Town Council - Regular Meeting

I pledge allegiance 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.

Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Ron Town Council meeting uh December 2nd, 2025. Uh before we get started, I do just want to give a shout out to Aaron and his crew for the snow work that they've done over the last few days. has been phenomenal in town.

Um, let's see. First on the uh this call the meeting to order here at 6 p.m. and then uh look at the uh 20 the November 4th, 2025 town council meeting minutes. I need a motion for approval of the council meeting minutes as written. I'll make that motion. Second. I'll second. All in favor? All opposed? I need a motion for the November 19th, 2025 executive session meeting minutes as written. I'll make that motion. Second. All in favor?

All opposed. All right. We are going to close the regular December 2nd, 2025 town council meeting and open it up to a public hearing for ordinance 202507 for the wastewater rates. And I believe most of you have received a handout or should have been able to grab a handout. Um, one of these here and clean off the ordinance here. I can get right here. Got that ordinance 20507. The uh synopsis of this is to uh discuss the change to section 53.06 of chapter 53 of the code in regards to the uh wastewater and the town council is uh proposing an increase a significant increase unfortunately in the uh wastewater rate um based off a study done by the financial consultant with Baker Tilly. Um, do we want to go through what those amounts are? Do we need to?

I think 34%. The the rate the the jump is going to be a 34% increase that would take effect January 1 of 2026. And correct me if I'm wrong, that would show up in their bill in February. February bill. Correct. So, the public hearing is open to have discussion in regards to ordinance 2025-07. So, that's just the waste water. Correct. So the water bill is not going up, just the waste water. Just the waste water is going up. Correct. The trash is not changing. The water is not changing. It's the waste water. And that is due to the new sewer system that the town is having to put in. So we're talking about 20 bucks around here and there. That is correct.

20 to 30. 20 to 30. If you could uh stand and uh recite your name in the place where you live, please.

My name is Andrew Sans. I live on Gain Street here in Bruno. Our question is why are the rates going up and secondly what led up to it and why are you doing such a drastic increase in one jump? We are in excess of capacity on our wastewater system as we stand right now within the department of uh um environmental management. And so we have to look at increasing our capacity to hold it. We're, like I said, we're in excess of capacity right now with the wastewater. So, we have to, we're being ordered by the state to make a modification, tap into another, that type of thing for the wastewater. Over the past several months, it was discussed on various options. and it was decided for the town of Rono uh to put in a new wastewater treatment system um here on our facility rather than tapping into like the the city of Fort Wayne, the city of Huntington, that type of thing. So, we looked at we did a cost study with Baker Tilly and uh decided that was the avenue we were going to go down. So, obviously uh we've been trying to look at funding as well for this. Um, as of right now, we really have not been able to acquire any funding for it. And so, we got a $20 million project that we have to pay for.

What led up to it? How how long has that been? This has been going on for a number of years where really this should have we should have had some increases in our wastewater throughout the Sarah, correct me if 2009 2008 2008 was the last time we had a wastewater. You had an increase in 23.

We had but from 20 So in 2008 there was an increase but then we did not have another increase till 2023 and we had a little increase. Now we're having to do another increase to help fund this. So if those increases would have been incremental throughout the years, we wouldn't see this big jump. But like I said, we went from 2008 to 2023 with no increases at all um from previous uh um just councils and their their decisions. And Aaron, can you correct me if I'm wrong, but our capacity right now is what 350 and we run at 450 and when it rains we're about 600. Is that

350? We run we're not getting any rain we're around 200 250. We get rain we're about 1.2 2 million. Does that make Do you want him to explain a little further? Can you break that down a little bit? So, normal daily flow, we we're around 200,000 gallons. If we get a significant rainfall, we're around 1.2 million. Our current capacity is 350 with a peak of 600.

Okay. If if this happened over a period of years, I still wonder why the council let it go so long without any kind of an increase or trying to catch it up and you're penalizing, so to speak, the residents now to make up for a former ills. Absolutely.

And I don't know that any of us were actually on town council back then. And to to kind of elaborate too, town council before us had looked at a couple years ago, we're looking at a wastewater treatment plant and con considering it. And then we've been discussing I've been on town, this is my second year. I since I've been on town council, it's been subject and part of our public hearing for the past two years because we didn't want to blindside anyone. But it has it's been coming and we've been trying to kind of get ahead of it. But this is what we were handed. Okay. Well, understand I'm not condemning any individual. It just seemed just seemed to me it's been neglected for quite some time and here we are all of a sudden. Okay, folks.

You're going to make up for somebody else's ills. It is exactly what's happening and then we're being forced our hand is being forced by the state in order to do this. Why is it whatever it is 20 30%. Why is that necessary? Why can't you jump it in increments over a period of few years? This this actually is an increments. This is phase one. We don't know what the final cost will be until it's finished being designed and then bid. We're also we still haven't given up on trying to find other funding sources. The county has come to the table. They're they've committed to 500,000, but we're trying to go after other grant funding and we still have a window of time to find that before the project's bid and we're at closing. Mhm. [clears throat]

But we just we thought instead of slamming you with the total increase at one time, we'd start in January and hopefully have a better outcome once everything's bid. We just don't know yet what that final is going to be. Are you suggesting that with your 30% I think was mentioned, if that is a reality that you will possibly lower this in the next few months? Okay. The 34% increase probably will not be lowered, but we may not have to do as large of an increase the second time around here

is what we're trying to look at because we we're we're going to be faced with another increase down the road here. Not not too far down the road situation. We're going to be forced with another increase. And what we're trying to do is see if there's other ways to try to minimize that future increase. But you're exactly right because we hadn't had increases in in from 2008 to 2023. without a doubt. Uh costs have gone up. Uh everything else has in that time frame and then those those just were passed on to the the residents and so now we're forced with a large increase. Have you considered or has the town looked at the possibility of a bond issue and pay for it? That if if in fact that were the case, you would give at least the residents the opportunity to buy the bonds and possibly profit from it. Maybe not, but they're going to lose this way. It's a total loss for them. The bonds would be maybe a soothing way to ease into this. Get your money, get what you needed, and then you can come to the town or anybody open to anybody. Do you want to buy this bond? Here's what we're proposing. We can pay you in interest. It'll be paid off in so many years.

So, we've explored multiple options. State revolving fund, the [clears throat] um bond bank. You've got we're just too far down on the list on SRF. We're like 70 out of and they may only fund 20 projects in a year. That's probably even generous. You can correct me if I'm wrong. Um but that's why we're look we're still looking at multiple options. We won't know exact rates until we go to close, but we're looking at everything to find the the best option for town. We all live in town. We don't want to pay any more than we have to either. We really don't. um we just find ourselves in an unfortunate situation.

Yes, I understand. But you say you're looking at options. You're still looking at options and that's fine. That's wonderful. However, you waited until the 1st of December to put in this for years.

It's been five years being discussed and every time we talked about we discussed we know rate increases are coming. That that is a given. We're just trying to minimize that impact. But it has been discussed publicly and they did start five years ago, but we narrowed in on a plan probably the past two years where we kind of changed and honed in on what we could do. We started up higher, we got lower because trying to close lagoon. The cost on that's been higher. So we're we're trying to manage multiple programs and keep cost down. Are you currently issuing new permits? No, don't get me wrong. We're not issuing any new taps unless you have a tap on your property. Only existing taps. Yeah,

we we we've actually even had to turn down some sales and property because they wanted to tap and we could not do that. Mhm. And impact fees were also placed into play earlier like mid this year. I think we put impact fees in place. So, if you want to build and put a place in, they'll pay X amount based on whatever uh their pipe or everything that's there. So, we're trying to find ways to make sure that that residents aren't the only ones paying for this. That's fair. If you make that happen. Oh, that's already put been put in place. You have an easy pool here because Okay, folks, you live here, you're going to pay the bill.

And also, we looked at regionalization with the city of Fort Wayne. We looked at with Aqua Water. We explored options with the city of Huntington. We've looked at every option you can dig up to try to find what's going to be best for the town in its future. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. At the current rate of address, please Brent Hamill. At the current rate of the population in this community, how much of an increase in that in percentage wise will that project allow growthwise

with the plant I believe up to maybe a thousand. It might be able to double in the next 20 years. That won't last long. We're not looking to become the next caramel or fisers. We want to keep the feel of our community. um but allow some capacity. We're not a we're not a big industry community. We're a residential community for the most part with a a beautiful downtown. Um so we're not looking to go gang busters or exorbitant. We're looking to be able to maintain slow steady growth

that might last 10 years maybe. I doubt Armstrong. [clears throat] I don't think I'll wait. Other comments?

Brandon Taylor, 286 Cozy Hill. I just do want to speak on your guys' behalf. You know, I've been coming to council meetings for 20 plus years being as role as fire chief or on the park board and this has been for everybody to know. This has been talked about for probably 20 years. Uh it was the councils at the time knew Imm told them that the the lagoons had to be taken out. They knew about it. They just kept kicking the can down the the road. You know how you say that? Because they didn't want to be the bad guys to raise rates. Now IDMDM's coming in and saying you have no choice. You have to do it. So unfortunately this council takes the brunt of it, but they're it's been talked about for 20 years. I I can attest to that. It's just was always put well we'll just deal with it later. We deal with it later because nobody wanted to be that person to raise it. So if they would have started raising the rates back then, this could have probably been all taken care of and we wouldn't be as high as we are going to have to be even because costs were less back then, too. So just

Thank you. Yeah. Yes. Dennis Wilson 311 Rockwell. The car wash, is that a new tap or was there one existing? Okay. And they're on city and the impact fees were in place before they

other comments, questions. All right, I will move to close the public hearing and reopen the December 2nd, 2025 regular town council meeting. And next on the agenda is locker group uh have a discussion about the wastewater treatment plant and the update. Sir, yes, good evening to you all.

Thanks. [clears throat] So, uh, a couple of, uh, weeks ago, right before Thanksgiving, we submitted our 60% set of plans to Aaron. Um, so we're here just kind of give give you guys the update. And the biggest thing I want to talk tonight was is through the budget, just the the our 60% update. Um, first of all, I apologize for uh my board here. Apparently being out in the cold was not very kind of paper. Um, but if you look at your you have a a small sheet with it, but um you can see that the SBR tanks are still in the middle. Um, we've been doing a little bit different with some uh some concrete up in the north just because of the amount of traffic that we expect to be out there. We think that might ne might need to be some concrete. And then just on the north side of that concrete, you can see the lift station for getting the the flow that arrives to the plant into the SBR. Um, if you come to the south side of the SBR, um, there'll be a pipe that'll run out to the east and then north, uh, and on the north side of the garage over to the, um, the UV, excuse me, the, uh, the UV system that's over there on the the far east side of the property, closest to the river. Um, from there, it'll it'll flow kind of like it does now to the south and then out to the little river. We will have to have a new um new outlet all the way to the river. So, all of this stuff will um like I said, nothing really has changed too too drastically from the 30%. We've just ironed out some details. We're still looking at the UV system. Our hope is that we can go from from two channels down to one channel. Uh we're looking at little things like that that we can try and do to keep keep bringing the cost down. So, um, speaking of the cost there, um, the cost as compared to the 30%, uh, has gone down, uh, by about

600,000. So, uh, good news there. Um, basically, I mean, there's little little costs inside of here that have gone up. The SBRS um, are the most significant one that have gone down by about a million. Um, but again, in all, everything is has gone down by about 600,000. Um we hope that we can keep that trend moving as we proceed forward to 90% and and as we move on obviously like you said Tanisha what what the final bid will be what it will be and so that will be the final project cost but this is where we think we're at at the moment based on current construction trends. Um that does still include almost uh 2 mill 1.8 million in contingency. So, um, obviously there's always a hope that you don't have to use that in in any project. Um, but to be on the safe side, we always we always include it. So, um, all all told, 60% uh construction estimate for this project is 11.35 11.34 million. Um, and like I said, our hope is that we can continue to push that low. Um, with that, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to try and answer them. Um, one thing moving forward, I'm be talking with Aaron about this, but the geotechnical company that was out there, I didn't do a good job of explaining to them that that Lagoon was filled in the past. So, after they did their borings, they now had some questions about the the material out there. So, um, we I've been working with Aaron to get them as much information as we can, but we don't yet have the geotechnical report. So, we might be a little bit delayed on our 90% set. I just want to make you all aware of that, but I'll work through that with Aaron and make sure he understands what's going on and we'll get stuff to you guys as quickly as possible when it comes to that. The other thing I wanted to mention, as Nick mentioned, I think we're looking at bonding and where that goes in the future. My understanding is that we don't have a meeting scheduled yet, but when we do have a meeting scheduled yet, we'd love to be involved

to try and help understand when when things are going to be wrapping up so we can make sure our time frame wraps up at the same time as we're ready to bond the project. So, and thank I really appreciate lot Mueller group you guys coming in really listening to us and understanding that we need we need something that we can afford. I don't know that I said this portable but it's it's it's less than what it was. So, thank you. Thank you for listening to us and hearing our concerns. Appreciate hearing that. I don't have any other questions. Again, thanks for being available. Not a problem. Thank you. Thank you. Can you keep your board?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I can do it, right? Yep. You pass around. [clears throat]

All right. Next on the agenda is the Ron Oak uh volunteer fire department uh and the 2026 contract. Um, I guess I'll just, you know, there are some questions. Uh, we're not prepared to tonight because we just got yesterday. Um, but I know we got until the next meeting. Correct. Correct. Yeah. This is just a discussion of it for tonight. We're not making any motion or anything.

Okay. All right. Cool. Um, so I guess just some questions I can take back to the guys. The first one is uh, you know, added as far as the facilities repair and maintenance. Um, you know, just questioning about that as far as you know where the reasoning for that and I guess that's pretty much it.

Sure. When it comes to lights, if there's something that needs to be fixed up to a certain dollar amount, even with most leases, it's up to the [clears throat] lease to maintain. But if let's say the doors by miracle reduced to that like $999, that's only for the door, but then you need the labor and everything else. That's when council to come in and pick up.

Yeah, I understand. But yeah, I mean, you know, the biggest concern I have is obviously we're already running very tight. We don't we don't have the budget. We've we're using $20,000 out of donation money this year just just to keep in operation. That's literally that's not anything fancy. That's not the new that's literally to buy new gear that we that's expired for NFPA standards that we have to buy. So adding more cost on is not going to help us any. So that's I think the biggest concern for us or for me [clears throat] I'll speak for me when we're on town council is that right now for the past year or two 60% of the runs are in the township. 40% are here. We pay almost double what the township pays

toward the fire department. Correct. We can't put any more strain and stress, especially with all the other things coming in on residents in town to subsidize what township should be paying. Yeah. In addition to that, we we have other like we have TIF funds, but TIF funds are restricted for certain purposes. We have seed funds, but those are meant for economic development to help offset things, which to make ADA compliant or town hall to potentially even help offset costs for the wastewater treatment plant. So, we're stuck in a between a rock and a [clears throat] hard space and I think you guys are too, but something has to give and and we don't have any more capacity to give.

Well, here here's the unfortunate part and and I I side with you 100%. Don't you know that the township has underpaid for decades, you know, and they did just spend probably $120,000 on new air packs for us, which is a a godsend because at the end of this year, we were done. We would not be able to do interior firefighting anymore because of our packs being expired. Okay. So that was great. They're still not up to the mark, don't get me wrong, because of what the town has put in for the past probably 30 years compared to them. But what's the hard part is it puts us in a real pickle because I I I understand with you, but they don't they don't listen to us. They won't give us any more money and we're just we're we're still running short is the problem. So

if you remember, Brandon, we tried to do a fire district. I agree. Once we presented the numbers to the township, [clears throat] they wanted no part of being a part of that fire district. I know. They shot that down right away. I know. And it's unfortunate because that was a win-win for everybody, you know, all the tax. We tried to look at avenues to help with the funding and and try to bring us all into one and township would not budge on that. Correct. So, I mean, you know, obviously I'd like to discuss I'd like to kind of, you know, once the fire department gets together on this and and uh maybe try to get, you know, I know we can't all meet obviously, but try to get a committee together that who we could maybe meet before the next meeting to kind of go over, you know, some of these ideas and stuff and and have it all finalized before the meeting. That way, we're not standing here trying to get stuff. Okay? You know,

and to be clear, I think I can't speak for everyone when I say we 100% support our fire department. you guys do good work and it's not easy. Um, I'll also say I think it's really important that in the next year that you know whether it's two members of council with a committee from the fire department and members of township and maybe some members from out audience actually sit down and think through we need a new fire station. It's not going to magically appear and we as town can't pay for all of it. Correct. because we're already with the wastewater treatment plant and the lagoon and lift station we just did. We're we're tapped out right now. Yeah.

And but we also recognize there is a need and we need a plan in place so that we can financially prepare for that versus all of a sudden here's another increase for town. Your your local income tax is going up because of x y and z. That's not what we want to look like. We want to be prepared and we want to be good stewards of taxpayer money and and present a plan ahead of time. I think that's very like some equalization as well. Oh, 100%. And I agree. And you know, that's where the the the the territory was the best. And unfortunately, we had some taxpayers in that meeting. They were 100% for it. Why the township's against it, I have no idea, but you know, we had some of the largest land owners in that meeting and they were okay with it.

Yeah. We we spent money on the studies and went with Baker Tilly and presented a a plan to to create a buyer district.

Correct. And it would have been perfect. So maybe we can revisit but I think you know like I I tried to explain in that meeting I and you were there and s there. You know the best part of if we could all come together and work on this together. It's great. You know it's it's no good when we got three different entities but heads against each other. Not on purpose. You know what I mean? But we all have our own things that we're after. if we all come together for the common goal, it's going to make us get further down a lot easier. [clears throat] So, and I I will throw out too, you may not have heard through the grape vine yet, and I wouldn't get your hopes up that it's going to be a big difference, but um with the ambulance being in the station, and they don't pay any rent or anything towards maintenance either.

They have agreed to renegotiate that, we have to get [clears throat] a six-month notice that we wanted to talk about a contract with them. So, that's been scheduled for down the road, but that's going to be summer. Good. I don't think we're going to get a lot out of it, but we're trying. [clears throat] If it's been the same luck as us, you'll get zero, unfortunately. So, but anyway, I'm glad that that conversation's happening. So, um and I appreciate the openness and and and we're willing obviously we've been willing or willing to work. So, and we we appreciate what you guys do for us as well. Yeah. I appreciate that. Thank you. and and I'll get with you um later this week and see if we can't set a meeting for next week, whoever can make it and we'll just get it hashed out real quick and move forward. All right, sounds good. [clears throat]

Thank you. Thank you. You Next on the agenda is Source One Insurance to talk about the 2026 health insurance and the quote.

Hi, I'm [clears throat] Kelly Rama. I'm your uh new agent and as this meeting has been trending, unfortunately, I don't have any good news either. their health costs have increased like everything else. Um trend for next year is running about 12 [clears throat] and a half% is what they're seeing. So unfortunately the plan did take a hit. However, you guys are part of the chamber and you do receive a discount on that. So instead of seeing a 16% rate increase, you guys are seeing a 10 and a half. Um so over the month that is just shy of about 800, less than $800 a month. So that is the good news is that you guys are saving about um 410 a month by having that chamber discount. The discount um the part to be part of the chamber is only $99 for the whole month. So you [clears throat] by far outweigh the membership of being in the chamber. [clears throat] Um other than that cost, like I said, you guys are going to be saving the um chamber discount. It adds up being just shy of 5,000 for the year. um increase you guys have talked about before changing what the out of pocket is for the employee versus what the township is paying. So, um, that motion or what is being discussed is about, uh, it used to be a $700 is what the out of pocket for the employee. For single, for family, it was 1,400 and that is going to be changed to 900 for the employee and 2,000 for family. Um, as part of that, the out of pocket max did go up $200. um PHP again is it's federal changes blah blah blah healthcare changes and everything. So it is what it is. We can't argue that one or decrease it by any means. So for the single the

difference that the township will be paying is [laughter] um for the employer contribution it went up 31%. The employees contribution went up 2.48% 48% and that is for single. For a family, the township is actually decreasing the contribution by 3.5%. And the employee contribution is going up 3.36%. Um the increase for the deductible is pretty much going to be on the employee side versus the township side. So for the township, you guys are paying about just over 94% for single and about 91% for family. And that is about the sum of it. If I can answer any questions if you guys have it. You have all my nice graphs with cheat sheets and notes on it. And just so the public knows, um the total for the year then for our health insurance cost will be

it's going to be 93,684.

And that's for the year. And that's the town's um portion or the cost of the health insurance. That is it in general. That includes the employees contribution. Okay. So you guys would be at um I have to do the math and give it back to you guys. I apologize. I did not have that number. But then also this is taking into account that the employees are going to be hit with a little bit higher out of pocket as well. Correct. Correct. Correct. Yep. That did go up the $200 for the single and then $600 for $600 for the family. Okay.

Any questions, comments, discussions? Okay. I need a motion to approve the 2026 health insurance quote. I'll make a motion to approve the 2026 health insurance quote for the total amendment. Okay. And I need a second. I'll second that. Ryan seconds that. All in favor? I. All opposed. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome.

All right. Next up on the agenda is citizen comments. You need to please remind you that if you have a comment, please stand up, speak your name, speak your address, and we'll [clears throat] all lot of time. If you need more time, then we can you can request for additional time, and we can grant that if need be. Any citizen comments at all. All righty. Next on the agenda is the park department.

Evening. Uh just a couple updates on the park projects. Uh the lighting is like almost halfway done. The tennis and the basketball course lights are installed. Um the other agenda or the other thing I have for you tonight is um the electricians want to uh or I shouldn't say want to, they need some extra bracing for the poles for the baseball field lights. Um, it includes the XR X arms of 10 foot wood and 14 small braces and obviously the hardware to install those. Uh, the money is in the budget for it. And [clears throat] the price for the the hardware and the wood bracing is $2,55346.

And that'll come out of the park budget. Yes. Now it's for $2554. [clears throat] Yes. I make a motion to approve that. Second that. All in favor? I. All opposed. And I don't know if you guys had anything. When is the first part board meeting in the new year? It'll be the second Tuesday of January or January. 6 o'clock here. Yes. Thank you for no relatively [clears throat] bad news. didn't ask us for a million dollars. You want to raise that? Exactly.

I can use a few more things that the sewer project. Uh, next on the agenda is the police department. Good evening everyone. Um, if you haven't noticed, there's white stuff on the ground and that slows [clears throat] down the friction between your tire and the pavement. So, you need to slow down. I was over here working accidents on Saturday. Um, so you need to slow down. And for the council, I don't know if it's my replacement or Grant's replacement. What are we doing? Um, I'm going to be gone the 14th of May. And Sarah, is that to be discussed now? I thought we already

Or will that be discussed part down there with the Yeah. Did did Mandy not have a conversation with you? I don't have a clue. It's the reason I'm asking. I think the authorization's been granted to to authorize you to hire a deputy marshal. Okay. Do we have numbers? Yes, I can see you afterwards if you'd like. Okay. Yes, I'd [clears throat] like to get that. Um, then what I will do is I'll get the word I mean it'll all be published

and I'll get the word out and I my goal is to have everything closed off by middle of January. So February's meeting I can come in and go this is who we'd like to get because May is going to be here very fast and Nick will speak to you afterwards because he's going to leave on for but I don't want Okay. [clears throat] And I think you're aware though that whether or not they need academy training affect that'll affect everything. Yeah. Okay. That's all I have. Thank you. Superintendent Operations.

Uh one main thing I have for you is a change order with SNE. Um their original service agreement was for $5,000. That was pretty much to get it started. Uh some Zoom closure too. uh they well exceeded that. Um we've got another meeting scheduled with item December 10th um to talk about the [clears throat] original closure plan and also we're going to discuss our groundwater monitoring for we're doing number one. Originally it was for 30 years. 30 years was up February this year. Um I've been still wanting more tests performed before the end of this year which is $10,000. So, we're going to see what we can come up with that and why they've somehow moved the goalpost. Um, I can't find any documentation as to why, but we're going to discuss that next week.

Is this $10,000 that you just told us about in addition to the 10,000 that is in the change order here? So, this is the original was $5,000. They're upping it at $10,000. So, the city is 15, right? And so the 10 the extra 10,000 he's referring to is that I didn't require testing. That's not part of the change. In addition to this, it's [clears throat] easy for them to spend the money, isn't it? Yeah.

Well, there's there's so some the reports they've been getting on the groundwater monitoring. Um there's really no rhyme or reason of how it's put together and why they've been accepting it. I mean there's it's just a lot of lab results. [clears throat] So has SMA said anything on those results? Have they made any comments? They can't make heads and tails. They don't see anything that stands out. So no tables put in, no historical data, none of that. So that's kind of what we're going to address. See if we get out from underneath that. Yeah,

we thought that depending on what we can do with clo number two's closure, maybe we have to monitor a couple of wells there by it, but [clears throat] that's been trying to work out. Yeah. Okay. Can I make a motion to approve the change order for $10,000 for me to continue moving forward? I'll second that. All in favor say I. I.

All opposed. Uh we also got some bad news from community crossings. Um we did not get awarded any money for this go around. So it said there was 450 applicants and only $267 million. So we'll sit down with Sarah and see if what we can come up with to get something done this year. Another impact [clears throat] from Senate Bill. Yeah. So we'll see what happens there. So that's some bad Monday.

Well, compliments to you guys for making a lot of the advancements in leveraging what money we have to get CCG money and other monies, HSIP, etc. So that our cuts instead of it being 100% it's 20 or 10%. Yeah, we've got we'll be able to do something. We just won't be able to go as extravagant as we hope. So, and then we'll apply again next year. Any update on control panel for the station? The control panel's done. It's been done. I've been we've been waiting on the consultant to get some information to the manufacturer. Let me know if you need help.

Okay. And it's only in Ohio. It's two days away. So, That's all. That's all you have. Okay. Thank you, Councilwoman Tina Schwagel. Um, the only thing I have is to thank everyone for coming to the meetings, um, for sharing your feedback. We do [clears throat] want to hear it. It is valuable to us and we appreciate it. Counciloman, I have nothing at this time. Thank you, [clears throat] Councilman Brian Hump.

All right, guess um Vice President Nick Shear is up. First on the docket here is the um motion to approve the ordinance 2025-077 amending the wastewater rates as discussed earlier this evening. I need a motion to approve the 34% increase. I'll make the motion to approve ordinance 2025-077 amending the wastewater treatment rates. And I need a second. I will begrudgingly second. All those in favor? I. All those opposed. Okay. All right. [laughter]

Uh next on the uh docket is the lease agreement for 126 North Main Street. Um, there are going to be no changes to that contract for the 2026 year. Just need a motion to approve that lease agreement that's currently in place. I'll make a motion to agree the uh lease agreement for old town hall at 126 North Street. I need a second. I'll second. All those in favor say I. All those opposed. [clears throat] All right. Next on the agenda is the Huntington County drainage board bridge update and I'm going to let Tanisha [laughter] take over in regards to that. Thank you so much.

So, as some of you are aware, um I think it was maybe a month, two months ago, drainage board came before us and told us to remove the older pedestrian bridge going across the park. We were concerned our only recourse at that time because they told us to remove it by a certain date or they would basically do it and make us pay was to file an appeal. We filed an appeal which we would have preferred to have a conversation before any of this happened but that didn't happen. So we filed the appeal. Then there was a mutual agreement to withdraw the case and in hopes that we could discuss and resolve. In the meantime, they filed a hearing to make us to remove the bridge at $5,000 and at our cost. We have drafted an objection letter that we plan to submit. My hope is still that we can have a conversation before that hearing, but please before you leave, there's information from the drainage board in the back. It has the board the drainage board members names on there. Um, it has I think we included some of their information for you to contact them. If you do not want us to remove that pedestrian bridge, we need your help and making it clear that that is not what we want.

We we have money. We're spending money on so many other things. That's not that there's no to my knowledge and from what we found, there is no hydraulics assessment. There is no engineering assessment stating why it should be removed. So, we're questioning the justification of why they're going to make us remove this move remove that bridge. We're not trying to to be sticklers or anything like that. We're not want to cause problems, but if there is a real reason that impedes flow or whether or not they've evaluated other things that could be mitigated as far as maintenance that we could do as town, how it could benefit the town by removing the pedestrian bridge. We have not been given any of that information. We cannot find any of that information looking at the county. So, we're asking if you guys wanted to say, we need you to show up to the meeting or at least call or email, make your neighbors aware um of the situation. Um and then I think you have the the day of the

Yeah. The date of the meeting for the drainage board is December 18th, 2025 at 9:45 a.m. Um this does not stipulate where, but it's I presume it's at the room 203 at the courthouse. 206 206. Yeah. Okay. They have 203 on this um here room 203. That's 206. Okay. And security will always tell you where it is. But but again, if you feel otherwise, let us know. [clears throat] We don't we don't want to spend what do you say? Bad good money on bad bad you know.

We want to be good stewards of what you have. But because we haven't had justification, we're questioning why it needs to be done. Do we know what its issues are compared to the other two bridges that were just installed? The two bridges are newer and they're one foot higher. One foot higher. Yeah. One foot higher. And that other the old bridge will cause a flood. This much water. So,

but basically, if it gets that high, the park's going to flood anyway. Yes, sir. Um Ron Rivers from the villas of Rono. Um the drainage board has a habit of not mentioning anything to anybody about what they're doing. They came in and said that they needed a holding pond at the villas and tore all the woods out and just left a big mess of weeds and everything else in the lot. And uh when I asked them to come out and fix that, they came out and threw a bunch of grass seed in the lot, just left it. And then they come back and they spray the weed stuff and kill our lawn. So, but they never asked one time and I'm the president association. Nobody came to me and said, "We need to tear out all your woods at the villas and and clean it [clears throat] drain out and we haven't had enough water to do anything at that place." [clears throat] So, when you're saying the drainage board, u I can empathize with you, but uh it's useless to try to talk to him. I've been to two meetings and I've got nothing done

and that's why we're trying to fight it as much as we can. Um, but there again, we also have to look at, as Denanisha mentioned, spending good money after bad money situation, but we're we're we're trying to trying to keep the bridge if we can if if that's the wishes of the the residents and also to see about not having to incur that cost to have that torn out. Good luck. Well, and estimation of how they came to that figure as well. Yeah. [clears throat] Good idea. Is this something new this year? It's never been brought up in the past. Well,

um, they're saying it was at a drainage board meeting that none of us were part of or the previous town councils that we can find any town hall minutes or [clears throat] anything else that shows documentation of it. U, they're saying that whenever they agreed to allow the two bridges to be replaced that someone agreed to remove the third bridge, but town council never approved that. Did they have that in their meeting minutes? [laughter] They don't take minutes. They just record them and they haven't been able to. They do now. They take minutes now. Yeah. Since this issue, we asked for that, but we weren't pretty sure that Romans took minutes, but yeah.

So, but but bottom line again, not looking for a fight. It would what I would love to happen between now and the 18th is for that meeting to be postponed or cancelled so that members of drainage board and two members of council can actually have a conversation and see if we can come to some agreement where we look at does it need to happen right now? Do we need to have an assessment done? Are you willing to help us pay for that assessment? And then looking future on it versus do it right now. Yeah. So that would be I think that would be best obviously and that's for all of us because I don't want I'm not gonna I'm not trying to throw shade on them either. It's all of us. We want what's best for town

and if there is a legitimate justification we we need to know about it and do it. Not just going for word, right? It's factbased science. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. [clears throat] Never happened. They do not talk. They do not vote. They just do. But and the tra board does in the state of Indiana has a lot of power. How much [clears throat] do I do you remember? It was in excess of 200,000 for the two of them. So I think it's about 120 piece. Yeah. Bridge. 200 something,000. Just tell them we'll take one. Yeah. We just want one. still off statements,

but we want to be good partners with the county with the drainage board. We really want to put forward our be best effort, but right now we feel like communication would be better than No, we don't. No, anything else on the bridge?

Okay. Next on the agenda is the discussion of the 2026 raises. Um, council has met and this is just a discussion at this time. It'll actually be an approval at the next town council meeting which will be December 16th. Is that right? December 16th. Uh, so this is just a discussion at this time. In regards to that, um, the proposal and discussion is looking [clears throat] at doing a 2.5% increase across the board um, in regards to that. And then also um, when it comes time for the new town uh New Town Marshall to step in. Um we would pay that New Town Marshall $61,000.

Obviously opening the floor for discussion. Nothing. Okay. Well, I will ask, do you remember the cost of living increase this year? Because the increase is 2.5. We also increased how much they contribute to help them,

right? And the um what we they talked about was um what is the cost of living or the cola increase for 2026 and that came out at 2.5% as well. Um so like that coincides with like social security benefits that type of thing. So we tried to follow along the same lines as that. Um and that's how that that kind of 2.5 [clears throat] came about because of that cola increase that was presented by the federal government. All right. Next on the agenda is Sarah and seed fund planned for 2026.

So I have provided that to you. Any questions before I submit it to the county? I do not. It's part of We have to submit a plan every year, but it doesn't mean that we'll sign it. We just have to keep showing Yes. what it is. I make a motion to approve the seed funds plan for 2026. Are we doing a motion tonight on that? I can. Okay. [clears throat] And Tanisha has made a motion. I need a second. I'll second. All in favor? All opposed? Okay. Next on the agenda for you, sir, is uh 1.6 Six more main entrance door quotes.

Okay, we received two quotes. Um, the quarter did not tell us that, but we got quotes from ABC for one door was 4,350 and the second door 5,950. The other estimate was to replace both doors um including installation and painting. Um, also putting weather stripping on the front door. that is an issue with snow and rain getting in. Um, and that quote was for $8,500 RP3 construction.

And I will note, I don't know if you noticed, but the ADC quote did not include painting and the RP3 quote does include painting. So, one door would be on First Street and the other one would be for the fire department. Those are the two doors we're looking at. We have a question. What are [clears throat] they charging for painting? I can paint [laughter] the the gist of it is RP3 included the price for painting the other the other ADC. If you take the two their two quotes for each of the doors was more than RP3.

It says painting of the two new doors and frames. What? No. just a total of it was included in the total. [clears throat] So we need to if we need to if we want to move forward with the the quote um and the money would be coming from it would be coming from the rental reserve fund. The rental reserve fund. Okay. And these two words need to be done. Correct. Yes. Okay. I'll make a motion to accept the RP3 construction quote for $8,500. Second.

All in favor? All opposed? Next on your agenda, it looks like the Baker Tilly 5-year comprehensive financial plan. Yes, they um provided that to you guys at the last meeting and they've tabled it until this meeting. So, you just need to discuss and decide if you want to go with one of those three options. Option one was $2,800 a month. Second option was 2,000. That did not include utility funds. And the third option was 2,300. And that's just with one version instead of two.

And Aaron, um, was there a discussion that there really wouldn't be any need to do the utility? We've had Baker Tilly do a couple things. rate studies and didn't feel like we needed because the the the I mean we're looking at $800 a month more for the utility and two version versus um the [clears throat] one with two versions and no utility funds. Um we're still even if we do the utility fund in only one version, we're looking at uh $300 more.

You want to share like what this is about the desk one? Yeah, part of this plays in the reason why you wouldn't like consider putting in a utility is because the impacts of SB1 or Senate rule that one to fully understand what those impacts are to us to get an update if the general assembly does make changes in January or in the spring, which they've discussed doing, how that's going to impact town and our budget and where our funds go because it could impact um our law enforcement division. decisions where we find funds for certain things. There's several things that are going to be impacted. Um, and that's why you may want to consider option one versus the other and the split of the funds. So, if we did option one, where would the funds come from to pay for it?

Um, if you did include the utilities, whatever work was done would come out of the water sewer, but then the other would come out of general. The other option is to do option three if you want to include utilities and that just allows for one version instead of two. Um that's also $3,600 more for the year. Yeah, but it says $500 a month, right? Does option one does option three include the briefing on Senate bill? Any of these would include that. Okay, then that

it's just basically if you want to include the utilities or not. And what I'm hearing from that's really not necessary for the town to spend the extra that's called $300 a month for that utility reading. That's good. Anybody can say so I need a motion to approve option one, two, or three. Um option one there again includes the two versions of utility funds. Option two includes two versions but not the utility fund. Option three includes one version and and the utility fund.

I make an option and a motion that we accept option two. I'll second that. Okay. So, uh option two is the one that is the two versions with millions fund. I've got a motion by um Terry and a second by Tanisha. All those in favor? I. All those opposed. All right. And then the next up is the Baker Tilly agreement.

Yes. I just needed to mention that um I did sign the arbitrage agreement having to do with the previous ban renewal. Um it's just something that they go ahead and do to make sure that the interest that we earn isn't more than what the IRS regulations are. So, I just had to mention that so I can get it in minutes. Um, [clears throat] the other thing I have is um letting you know that our budget was approved for 2026 um for the amount that we asked. And lastly is employee handbook. I gave you a copy. I think I emailed it to you this morning. Um it was very lengthy notes version.

I didn't get through all [laughter] but please it and I mean look at it like it's there's a lot of information in there and some that may not be as relevant as others but I'm hoping that we can we're paying good money for this and I'm hoping that we can have it for a long time. So um you guys will approve that at the December 16th meeting. Yes. Yet you want us to have it all live by Monday. Um yes [laughter] that's all I have.

Okay. Uh next is old business and the old business bill we're discuss uh presentation of bills. I need a motion to accept the uh presentation of bills as presented by Sarah. I will make that motion. I need a second. I'll second that. All those in favor? I. All those opposed. And I'll make a motion to adjourn the meeting. I'll second. All those in favor? All those opposed. [clears throat] All righty.