that they probably don't want to be trying to enter out that weekend. But otherwise, they're just waiting to make sure that the property is vacated so that they can get started.

So if we issue this, which I agree with, It won't interfere with what the court has said to allow for that date.

No, that is a completely separate process. The city has no involvement with the court case. And when I spoke with the demolition contractor, it was about the requirement for a demolition bond, which we still have not received, which is why they're not in compliance. Dennis is asking to find them additional. Thank you, sir.

Okay, we have a motion. Do we have a second on this? We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor will say aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. Very good, Dennis. Thank you. Thank you. Chief Allen?

Nothing tonight, Your Honor.

Chief Weir?

Nothing.

Jimmy, I didn't expect you to be here. I told you to stay home, didn't I?

Well, I didn't think I was going to be here.

Well, we're glad to have you back.

Thank you. Nobody agreed on it. I didn't expect to be here tonight. I was going to Zoom, but after what we talked about today, at least we talked this one in public or in a meeting instead of Zoom. But once again, thank you for all the thoughts.

It's awesome to see you here, guys. It is. Okay. You're okay, buddy.

So what we talked about was cost building on budget. We were talking about a new truck, a new dump truck. And we talked last year, we got that pulled out of the budget, which we ended up spending several thousands of dollars on the old truck this winter and keep it running. So I get problems with it every now and then. It's all due with the emissions and everything. So we've been talking since I've been back. I've been in contact with a couple of the truck people and told them I'm not sure where our budget is yet. And we talked today. But we could commit to a chassis right now. through truck centers, which is a Freightliner. It's what we've done before. And it would be a source of all pricing. So it would all be that, but he had Friday, they had eight truck slots left for the year. If we don't do anything now, come first of the year, there's emission basically penalties because manufacturers are having trouble making it meet the new emissions. So it could go up anywhere from $13,000 to $20,000 with the emission penalty. They're not sure what that is yet. If we don't do something with this truck now, There's a chance we could go into a Western Star, which a lot of municipals don't do those too, but that could be up to about $10,000 more too. But he gave me a quote for Swartzwell for $125,575. And We could do that if I can still get in on one of those eight, but we would have signed a purchase agreement or purchase order and talking with Lynn. And I know we did this on a fire truck once too, but I mean, we're talking hundreds of thousands there, but, um, so then we would just budget in our budget. Either we would make this work out of our budget this year, or we'd have to do a little bit of additional appropriation. And, um, we still have a possible trade-in of our truck, so that could bring this down a little, but this is all happening so quick on allocations. So you're buying the, you're committing, you want to commit to the chassis. We would commit to the chassis. And then the other part, we would purchase next year. We would purchase next year. The chassis would probably be here until late December or early January.

Would the box or whatever you want to refer to, then Is that coming from the same supplier?

No, that would come from W.A. Jones in Columbia City. And I have a quote on that. So a total truck right now, if we were going to buy a total truck right now through source, it would be $312,773. If we don't do anything now and we go ahead and budget a truck for next year, I'd be asking for about $350,000 to help cover any of the increases.

So would you be looking at $125,000 for this year? Out of this year. And then the balance for the build-out for next year?

And we may, once we see where we are financially, totally, this $125,000, this could probably come out of some of our budget now. And we may have to do a little additional appropriation.

Issuing a PO, is there a down payment required?

No. In fact, it's not even issuing a PO at the moment. It's just signing a purchase agreement that puts our name on one of these trucks.

And it locks that price in.

Right. No, they claim that.

A year ago, I think you had $400,000 in that account that we had in that budget that we had to cut. And so we were talking, I think you were thinking that it was going to cost you $350,000, $400,000 and other stuff too. And so we cut 400 that year. And so we might. So we'll probably have to do some additional approximation. Hopefully it's under. It's hard to tell this. Yeah, I was going to say it could be 50,000 or so. All right. Yeah. So. And like he said, this is similar to what we did with the fire engine, the latest engine 82.

And he took the information and photos off our current truck and was going to work on seeing what the trade-in value is, which should be, I would think, a decent trade-in value. But the truck we're getting rid of is the 2010, which it's one of the very first emissions. and this whole regenerative stuff. And like I said, we've spent thousands of dollars on that thing over the past few years trying to keep it running.

I didn't look at that.

It's probably about close to $90,000. But it's one of those that gets into the regen mode and is just hard on it. You're not running it hard down the road. But I just, I was not comfortable signing a purchase order, even if they say something happens, we still don't need to take it. I just still not comfortable with signing $125,000 without permission.

Looking at this way of paying this in a pay-as-you-go scenario makes some sense to me. I think it's more manageable in this direction. I would make a motion to approve the request.

Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussions? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you.

I will talk to him tomorrow and hopefully that still has a few allocations left.

When did you talk to him last?

Friday.

They started with 13 and then by Friday they were down to 8 and

He goes, not to be a salesman or pushy. I go, I totally understand allocations of this stuff.

And, you know, we used to think about getting a big truck and we, well, we got it within two years from ordering. They're saying now that trucks are there and sometimes the body manufacturers are the ones that are behind.

Yeah. Call him first thing, you know. Okay. And also, it is nice having you back. It's good to be back. And you're welcome to leave right now. You don't need to stick around here as much. All right. Well, you know, you've got a long day today.

I know.

Are you saying safer to be here than it is? Well, I don't know.

I'd be safer to stay here all night after today.

Feel free to just go whenever. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Jim.

Come back to me.

All right. Mr. Collins. I have nothing to add, Your Honor.

Okay.

Mike Height.

Hi there.

Hi there.

Nothing to add, Your Honor. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Bill? Nothing. Anything else you need? Nothing to add, Your Honor. Thank you. Yeah, you have some requests, don't you?

They have four requests this evening. All right. Your first request tonight comes from Kip Cook. And I did not see him. He's not in the audience. But his request is at the northwest corner of Garrow and Water Streets, parking spaces or no parking space was located in front of the business building along Garrow Street. As it currently stands, that location is being used as parking spots. When someone is parked there on Garrow, it restricts the lane going west at that intersection. He is requesting there be no parking from the entrance to the Water Street townhome parking lot to Water Street on the north side.

So first of all, I told Kip he didn't have to attend tonight. So I was worried that because I didn't know if he'd actually formally put that in. I said we would bring it up to this meeting. And we'd been thinking about it anyway.

I fully agree with that.

And we'd been watching it, and that's kind of what we said. We just hadn't got around to.

And it was no parking prior to the reconstruction, correct? It was an entrance.

The entrance of the parking lot was farther to the east, so there wasn't room to park. Okay, gotcha. When the entrance shifted.

Yeah, but you can't get to car if it's tight.

Yeah. You can do it, but it's pretty tight. Yeah. i would recommend a no parking there myself so i'll make that motion a second anyway a motion second any further discussion hearing none all in favor say aye aye suppose nay so no parking signs will be placed in that green terrace area yeah jimmy jimmy you're going to be here you need to pay attention

I agree with that. There's a feature in that corner, and it's too tight. It's out here where it's a little narrower. At least we're seeing each other beforehand. But we're fine until he finds up there. After we're getting a little bit. Okay.

All right. Your second request tonight comes from Anna Corbett of Miller's Senior Living Community requesting street closures for Saturday, August 15th for a walk-a-thon in Centennial Park. Anna, do you want to pick it up, please?

Welcome back, Anna.

Thanks. So I am asking for the same street to be closed, just half of it, during the walk. The walk starts at 9 o'clock. We're going to stay, it's 2.7 miles, so we're going to stay on that side of the park. Take the Greenway and then up Becknell and then finish the Greenway and then they'll just walk over across Randolph to the Young's Amphitheater. So we'll start at the Amphitheater and end at the Amphitheater. This is the second year, Anna? Second year, yeah. We'll make a motion that we approve the request. Second.

Great. We've got a motion and a second. Mike, that's part of the park, too. Yeah, it's fine with me.

Thank you. Of course it is. What do you want me to say? Nothing.

Just making you aware. All right. We've got a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay.

Thank you.

Very good. Thanks, Anna.

All right. Your next request tonight is from Mark Reed of the Crossroads Church, asking for permission to conduct a hayride on August 2nd, leaving from River Park Square, going east on Garrow to Liberty South to Ferndale, then to Earl Street, then west on East LaPorte Street, Back to Liberty and back to Riverboat Square. Mr. Reed? Yes.

Yeah, we've got an all-church. We rent River Park Square. It's the only time of the year that our entire church, we combine all three services into one location. And Robin Roberts, who's an area farmer, attends and had offered that. And so we thought that might be something fun that we'd offer our church family to do. And so probably looking to have two wagons. I believe I turned in pictures and things there with the proposed service. area to go on. And so, yeah, that's just something fun for our church family to do, but they'll have sidewalls on them. We'll have LED flashers on them and more than likely we'll have two tractors and two wagons just because of the number of people. If the weather is beautiful, like we hope it is, you know, we could probably have anywhere between 300 to 600 people down there. Unknown as to how many people will take rides, but We don't want to make it so long that we're out there forever, but just ensuring that our families are safe and enjoying their time.

So. Is turning, making any of these turns going to be a problem with any potential parking on the side streets? Making the turns on these corners, is there going to be a problem with any of that, Jim? Do what, sir? The route that he is providing, Garrow to Liberty, Liberty to Ferndale, and then East to Earl, and then over on to LaPorte. Is there going to be any concerns making the turns and potential? I would think so.

I would think that would follow pretty good. Those turns are pretty good. A lot of people in Parkland, especially on Roll Street and stuff like that. I would think that would work out.

We're happy to adjust it as needed. I guess I have a comment and a concern. The city is going to pick up a fair amount of liability with it, even though you guys would have your own insurance, obviously. If an accident happens, the city will get brought into it. So I'm just not sure. A hayride on city streets, I They're usually out in farm fields.

What's the time frame? The event starts at 5 o'clock. We more than likely won't be. Our plan is to have it later into the evening, so probably more around 6.30 is the estimated time that we think we would probably end up starting that. 6.30 to 7, yeah. Yeah. And if it doesn't work out, that's okay. I mean, we're not out here. I'm not trying to beat Debbie down. I totally understand. I totally understand. We just thought that it's on a Sunday evening in a residential area, and so we thought that traffic wouldn't be too bad.

So is this, since you're running two wagons, is this You go one time, each wagon, and that's it? Or is it just going to continue to go through?

No, I mean, we just will go with the number of people that want to go. But with a wagon, you know, we can probably put 20, 25, 30 people depending on each wagon. And so they would just go in tandem together and then make the circuit. So we're not planning on making this like a two and a half hour kind of thing. We want to keep this within a reasonable amount of time. So accommodate the families that want to go. And if the heat is, if we have the heat and humidity, we may not have families that even want to stick around for something like that. They may come down to fellowship and eat and then choose to go home too. So we just want to be flexible with it.

That's this Sunday, isn't it?

Yes.

So it might take a couple weeks. Yeah, I would anticipate that. We could have anywhere between, I would say, probably 350 to 650 people there.

Did you have something?

Yeah, I'll tell you, first of all, I attempted to contact Citi's insurance carrier to get their response to this request. I was not able to get a response before the meeting tonight. Like Dave, I enjoy Hayride as much as anybody. I've been on a lot of them. but i have concerns about potential liability of running tractors with large number of people on city streets traffic should be light on a sunday evening but it's also unpredictable and my recommendation since you Amy to be negative about certain things. Um, I would recommend that, uh, you've not exposed the city to any potential liability. I'll allow this.

Can I ask this? What about just keeping it in the river park? It's the river park square, right? Yeah. So it's keeping it in the park. I don't know. We don't want things tore up with tractors, but. What about that idea with that?

so i i think the board would have to authorize motorized vehicles on the greenway trail through the park but if you feel that that's a good compromise that's something you could but is that a park board decision not necessarily it is so it is a city ordinance that uh restricts motorized vehicles from the greenway trail so um the council actually could uh authorize that okay So you can make a recommendation to the city council and they could add it to their agenda yet this evening.

That's just an idea that keeps it closed within a, what do you think of that idea?

It's fine. Yeah.

Mike, do you want to chip in on that?

Yeah. Yes. The problem I have is with it turning around on all the grass and I mean, we're out there. There's a bunch of sprinklers out there. About a sprinkler about every inch except the very, very back by the river. So I assume something may happen there with tractors. Yeah. Along with whatever you were talking about, liability or whatever.

Okay. Honestly, you hardly get going.

I was just thinking as I'm processing that, I'm like, honestly, space isn't really... And again, you know, this was just something that was offered and we stopped and we thought about it. We thought, you know, that would be something fun. And I contacted John Weir and said, hey, what, you know, do we have to get approval to do this? Like, I have no ideas, you know? And he's like, yeah. Um, and so, and again, it, if it, if it doesn't work out, no harm, no foul. That's, that's totally fine. But we, if you don't know, if you don't ask. And so we thought we would just ask.

Well, if you're that understanding, uh, we kind of open up a can of worms, a precedent to, if we, if we do it once. Um, so, um, If you want to withdraw your request, you can vote now. You don't like children anyway, do you? I just know how Gary Knighty behaved when he was that age. It would be frightful. I'm sure.

I guess. No, I'm happy to withdraw the request. That's fine. I don't want to put the city, we don't want to put the city in a spot. You know, again, it was just something that was offered and we thought we'd ask.

I think with the unknown, Jeff trying to get some clarification, I don't think we're in a position to make such an improvement.

No, I understand and I appreciate your time. I hope the Other parts of your event will really... Oh, yeah. No, it'll be great. It'll be great. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks, Mark. Yeah. I want to ask a question, though.

Randy Langer, 880 Baker Street.

So during the holidays or Halloween season, the church that is located down by Discount Market, I can't think of the name of it. They always run a hayride event. Um, cause it goes past my house several times. Um, I mean, I, I see that. I don't know that that's ever been improved. Um, or they're aware that they really should have to come last year. You sold it. There's been at least two to three years. They've been doing that.

There's, there's been no request made to them.

I don't believe so either, but I guess my concern would be too, is because the tractor always runs the stop sign at Columbus and Baker street. There's kids hanging off of it. So, um,

I tell you, we had a successful Halloween during the park put it on for years out by the sledding hill in that area.

Yeah, I think it's a neat idea. I just want to bring that up too because it's not fair for them to come and make the request. And I don't know that if anybody knows anybody that's out there that we probably should contact them and let them know that that's not a good idea or if we're going to deny them. We shouldn't allow that.

That's a good point. Thanks, Randy. It'd be nice if, I mean, out at the park behind the sliding hill, there's trails back into the wooded area. It was really, we would take five, 600 kids. I used to drive the, and the kids loved it. So maybe your church or this other church might want to do it there sometime. Yeah. So we haven't done it for the last couple of years. Okay.

All right, your final request this evening comes from Tracy Regan from Booger Festival requesting to close Michigan Street from La Porte to Washington, West Garrow Street to the Post Office Alley on Saturday, September 5th from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for a three-on-three basketball event. And Tracy is here in attendance. Come on. Come on.

We are bringing back the three on three basketball in hopes to, we get a lot of requests for it every single year to bring it on. So we actually found a company that was able to bring in all the equipment, take care of everything. So we're looking to close by the Reese, you know, to the brass rail with a little kick out by Sandy's or by the post office on Garrow, just so we can have the registration stuff there.

On Saturday, right?

On Saturday the 5th, correct. We say 7 a.m. because that's where we're going to have to pull the hoops and stuff out if anyone's interested in coming up. I'll make that motion to approve it.

All right. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. And you did bring it to the downtown merchants originally.

They are ecstatic, yes. Before we signed any paperwork, we made sure that they were okay with it.

Very good. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Thank you, Tracy. You get that? Thank you, Tracy. All right.

I just said thank you. Happy to be here.

Okay. Who will clench? Make a motion to approve the claims presented in our packet.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Acceptance of communications.

I move to accept the communications that are in our packet.

Second. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Number 10.

Motion to adjourn.

Very good. Good evening. I'd like to welcome you to the July 27, 2026 Common Council meeting. Would you join me in prayer, please?

Gracious God, once again, we come before you tonight and before the citizens of this great city to discuss the needs before us. Lord, we continue to seek your guidance and your direction that's going to give us the best results for what needs to be done. We continue to seek your presence, continue to seek your guidance, your safety with our employees of the city. We ask you to be with each and every one of them. And just as importantly, Lord, we continue to ask that you be with each and every citizen. At this time, Lord, we also ask that you keep the family of Debbie Gidley in your prayers, in your comfort. Let her know that we, as a body of the city, are with her and the family. Be with them as they go through this grieving period. We also, Lord, continue to ask for guidance through the county, the state, the nation, and the world. We continue to seek peace. Please continue to seek to work well with one another. Be with us as we continue to address the needs of this city tonight. In your precious name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you.

Please join me in the pleasure of allegiance.

By the grace.

Okay, I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes from our July 13th meeting.

The motion is second.

I also, I'm sorry. That one also had the, that I was absent. I promise I was here. It's okay. I'm sure it was probably a copy and paste maybe from the previous one where I was unable to get on.

I had going on this week. I didn't get that. So no worries.

Very good.

Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed nay. Thank you. Okay. Up next, we have a public hearing.

And actually, that is a error on the agenda. It is not a public hearing. So what this is, is if you recall, we had the same situation with the townhomes over here. Because the Heartland Project is receiving funds through a ready grant, they have to follow certain requirements through the state, federal requirements. One of those is that all of their bids for the project have to be opened at a public meeting. doesn't really matter which public meeting, and you don't take any action on it. They just have to be open in public so they're on the record of a public meeting.

So we have two bids here.

Were there any other bids? And can we have a representative of Heartland?

Before you start that, I want to thank Anna and your whole group of Heartland artists. for Saturday's event. It was amazing. Thanks. You just did an amazing job. You didn't make it down there. It's growing every year, and it's incredible. Thank you. Thank you for doing that.

Appreciate it.

I feel good about it. Yeah.

My kids enjoy Thicker Beauty.

Oh, yeah.

And I was like, hey, this is just here. That's right.

That's right. We teach them how and when to do it.

My granddaughter said, best day ever. I mean it. Yeah.

Good.

I'm happy to hear that. And the amount of the local talent that we have, the artist is unreal.

Yeah. We got to give them a space to do that. That's the idea.

Give them the space. They can be creative.

That's right.

Thank you. Thank you.

You are welcome. It's our pleasure.

Okay. So the first bid is from Zopowski construction from South bend. And yeah,

I'm going to let Brett do it. It'll be a brief pause here while I make sure the documents are on. Okay. This would appear to be a complete bid. The base bid is $1,398,500. $1,398,500. We have four alternate bids. And they are... Alternate number one, which is restoring and replacing the west front elevation and east rear elevation windows, They say no change in their price, so that's zero. Alternate number two, which is to excavate and install waterproofing and drainage and a concrete slab in the passageway between Heartland Building and the adjoining building to the south. Hey, go down that alley and look into that passageway sometime. It's like three feet wide. Anyway, to do that and waterproof, $8,050, 8,050. Alternate three is to add one new window opening in the east rear elevation. That amount is $15,750. And number four is in lieu of only masonry repointing on the damaged areas of the brick on the alley, completely doing 100% of the elevation with tuck pointing. That is an add of $68,850, 68,850. The next one is Brown and Brown General Contractors.

Indiana.

This would also appear to be a complete bid. The base bid from Brown and Brown, $935,500. 935,500. Alternate bid number one. I don't need to repeat that, do I? Okay. Alternate bid number one. $133,800, 133,800. Alternate number two, $15,100, 15,100. Alternate bid number three, $9,600, 9,600. And alternate bid number four, add $37,400. 37,400. And that appears to be all the bids we have. Heartland will take these under advisement. Appreciate your time. Thanks.

Okay. Any new business? Anything from the council?

I got something I want to talk about. I think this golf cart thing is going to need to be revisited. I think at the end of the year, apparently we had a golf cart that was on the walking path and got into the river. We still continue to have golf carts on the walking paths across the street from my house. I don't know how we police it any better or whatever. We just do away with it. It's pretty frustrating. And now we've got kids running up and down Baker Street on dirt bikes that are gas-powered dirt bikes, not e-bikes or any of that stuff. So I know Chief's got a lot of things going on. And I know I talked to Mike Hite. He's got his guys when they're out and about. They're trying to police some of the trails too. But I just... I don't know how we do it, but I think we need to revisit it by the end of the year. Whatever it is, triple fines, I don't know how we do it. I don't know what we do, but I think it needs revisited.

I don't even know what the fine is.

Your first fine is $50. Okay. Your second fine is $75, and your third fine is $100. And no fines have been issued.

I know you've had some pulled over and stuff. Yeah.

Yeah.

I know there have been a few stops.

A lot of them, I think, though, it's hard for, I'm just speaking for you, it's not on the trails. You're catching them. on the streets doing things. But on the trails, that's a different story.

Easier than anything. There's nothing we can do at the trails. We did have our... Park Patrol last night was on his bike, so he was out doing the trails last night, but that's few and far between. It's only when he works Park Patrol, which he's got four times. Other than that, when we were trying to stop him Last year, they run from us. Then we're trying to chase them with our squad cars, which don't work out either because they get on the trails and once again, they're gone again. It's no different whether it's the gas-powered or e-bike. They're all legal. They're not allowed on. The kids don't care because they're going to run.

The dirt bikes have been on the street, but they're not even on the trail.

Either way, they're not allowed. Usually, they just run. I cut three yards behind houses through the park.

On the sidewalk downtown, I was about knocked down by an e-bike last week.

Yeah, well, and they're signed out there, but some of them don't read English. So, I mean, I tried to stop them, but no.

At least they were wearing a helmet.

I mean, I don't know what the right answer is either. I had complaints on the scooters, and I did find the three boys that were Zipping in and out and talk to them and they actually stop and listen. And then now I see him on the sidewalk. So, but they're, you know, grade schoolers. So what the right answer is, I don't know.

Yeah. This seems to be a, it's not just our community. I've talked to a lot of people. Oh, it's everywhere. It's everywhere.

I mean, you see these other communities with these makeovers where they're blocking the road and you got 50 of them that are just taking over the streets. Glad we don't have that.

Yeah. I guess I don't know what the answer is other than we just, it's not allowed. Yeah.

I don't know. But then you're still trying to police that as well. Right. I mean, that's still because they're already not allowed. Right. When we attempt to stop them. Yeah. Other issues.

Maybe we need to have a big powwow with anybody that wants to drive one. They don't have to come to this and listen and do these little safety things and then sign that they've done it before they get their little sticker. And the same way with kids. I don't know, maybe it's just an education sort of thing. They can't play down that way.

You don't have adults that are getting the stickers on the golf cart.

Well, that's the biggest thing. I've seen more adults violating it that should know better, that are even of my age, that should know better.

They just take their chances. They get caught, deal with it then.

So I just, I think we need to revisit it. I agree. And I do want to say thanks to Dan and Dennis about pushing forward. They were able to get that, the sidewalk got repaired down on Baker Street. So that was quick to run. They seem to be here and have responded that they're trying to do Some additional corrections that have been asked, but I still got a laundry list of things that need corrected. But I do appreciate your guys' efforts. At least it seems like we got their attention a little bit. Yeah. Little bites, I guess. We can't chew the whole elephant at one time. We just got to take little bites at it. But I appreciate you guys doing what you're doing on that.

I have one thing. Are you finished?

I'm good. Thank you, ma'am.

I had a person come to me and say how happy they are to see people, so many people using that walkway by where the paint used to be that you engineered, Dan, that cuts through that, took that one road out. And I expressed that to the mayor as well. And I said he would like to see that continue on down to 9A Road, I guess it is, down by the Dollar General. And the mayor said it's in the plans.

So it's all good.

Yep.

Very good.

Yeah. Good. Renderings all along that way.

Okay.

Anything else? Okay. Moving on down. Donations. Donations.

All right, we have three donation units. First one in the amount of $500, JCL property maintenance to be used for the M Summer of Music. One donation in the amount of $200 from Art and Lisa Jacobs to be used for the tractor show that was this past weekend. And one in the amount of $260,000 It is from the estate of Jim Michaelis to be used for the ambulance service. This is a partial payout of the Michaelis estate for the ambulance service. The ambulance service received one quarter of his estate. However, Mr. Michaelis does have an outstanding ambulance bill for which we have not sent it to the state yet. So I am seeking permission to use part of this donation to pay his outstanding ambulance bill. And otherwise, I'm asking if you wish to accept these donations for restricted terms, conditions, and purposes attached to the donations. If so, the donation will be receded into the respective funds. So moved. Second. Third.

motion and several seconds and thirds any further discussion hearing that all in favor say aye aye those opposed nay yeah

You have one ordinance tonight on first reading that is ordinance number 2026-2064, an ordinance fixing salaries of appointed officers and employees, fire and police personnel of the city of Plymouth, Indiana for the year 2027. This is the annual salary ordinance. So before you tonight on first reading, so it does not require any action, but this is always one that requires a lot of work to put together. So if you have any questions about it, I encourage you to ask. And if not, then we'll move on.

Well, we're down to other business. One Marshall. Mr. Knight.

Good evening, Gary Neidig, representing One Marshall County this evening. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, council members, and especially a big thanks to Jeff for all the times he's filled in when I haven't been here. So I appreciate his diligence and his willingness to keep you guys updated, I believe. Tonight's an exciting time. We're one Marshall County as well as we believe for Marshall County, and I hope that you got our presentation ahead of time, perhaps.

Yeah, just a PDF.

Yeah. If you'll just scroll through. So basically what we're asking you to do is work with us as we think about where is Marshall County today. The housing demand exceeds the supply. The infrastructure investment requires coordinated planning. Our employees are competing for quality talent, and therefore, we know that our communities are stronger when they work together. Our vision for Marshall County is to be recognized as a destination for families, a magnet for employers, a leader in quality of place, and a model for regional collaboration. I think we've already discussed quite a bit about what One Marshall County is. We've spent the last two years, first of all, we convened. We took the opportunity to take as many people as we could from our county, many of them from the city of Plymouth. And we were able to put together a board of directors, approximately 28 people that represent many, many different parts of our county and hopefully all the different segments of it. We then subsequently, during that course of time, were able to put together a strategic plan, which I shared with you, and it is at the tail end of this presentation. We won't go over that tonight, but that is one of the big achievements that we were able to do is get the strategic plan in place. And the third thing is... we were able to finally execute and get one of our first objectives done, and that is to hire our first employee. So tonight I'd like to introduce to you Ms. Taylor Wilson, and she is our community coordinator. I think you've probably seen her. She was in the streets on Saturday during the Art in the Streets, and she was putting together some, what would you call it, a survey?

Yeah, a survey on a community art project. Yeah, go on.

Introduce yourself.

Yeah.

Hi, I'm Taylor Wilson. I have been working here for about a month and two weeks. My background is actually in local government. So I worked for a soil and water conservation district for eight years. So I'm really excited to be here and bring people together. And then what I did at Arts in the Street was we had a, I guess like a makeshift loom and different colors of fabric and each color represented a different part of the community here in Marshall County. So people could string up their piece. So there's a visual representation of what people cared about. Awesome. Thank you.

So you're going to be seeing Taylor a lot. I see her at least once a week. We have a check-in meeting to make sure that we're all coordinating which way we want to head. She is working actively with three or four different support organizations within the community. And she's basically working eight hours with those trying to help them with their communication needs as well. So we had these diverse stakeholders. We had the volunteers. And now we finally have our first employee. And we believe that that in and of itself sort of drives us to where I would call that collaboration creates results. So we have our communities, we have our businesses, we have our education institutions, our healthcare institutions, and we also have some philanthropy. That moves into One Marshall County as our board, and then we're able to execute with planning, funding, execution, and measurable results. A lot of the early wins, I'm not going to read through all these, but I believe that you can, for yourself, be able to see that some of those are more structural. They're part of the foundational things that we had to do as an organization. But what I hope that you're encouraged by seeing is this isn't just a

bunch of Hanyaks meeting once a month.

This is a very structured group that is serious about what they're doing, and we're seeing some great results. So one of the things, and I don't know how many of you are really familiar with the spotlight from Rural Health Grow regional grant support, but Marshall County is the largest county in region one, And we basically were successful in receiving, or we will be receiving in the next, the applications are all in, the money's already set, but we're going to be getting about 26 million for the next two years spread across those eight county regions. So Marshall County is set up to probably receive approximately one and a half to two million per year for the next five years. That is going to be used for what they call the rural health assessments. So we're going to be hopefully helping get rural health to our citizens within Marshall County. I know Plymouth is a little bit different because we're not the rural part of the county. But nonetheless, it was a big win. for our particular group to be able to help them, guide them. And I think, to be perfectly honest, if Marshall County hadn't stepped forward and done what we did, it may not have got the same results. So I believe that it was a very positive thing. Everything's in place for that. The money is to be coming in pretty soon. And I believe you'll be seeing announcements on that once the money's been actually awarded. When we're trying to do what we're doing, we're not doing this just within ourselves. We're really trying to leverage outside investment. So whether it's philanthropy, businesses, personal, sometimes there's individuals that decide that they see the need. But what we recognize is that investing in not only the county, but in Plymouth itself helps to benefit the county overall and invest in our broader community. So there's a lot of people that we would consider to be perhaps left on the sidelines if we're not really working diligently at trying to move everybody up. The return on investment, it helps to attract grants, coordinate projects, support workforce initiatives. advance housing, and to grow entrepreneurship. So many of these things that we consider to be really the base needs of our community are the things that we're working on and we're trying to strategize over. 2027 is going to be a very busy year for us. We're working heavily with the new CDC and the Housing and Infrastructure Committee that we have. The Quality of Life and what you're going to see probably the most visible because you're seeing things like arts in the street. I can't say that I take responsibility a little bit. Ana did a great job. She's still here. She left, but... They did a great job. I love going there on Saturday. The business growth and workforce development, of course, that comes from our major support organization, which would be MCEDC. And then the community ecosystem and regional partnerships is part of what I guess I tried to bring to the table as being part of the South Bend Regional Partnership. So I'm the Marshall County representative at this time. Don't ask me how I got there. It just... There was really no appointment. It's just I had to show up. And so I've been doing that now for about 10 years. I guess tonight what I'd like to do, I promised you in the past that I wouldn't bug you for money, but tonight's the night I'm going to bug you for money. So the investment opportunity is we're asking for you to renew your $40,000 investment that you've done the last two years. There's a $40,000 investment that you'd already allocated for this year that I believe we, I don't know if there's actually a formal approval that needs to be done or if it's just a matter of just making sure everybody's on board with that. And then we will be looking to have further support of collaborative projects and things that will be more, we call them specific project oriented. So if there's something, a grant that comes to us and it needs some kind of city stamp of approval, may not require any funding, but that's the other type. It'd be like a ready grant, perhaps, or something that wouldn't even require the money. Our closing vision is, to be perfectly honest, is just to build stronger communities, is to take our county, put it in a position that most counties do not have the time nor the efforts that they can put forward to try to think about where are we gonna be at in five years? When are we gonna be at 10 years? And I believe that these board members and the affiliated community committees that we've been able to organize have really started to tap into the ideals and the things that the community people are looking for. So this is not something that Gary is just trying to think of. This is, to be perfectly honest, this has really been built from the ground up with the individuals from all the different communities, whether it's Bremen, Culver, Bourbon, Argus, La Paz. It's a great collaborative effort, and I think that it's very worthy of us investing in it as a community. So I thank you for your time. If you've got any additional questions, I'm here to be able to answer them for you or try to answer them for you, I should say.

I don't know that I have a question or a statement that if we're going to invest in it. The $40,000? Sure. I want to see what the other communities are planning on.

Yep.

I ask that all the time. I don't blame you. With the request, I want to see what everybody else is committing to as well.

Correct. Correct.

That's my only request.

We have presented thus far at Bremen, and they have, I don't know what the exact amount that they're putting in their budget. We asked for, I believe it was, I remember what it was. Was it $7,500? No, it was $10,000.

I thought it was supposed to be five, but at the meeting you asked for 75.

That was bourbon.

That was bourbon.

Yeah. So Bremen, I believe, was 10,000. They thought they might be able to even draw more than that. So we're getting good positive feedback. So, Randy, I appreciate it. I'm with you. I don't think Plymouth should be standing alone on this.

I'm with Randy. Yeah. So it's an ongoing question there.

So you asked to withdraw down 26. I can't remember. Did we appropriate that?

It was appropriate, yes. We just need an invoice today.

Yeah, that's what I thought. Good. I'm glad we did that. I just like to ask, you know.

So, yeah, just an invoice. We can handle an invoice. Okay.

So I got a question, Gary. Yes, sir. Thank you for all you do, seriously. But the spotlight on the rural health really intrigues me. And I see that as one of Plymouth and Marshall County's biggest challenges. I totally agree. As we lose all our services. And I know Eric Kostopoulos on your board of directors, which is good. He's a really good person. But, you know, we've got to get buy-in from Mishawaka. I mean, it's kind of falling on deaf ears. Is there any strategy that we can bring some of those services back to Plymouth?

So I have to be a little bit careful about making sure the confidentiality. But I have met with people from Beacon. I have met with some of the people from St. Joe. I have met and I'm in the process of meeting with as many of the commissioners and county council members as I can individually. Each one of them, as I've talked to them, has expressed the exact same thing, Dave, that you were talking about. And I am not willing to just throw my hands up and say there's nothing we can do about this. So I believe what we have to do is be creative. I think there's going to be some opportunities perhaps with, if we bring another outside organization in, I'm not talking about St. Joe, they've already got a facility. Some of the other ones probably are going to be looking for some kind of incentives to try to bring some of their people. I've dealt with, for instance, Dr. Schumacher. He's got some plans that I don't know if he's ever presented to you regarding some scholarships for physicians, the young physicians that are coming out of school to bring them in. And then you basically help pay for their, they sign up for two to five years. You help to pay for some of their education. I think all these have merit. I think the main thing we have to do is we have to not be a health desert. And that's sort of where we're at right now, healthcare desert. And so I think, I think the regional, thing that we showed you tonight to grow. That was a nice thing that came through. It's from the federal government. It's from the big, beautiful bill. Somehow got pushed into, and the state has actually got 12 initiatives, I believe. I think 13th is ours. So there's 12 other that go across the whole state that you're going to see different components of it. Some of it's telehealth, some of it's, and in our case, what they're trying to do is promote more guidance counselors, the best way to say it. So it's people that can help the people walk the path of trying to find their health care. Some of them are talking about some of these other counties actually providing transportation because there's some people that can't figure out, especially as they get more elderly, they don't know how to get to their physicians. So Dave, to answer your question, I would love to have even more of a task force that really You know, I don't know. You can't demand. You know, there was a time when Marshall County had their own hospital. That's where I was born. In the house, actually. That's how far back I go. But it was connected to the new building, but it was still a house. But, you know, we don't get to demand what we used to. Marshall County had their own hospital. And then at some point in time, we sold it. And so I'm not saying that was a bad decision, but we don't have the same leverage we used to have.

So where's this money that's coming into the county? Who's the trustee? You're talking about on the health side? Yeah, on the health side.

So the money, it's a tiered system. The state, the Indiana Department of Health has basically the call on it, right? There is a, call it an advisory or an oversight committee. I'm on that committee for our regions. we are responsible for watching over it, looking at all the paperwork that's coming through. And then there's a coalition. And the coalition group meets every week. That's who actually submitted the application. That is going to go to vendors that have signed up, I guess the best way to say it, they have contracts with the state. So there's actually going to be contracts that are getting... So I believe... St. Joe Hospital, Marshall County, is one of the people that are getting some of the money. Some of the other hospitals are. There's a couple. I think Bowen might be getting some of it. And they're going to be responsible then to have sub-recipients that are under them. So... Marshall County Foundation was one of the organizations we talked about and we were actually pushing to have as the dispersing organization because they had the infrastructure, but the state didn't want to do it through the community foundation. So they're basically doing it through the large healthcare providers, and they in turn then are providing it to the next tier. Not what I would have preferred to do because I was sort of not wanting the money to go through them, but... Anyway, that's how it's currently being done. That could change, too, though, because this is a year-by-year. It's good for five years. The money's already been allocated, but the actual people that receive it could change over the course of those years. If you'd like the application that was actually sent in, I can get it for you folks and send it to you. It might be of interest to see the metrics that they're going to be using.

So basically the money that's earmarked to Marshall County goes to St. Joe Hospital and they're going to distribute it and use it how they see fit.

Well, based upon the application and the sub-recipients that have already signed up. So there's been a, call it an approval process that's already gone through. So yes.

All right. Thank you.

I'd like to have a copy of that.

Yes, I'll send it to all of you. Thank you. It's a bit tedious, but it's not super long.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate your patience as we've grown up as an organization. We'll try to do you right.

Thank you. Thanks, Gary.

All right.

Moving on. Conference and plan. Anything to say? I don't have anything.

No time. It's soccer season, so you might not see time very much.

All right. Privilege of the floor. Anything related to the agenda items tonight? No. And number eight, acceptance of communication. Move to accept communication, so it's not in our packet.

Second.

Got motion and second. Any further discussion? If there are none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed, nays. Randy? Motion to adjourn. Very good. Thank you.