Council - Regular Meeting

we will uh you're welcome to go ahead and leave as well. So, thank you very much. Yeah. All right. So, the first item on old business um the town has received a request from Give me one second. Sorry. There we go. Has received a request for voluntary annexation um into the town from Christopher Hall. Um has everyone had a chance to review that? Yes.

All right. Um I don't think that we can make an action on that today. We have to post that. Um, so I think we need to use the meeting today um to acknowledge receipt of the petition and then I think we need to authorize Alyssa to uh move forward and uh go ahead and post the notice the required notices. Has anyone have any questions regarding that petition? No. Okay. All right. Someone like to make a motion to uh start the notice process and allow Alyssa to post that and then we will have a uh initial hearing in next month's meeting. I'll make a motion to approve.

I'll second. All in favor? All right. I think I said I as well.

All right. Uh we will jump to bids for the CCMG. Um, so, um, I think we have a number of bids here. So, what we will do is we'll open the bids individually. We'll read the contractor's name. We'll read the total bid amount out loud. Um, and then the town will not be making the decision in tonight's meeting. Um, but we will take them under adisement. All right. The first bid we have is from Allstar Paving.

I'm going to want to get all three eyes on this. Okay. I think we're looking for the total amount. Yeah. He's breaking down by street there.

Yeah. And I don't know if a representative from Fleece wants to come up and assist us in just making sure we're reviewing this correctly. All right. I just want to make sure that we're capturing the total bid amount correctly. Yeah. So, it's written. Yeah. So, be there in the written. So, yes. Okay. The total bid amount um from Allstar Paving is in the amount of 247,353.85.

Thanks for your bid. Put them all back in the same envelope. I'll put them all back in credentials. Okay. Or I can put them in while you open the next. Whichever is easier. the next

247 35385 This bid is from Grady Brothers. Okay. Grady Brothers. Brothers.

G R A D Y. The total sum in the bid is $220,512.15. The next bid is from Paul H. Row Company Incorporated. The total bid amount is $210,660. Dave Omera contractors This one's nice and sealed. Can't even get fingernails.

Got it. I just say if they can do the streets as good as they did this tape must not be yours

and let's see I'll raise you

all right again this was Dave contractors The total bid amount is $172,250. The final bid we have is Floyd Crim and Suns. The total bid amount is $198,799.50. And I believe that's all the bids that we've received. Think anyone else brought any bids? Again, the town will be taking these bids under advisement and we'll be in touch as a follow-up. Thanks everyone for the bid. Any questions? All right. Thank you. Um,

and I guess I'll just wrap up the whole business. Um, so we have a preliminary engineering report um, proposal for the town. I believe we discussed this at last month's meeting. Thank you. I think we already authorized this. I think this is just a written proposal in front of us. Y

um I know we just signed off on it last month, but I think we'll just go ahead and just do it one more time at tonight's meeting. Um so we have a proposal from police and Vanderbink um to do a preliminary engine report um regarding our ongoing uh sewer issues and long-term planning. um their total fees would be in the amount of $40,000. Would someone like to make a motion to approve the total engineering fees of $40,000 in Vanderb? I'll make the motion to approve the $40,000 for the initial studies. I'll second. All in favor? All right. All right.

We keep one.

So, you want to take a signed one with you? Sure. There's another one right here. If you want to sign it, you sign it. Yeah. Or you can sign two. I'll take one. Yeah, I'll sign two. Makes sense.

Thank you. All right, back to our regular schedule. We'll start off with the town department reports. Uh Josh, you have a town marshall report. Just on the screen. Okay. Any questions? Oh, I looked at it earlier.

Um fire department. Anybody from fire department tonight? All right. No report from the fire department. Um, gym and civic center. We have a report.

Yes, we have a report there. They have 10 rentals at the gym and one here at the civic center. Also, let's see. I met yesterday with representatives from the K County Community Foundation and they were doing a they had accepted our bid, you know, our grant request and they were doing a review and getting more detail. And uh they uh they showed him around the job and what all we were talking about, what the priorities were and they said unexpectedly that they had had I believe they said 13 applications because they went from two grants, three grants per year to two grant time periods per year. So which was an indication that perhaps we may not get all or most of what we want. I just hope that they would consider it. I told them what our priorities were, which was repair of the stage, which the latest that we got was about $11,000 for repair and our furnace issued. So that bring the totals to about $16,000. Those were our priorities, you know, number one and number two priorities. And then we could get by with the rest needed. So perhaps we We'll hear from them next week. They will make their decision next week and then we should hear by the following reason how much how much of any we will get. And I think that they were pleased with a the grant application and two not just because I wrote it but uh with all everybody's help and uh so I think we're going to get something from be and um

we can look at some other places some other places I found out that the horseshoe casino issue grants to be the onino expense tax that you normally get. So there's an application process there. Since Kanis is involved with a lot of activities at the gym and the gym, we can apply through the Kuanas Foundation and perhaps get as much as four to 5,000. So per by putting two or three of these things together, we might be able to get the highway items and then move forward in future grants as well. Any questions about that?

Thank chasing the grant. No problem. You know, we we love free money. We get money. Y that's right. Thank you very much. All right. Um water sewer less. Do you have anything beyond that? Just basically skim through it. I guess uh we met all of ours permit limits for the month of uh March. That's report because we're a month behind. So

we uh tortur flow was 4.67. Uh we had a lot of rain in March. So that's why the flow to the lagoon was pretty high in March. So okay that's page two and basically all the checks all the lift station were checked and there was a sewer a sewer repair made on county line road and we are scheduling a demonstration on a filter system for the wastewater lagoons with piece of pend debris

and HB Thompson. It's basically a small unit that you would put at the head of the chlorine contact tank. As the flow comes out of the lagoon, it'll go through the filter and then through the contact tank. Pretty promising. I had just seen one. They they demoed one in Western Rush and it worked pretty good, but we want to see it, you know, along with police abandon.

Okay. Just as far as water, uh I do have some uh raising hydrants. We need a unfortunately the hydrants need raised about 6 in. So we had to buy extensions to raise them. And I plan on doing that this week so we can get the uh you know landscaping done around around the hydrants.

Yep. And uh we had to back out the lift station at Loves. I guess uh I wasn't there when they backed it out, but it was in terrible shape. Pumps kept up, kicking the breakers out. And uh we had to have the pumps pulled and when they pulled the pumps, there was a large amount of debris in the bottom. So we had a gentleman from Greensburg come in and back it out. Except probably the worst one he's ever seen. Really all kinds of there from gloves. anything we can do there or is it just not maybe notify them that I mean there's all you know all kinds of stuff in there interesting interesting stuff yeah interesting stuff

okay and we did get the sewer jet jitter fixed and it's up and running so we can use that in the future to jet out some lines Awesome so we don't have to pay that hefty bill from flood waste okay I is around $2,000. So, whenever we have that blockage, we can utilize what we have right now. So, Okay. Awesome. That's the big machine that's in the Yeah. the lefth hand bay. Yeah. Okay. Other than that, that's pretty all I have.

All right. We'll move on to the quick treasury report. I have the billing adjustments. Did you take the things I already signed? I did got them out of your way. Making sure there's only one.

Is there any more than the ones you already sent? No. I can email you guys. Okay. Hm. bring

I can't write my name. The allowance. Alissa, we had much luck with that collections agency.

Oh, yeah. Really? only pay three hours per if it's easily to look might be interesting to see for next month. Okay. Just a total amount.

Yeah, we really last couple years. You guys see the for the approved water.

Is that what

That's not this. No. No. It's for

Yeah, that's one. That was what was in if we can all sign that tonight, I believe. Alex. Okay. Do we need to we just need to sign it or do we need to I don't think we have to sign off on it. I think just what we approved earlier is fine. I think she just had a copy of it for us to look at. Okay. I need signatures though to send it to that area. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah, she she's wanting signatures. There she is. I thought you were Oh, yeah. On that. Yeah. Yeah. On their agenda. Yes. Thank you, Les. Did you get what you needed from the text that you had sent out a week or two ago? You were talking about a stretch of miss. Oh, yes, that was done. You got that all finished.

Okay. I didn't see any other He didn't have to replace as much as he thought, but he did replace the 3/4 in all the way as far as it went. So it's, you know, it kept slid just it's the cheaper of the uh poly that you put in basically.

Okay.

And here's a resolution um authorizing transfer of funds as instructed from the bond and interest fund in the water account. Oh yeah. Anything else?

That's all. All right. Thank you. Um, so we'll jump to new business. We have a couple items here on storm and sump pumps and sanitary laterals. Um, this is a quick guide letter that we we actually saw a version of this last month. So, this is just an updated version of that combined combined with the Yeah, that works.

They gave us a couple different options. So, this is just the combined option that we chose. So, we'll send this letter out. Um, is this letter going to all the town? I think is that correct? I think that's what I said. Everybody doing it? Yeah. Are you guys doing the mailing or am I doing it? We can check back on that. I'll say how was discussed the last meeting we can follow up with that just let me know. Yeah.

Um just to review for those that were not here. So we continue to have issues with infiltration. Um, this is a letter to send out to all the residents basically asking them to check and make sure that their sump pump is not tied into the sanitary sewer system and it's going into the storm sewer system so we don't continue to overflow our sanitary sewer system. So, and this is the revised version language that you have version. That's the original. Okay. So, the Sorry,

no, you're fine. revised version just it gets rid of the stuff in there about uh televising like hammering the sewers that way and it would just leave it to as an inspection by a certified contractor plumber or a town official y as far as to just go to go in and verify that's not tied into the sanitary sewer in crawl space or basement or just kind of do inspection y and then sign off on that basically writing to the city or town

start I think we've We've all had a chance to review this. Um, so we won't we'll have to put this language in ordinance format. Um, so Fleece and Vanderink has proposed language to help us um in regards to again verifying that we're not getting continued inflow into the the sanitary system from storm water. So they proposed language. We've all had a chance to review it. Um Tim, will you put this in ordinance format?

Yep. So, we'll put it in an ordinance format and we will uh put it before the board next month to adopt as an ordinance. We'll have the first reading of the ordinance next next month. Okay. All right. Um and I believe we have Mike Snder here. So, I have a couple things to go over with you all tonight. Okay.

And one of those is the Decar County has formally adopted the multi-hazard mitigation plan. That's done every five years as a federal requirement for my office to produce that. We went through a very lengthy process and we have that completed and the county has officially adopted that as an official plan. Part of the federal requirements for that is to also have the plan adopted by all the incorporated cities and towns in the county. So the reason that we have to go through that is once a requirement of the disaster mitigation act of 2000. It's also part of requirements in the Robert Stafford Act and National Flood Insurance Program and dam safety programs. Also, the long and short of that also means if it is not adopted by any city or town, then you would not be eligible for mitigation rate funding and other types of federal funding. something that we have to do every five years and pass along to all of you that help that and then keeps us in good stand. Also, the good other good part of it is it does allow us to take a community reflective look at our different hazards and what those look like and you know how in the fiveyear time span those have evolved or changed over the years and also gives us an idea of what we can focus on as we look for.

Okay. Did you happen to bring a printed copy of that? No, I got that resolution. Oh, the resolution. Yes. Yes, sir. Yes. I did not bring a printed copy of the actual plan. Mark, does that include the Shelby County side of Oh, yeah. She's got it here, too. So I don't know what Shelby County's time frame is on their fiveyear fivey year cycle they go through but wherever they are at should

okay um do you have any questions? No I make a motion that we adopt the multihazard mitigation plan for Decar County. I think I um No, I don't have to read it. All right. Because it's posted. This is on the agenda, right? Yes. Yes, it's posted. Okay. And I second. All right. Motion. All in favor? Hi. Hi.

All right.

All right. The other uh second thing that I have is in light of the past winter storms and insurance requirements and all these various things, it's come to the attention of the county that they need to get some mutual aid agreements in place. And the reason for that mutual aid agreements particularly pertains to highway department public works type of activities. Example being if there's a large disaster here and you have a lot of debris that county highway can assist the town with, they can do that and there's no insurance conflicts. There's no conflicts between parties or whatever. It's pretty much laid out that yes, they are county employees, their equipment belongs to them, that they're willing to come in and help and assist in various situations. doesn't have to be a disaster. Uh this past most recent significant snowfall that we have if uh it's just in plowing roads within the town limits if there was a scenario. I know some of the towns that they had to assist in a spot or two with but I don't have all the data on that but to do so that also mutual aid agreement would pertain to situations like that and keep everything in line and hopefully uh okay for both parties

oh And the mutual aid agreement was reviewed by the county attorney and given a green light for mayor and the commissioners told me as I'm going through to go ahead and seek out these agreements with town.

Just the same thing as for records. Um the I think we probably should have Alex review this. Can you

Here's paper copy if you need it. So section 66 six

um can can you help on how that would work if if we have a tornado comes through the middle of St. Paul and things get you know messed up and the the county wants to come help. Can you I'm assuming this clause addresses that. It addresses the complicated process when we get into FEMA reimbursements. Okay.

Uh because basically you would track what your personnel are doing, the equipment they utilize, the manpower hours, costs that you incur. The county would also be tracking their costs. But then when we go to submit in a disaster, we would submit those costs according to the FEMA schedules of what we can get reimbursed back. Your cost would be yours. The counties would be the counties and they should have to that's a long documentation process and uh I am actually holding a little meeting coming up here in September if one of your clerk treasures would like to attend that. um that would give insight and some prior knowledge of what that documentation process would look like. So

in in the instance that FEMA and I just don't know how this process works. If FEMA says no, we're not providing assistance. The way I read this is the requesting party, which assuming would be the town is coming to the county and saying, "Hey, will you come help?" If FEMA says, "Hey, no, we're not helping." The way I read this is that the county is going to build a town. Is that accurate? I mean, I'm I'm all for the county get if they're going to come volunteer to help. I'm 100% for them getting reimbursed by FEMA. We would do everything we could do to help. But at the same time, if FEMA then suddenly says, "No, we're not providing assistance." The way I read this is we're on the hook. the FEMA assistance would be in the form and what this is speaking to is the financial aspect. So example, we had as I come into my position here this past July, there was already a reimbursement process that was going on to seek reimbursement for damages that were approved. And in that everything's got to be itemized, spelled out, submitted. So if you're submitting costs to the county and the county is going and getting in that my understand that may be something that if you have an attorney that looks these over you may have them examine that.

Um but in that and that's complicated because it changes every six months and we don't know where that'll be in three months from now. So, uh, but part of that is in dealing with the reimbursement, there are situations where, example, this last significant snowfall, if they would have come in and assisted you, then the county would have done that, they realized there wouldn't have been any reimbursement from that because that obviously is not a national declared disaster. So, in that case, your costs are going to be your cost.

Yeah. I I think I would like to send this to our attorney and just have him review. Okay. And even even if it comes back and it says, "Hey, that is the way it reads." I we may still very well be on board with that, but I just want to make sure we understand how it reads. Are you guys in agreement? I can be fine. Yeah. Yeah. Get back. Does he have this one back? Um I can give him this. Okay. Here's the initial. All right. Thank you very much for coming out. Um, sir,

you want to test it? I don't necessarily read it the way you're reading it, but I see where you're hitting that now.

Questions or what's that? Any more questions for him or good? I don't think so. Y thank you. Um if there are if the are sorry I do have one other thing. Um we we may copy you just if the attorney has any questions and let you guys work directly with him because we can't make decisions outside of the board. So we may have you work directly with him and just make sure he understands and then he can send it back to us and provide a recommendation. Okay.

Thank you so much. Alyssa, will you put this back on the agenda for next month? And then are you good to send that to Alex? Thank you. All right. Um I see Mr. Brock here tonight. Yes. Did you have anything you wanted to go over? Well, I did. If you give me a few minutes.

Yes. At your last meeting, we talked about a a rate increase. Y and you approved me to go forth the process that it would take. Uh that process would be the drafting of uh two rate ordinances, one for the water, one for the sewer. and uh sent those to your attorney and get some comments and I uh made revisions as comments uh were uh were dealt with in so the uh the process for race in Indiana would be introduced at a public meeting just introduce it uh on first reading is what you call it and then we uh one time a newspaper of general circulation publish a uh notice of a public hearing and I'd be glad to draft that for you as well. You'd want to set that up for your next meeting. So, you set the public hearing sometime during your your your next meeting if that's the investment. Then after that public hearing, uh you can adopt the rates and charges uh at any amount up to the amount that was advertised in the%. At this point, we got about 7% on the sewer and about 51% on the water. And that'll be the maximum amount we advertise to be able to raise those rates. So, I just want to know if you uh give you the ability uh if you want to do that this meeting to start the process and that will enable me to draft public notices for

Okay. proper procedure to introduce introduce these in tonight's meeting would be uh just uh uh each one have to be introduced separately uh put a uh a ordinance number on them and then that will need to be the public notice for your next meeting. So just be uh introducing on first reading the water rate or introducing on first reading the sewer. Okay. You guys thoughts on introducing tonight? Um, yeah, that's fine. Was there nothing for storm water? That's what I was about to say.

Oh, uh um I fell off my list and uh I apologize. Uh but we talked about $5 I think for a storm water rate to start with. Uh

you said that was a minimum for the grant. Uh then I would just have you uh uh I too so I apologize. Uh I would just have you introduce the the storm water runs also listen when I when I get home and then we'll also advertise the public storm water for for $5. It'd be uh what they call $5 for EDU, which would be a uh actually for residential and then for commercial we generally set up a rate that's twice that and the reason is the whole behind storm water is permeability of the property and your your residential properties have permeable landards, front yards, backyards, but like here your commercial areas all concrete. So it creates more of a storm water problem. So, we generally have a double fee that we charge your commercial users. So, that your option that's the way the ordinance is set up uh be $5 for residential, be $10 per month for commercial, but you would have the ability uh the public hearing or public comment to either adopt that or done the same or adopt a lower rate.

I have the the digital rate ordinance that you submitted to Alex for review. Okay. He responded and uh his notes are it aligns with our authority to establish rates and charges. He has a comment um his comment says the ordinance is framed as an amendment to the sewage works utility which is consistent but the town may want to consider presenting storm water as a separate utility since it's creating a separate stormwater utility. So, and I sent this to you and I sent Alex a summary of the procedures in Indiana to uh to adopt uh to actually implement a storm water utility and that can be done under two different statutes and one is title 36 and one is title 8. It's a separate utility. under title 8 and uh and there are there there there are different things that you can do different powers you have under title 8 and title 36 which is why I provide the summary I didn't bring that summary with me today but you should have a copy of it if either of you or Alysa want to call me anytime after this meeting and talk about it uh that would be title 36 is just a uh a subset of the uh sewer utility so you don't have a a a separate utility for that. Both of those $5 allow you to be able to uh access the funeral grant money. We talked about last year you know to you can get you can get a grant for each separate enterprise that you have to talent one storm water utility one water utility one and suit and I've got I've got clients kind of recommend that you know you can go every every seven years and for an overrant you just kind of cycle through and get one you go through you go for the next one try to get5 to $700,000 every chance you have have an opportunity

regardless of which title you put it under. Yes. Just so it's a it considered a uh if they're more concerned with the rate and that you're charged at least $5 for for a res to use it, but either uh under title 36 or title 8 wouldn't enable you to to access that uh uh that open money. Okay. sending three orders as you have in basement. Um, so this verbiage has come from Alex has has read this. Yes. And approved that. Yep. Um,

he just three comments and and I I addressed uh two of them in there. One, he won the the appendix and I said appendix attached and he wanted that. uh you want to do is uh uh oh I had I had I had water listed in the sewer utilities and then the third one was that if you wanted to uh uh the language is there and we need water and sewer rates and strong rates go into effect and we discussed that the last day too. use the language as soon as practical because that gives us a chance to contact voice and get your uh get your uh billing billing software set up and you never know how long it's going to take you to come out because some people tell me they come in right away and tell me it takes 60 days to get in. So that enables that. The other option that's what Alex talked about is you can set a date that the rates would go into effect on a date and so it would be like you'd say August 1 or consumption on July 1st or August 1st or September point you want to uh but then you're set and if and if you can't do that so it's it's whatever you prefer. already just mentioned that if you want date certain we could change that language and do that as well. You could also do that at the public hearing or as as a as an amendment to it in the public hearing. The only thing we have to make sure of is that the rates we advertise uh we don't rates that are higher than the rates that are advertised because that would not give the public a chance to come in and copy on the rates and comment on the rates that we have advertised. I might want to look at Yeah. both of those and read them.

I I So, I know you you talked about the two different how we can form the storm water. Yeah. Do you have a recommendation? Uh I don't I don't know that I know enough to have an opinion. Your attorney had a recommendation. Yeah. And and uh and I see about half and half I I formed Utilities under title 36 and under title 8. So, uh, uh, your attorney seemed to like title 36 and so I set the ordinance up for the storm water utility under title 36. So that and that's the subset, right? Yes.

So your department of public works would be the official body governing the uh uh the storm water utility. Alyssa would just set up a uh a storm water fund and their fund reports and then any of the revenue that you got to be an operate storm water operating fund would go into the storm water operating fund to be used for for storm water purposes. Can you bring that revised ordinance to next month's meeting? Yes. Or send it I don't know if you're planning on coming for next month. Uh if if you're going to have a public hearing, it should be authorizing to do to to uh uh set up the public notices for the public hearing to get next, which is the most important. Yeah,

I would attend. I like I like attend the public hearings because I think it helps you out. You somebody that can explain why it's going to happen and and what the laws and how it all works. It's easier for me to do that for you. Yep. Okay. As far as actual procedure to introduce these tonight, do we need to read through them or just introduce them as they were introducing them and authorizing the public notice?

What I generally see, although I've seen people read through everything, is that you read them by caption only. And so we'd have this is here somewhat. We'd have a uh a caption at the top. And for an example, the uh the ordinance here, which is the uh sewage rate ordinance, the caption is an ordinance amending the rates and charges for the sewage utility. And that would be enough. Okay. If you know what we do. Okay. All right. Are you guys okay to introduce? Yeah. What is the So, are we talking about doing this in one move or

we didn't really discuss like timelines? I mean I know as soon as it's is you know the billing software and all that but in one one jump versus like over the course of two three years or I think this is one one

I can talk about that if you like. So one is I think 7.65% increase and one is the 51% increase. You probably don't care about the 765 about phasing that in over several uh over over a different time period. Some people do like to phase in rate increases, especially large ones. Certainly 51 is larger. Uh however, you're losing money on on the water utility and that's the 51% increase. And so if you tend to phase the rates in over over one year or two years or three years, two years or three years, uh what you're doing is that you're probably still losing money for the first year certainly and probably the second year, probably the third year. and we really set rates to be only good for three to five years. So, uh these I think we're setting up anticipating they're doing it for five years. So, you're really trying to play catch up the point you're never catching up if you phasing them up. If you want to do it over two years, I understand. Uh but I I certainly work in more than two years, but certainly you're you're you're losing money now. Your cash balances are going down. You're you're not

staying up dire you know, but it's it's it's not it's not going to be beneficial. What happens? I think the other the other item was getting us closer to the minimum required to apply for funding grant funding because we're we're not there yet. Even with this, what do we do? We know what the timeline is on that. Yeah. Okay.

The first round okra uh is the second round of okra, sorry, this fall. Um, we were actually want to ask that about the waste water, I guess, for the PER study that you guys just approved tonight as far as if you wanted to uh you wanted that to be ready, I guess, for that second round of funding that's coming up here in the fall. In the fall, yes. So, I mean, it's kind of an aggressive schedule. Um, but it is feasible, but we were curious, I guess, if that was something you guys would want to be ready for. That's just waste water or that's water as well? That's just waste water. Just waste water. Just be the waste water. Um

we don't necessarily have water issues right now. We have storm water issues but not drinking water issues. So two comments would be that one overlooked with water and sewer rates. So you know we want to make sure that we have when we applied them that we had had sewer rates and water rates both combined would be for the minimum. And the other thing is I think on the first and second cycle they get more applications on the first cycle.

Would you agree with that? The second as far Oh, I said that usually I see fewer people applying the second and the and from my Yes. And the second cycle will allow for so I think what you guys talked about last month was possibly doing an SRF as far as part of that to do the match portion of the grant. And the first round usually does not do pairs with the SRF for someone else. They just do local match on the first round. So the second round is the one where if you want to use SRF for I don't know but SRF

sorry state revolving fund as far as loan as far as do water waste water

in the meantime we need to be having conversations with like the ready region again. So we're authorizing them to go ahead and do the grant. We were trying to get them to help fund the grant. We're not we didn't get everybody to play ball. So, we're funding that from the town and then we're we basically need to go back to them and see if they would be interesting interested in whatever this their proposal finds or recommends. Then we need to basically start looking everywhere. One would be state revolving fund or grants. the other be maybe money from the ready accelerate early rural Indiana our ready region and then I know there's been some conversation with our state representative as well from Decar County side on potentially assisting and finding money for that

I think there is this on income I believe so

okay so in talking about that you talk about funding sources and that's something that I I generally do throughout the state on the financing side and and and there are different funding sources And certain funding sources are better than others. And the Indiana State involving loan fund is one that's better than others. And the reason it's better than others is it's a state subsidized program. So you get interest rates and I've gotten 0% interest rates from 35% 35 year financing for that's as close to free money as you get without it being free money. 0% interest for 35 year long. So they go maximum term is 35 years. Uh and then if you look at the 0% they it's based on your median uh household income and it uh they've got a nine grid matrix of what interest rates are but they also have a grant program and you make an application they have a fiscal year from July 1st to June 30th and uh and they give you rankings for you your project and project party list and and you either you have the option the ability to get grant funding and uh and that's and that's a good thing. So, it's a program that's both a discounted loan program and a grant program. And they uh and they they have a lot of money like uh $60 million a year, $80 million a year. And if you can't get their traditional program, you can go through the pool program, which gets you aa AAA credit rating from the state and and lower interest rates they'd be able to get from a bank loan on their own to the open market. So, it's a tremendous program out there and it's for environmental projects like storm waters or and for communities just like yours to take advantage of. So, I certainly recommend that you look at that as you move forward.

Okay. Great. So, what I'm understanding is to apply for any of these grants, all three rates need to be competitively priced. like you water, sewer, storm water. Even if you're just looking for storm water assistance, they want to see that looks at all your users. State revolving loan fund only looks at the user fee of the utility you're looking for financing for. So in this case, you're looking for sewer. So they're looking for the sewer user. Okay. All right. Anything else for us from you? Sorry.

Helpful information for us maybe. I just Is that something I guess I the board is looking to be ready? I guess would they want to be in a position of what we find or whatever from the study? Is that something that you guys would want to look at possibly being ready for this fall? I guess it doesn't mean you have to. do it to study. From my standpoint, if it's doable from your guys' side, you know, you know, if we can make a decision this fall, we would love to be prepared to make a decision. Okay. But if if we're not prepared, you know, it may delay. But if you can do your side, then absolutely.

The kicker would be the regionalization portion. So just trying to get that evaluated in a timely fashion. So we need to meet with the regional or the sorry the regional economic development is that people like So, so Lori's been in and we've had those meetings. So, Lori's been involved with those. Mary McCarti from Yes. Um Southeast regional planning. Yeah.

Um so, we've had several of those. We just need to reconvene it. So, the the last meetings that were held was we walked away of we were going to see if the ready region would could find funding. They thought they had funding to help pay for what we're paying you guys. We never heard back. they they had some issues where they couldn't I don't know I don't know the full issue there. So I think we can then go back and circle back with them and say hey the town of St. Paul is funding this. Is there funds that you guys could help contribute if we were to do a regionalization if we were to do a a large sewer plant that would increase our capacity? Yeah.

So I'm happy to help assist setting those meetings up. Um I just need a timeline from you guys of when that needs to happen. Reach out. Yeah, that'd be great. So

and with that the uh agencies subsidized USDA rural development and Indiana State fund prioritize regionalized systems systems that are regionalizing. So you have much better chance of getting grant money from them if you uh if you did regionalize. And the other thing I mentioned that I'll mention again is that uh Northern Shelby started a regional school district last year as financial advisor. We got a grant money from the SRE to start up. So that would be another thing you might want to look at is the uh North Shelby County regional school district to start up their phasing that in and certainly they'd be glad to talk to you if you talking about a regionalized process any close to Shelby County.

Yeah. Y okay. All right. Thank you. So, as far as tonight, I think we can just introduce these by title. Um, and then authorize the public notice to go out. Next month, we'll have our first initial we'll have a public meeting to discuss and we'll have our first official meeting. Typically, is this passed on one on a single reading or is it passed on a second reading? I'm going to defer to your attorney because I've seen attorneys have different opinions, but my understanding is that you can suspend the rules and and pass it in two readings at the same meeting.

We can make that determination in next month's meeting if there's obviously we'll have public feedback. If we feel like there's enough public feedback that's you know warrants to wait another month, we can do that. And you'd like me to set up the public notices for the water, the sewer, and the storm to all meet at your next meeting? Yes. 7:00 advertisement 7 to uh tomorrow. So just so on the page same page. So we're going to introduce an ordinance for amending the rates and charges for the sewage works utility as well as an ordinance amending the rates and charges for the waterworks utility. Um and we're authorizing the posting of a public notice for a initial reading next month

too. That's what he just said. And sorry and for and for waste water. We just still don't have the paper. Storm water. Storm water. Storm water. Storm water. All right. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you very much. All right. You'll get those notices to Alyssa tomorrow. Okay. Thank you. All right. I think that's all we have on the official agenda. I will open it up for public comment. I think we have some individuals here that maybe have some questions. Public comment. No. Do you guys have anything questions? Yes, sir. Yeah. Yeah. Well, a little bit overwhelmed with all this water, waste water.

Welcome to the club here. Well, that is what we're here for, but well, well, I'm Tony Myers from Myers Ro and uh we were trying to get some information maybe on getting hooked up to your city sewer. Yep. because we're just skip. Yes, sir. And I know I can see there's a lot of things going on right now, but this is the right meeting to come to I guess to bring it up. Yeah. So, we're just kind of get some information or whatever you guys have in thoughts of that or whatever something like that because we're just kind of we don't know. Yep. Um, so I have a couple things that I can throw out. Sorry. Are we talking about the Myers right here? Okay.

The Myers on the corner there. our neighbors. Our neighbors. I've stepped in and trying to help him. I used to do sewer all the time and everything. And he's got a pretty big project, but he's changing around. His septic system is not functioning correct. Plus, he's also washing meat and got a lot of water. So, he's going to redo the water. Um, we're only about 620 and almost 1,000 ft away. 1,600 ft away.

So, you're keeping your own water. You're you're still on well or Yeah. Basically, I think your water and our water is the same water. Yeah. But whatever we got to do, but Okay. So, you're just looking for sewer for for now. If that's possible. Yeah, I mean, you know, if we got to do something. So, I think a couple questions. I don't um I think we're open to the idea, but we are limited. Um so, we've had a couple requests um in regards to this one. Do you have any idea of your what your how much your usage is?

Not really. I mean, I know it's not it's not like the truck stop at all. Yeah. Uh but I mean we clean up with the soap and water and a hose. Okay.

Um but days we we just wash the carcasses down. Um smokehouse runs a couple times a week and it showers, you know. So I but as far as gallons per minute or hour or day, I I don't really know. I know if I get the right calculation the well no sense throwing the number out there. I was talking to H&R about a tankless water heater and it can only take so much water, you know, at a time and he said we have plenty of Yeah.

not that much water to run water. So, we're good with a tankless water heater if we want to go that route. That's all I'm saying. Um, follow-up question. How do you feel about annexation? So, I I I'm just going to give you a little bit of history. This has been a a very common topic. So, we have an issue with the town in the past who's provided utilities to um Loves, we have Dollar General. Um, and so we're providing utilities. We obviously, as you can hear tonight, have ongoing issues with our sewer system, right?

Um, and so there's no there is no tax revenue. that's generated. And so I think there's been some discussion by this board of not continuing that trend of continuing to on add users um at just water and sewer rates and there's no other bene benefit to the town long term. Yeah, I think that was somebody brought that up when I was mentioning this. I mean that's the thing. Yeah. So what does that involve exactly? That's a great question that I don't have all the answers to. So, we're actually doing our first annexation that you you heard us uh probably earlier in the meeting. We've covered a lot of ground. Voluntary.

It's a voluntary annexation. That is the easiest route to to doing an annexation. Um and we had a resident come to the town who's already in the town um but their property is not in the town. And so um they we uh put together a it's an ordinance um that we'll have to the town will have to adopt. The town has to ensure that we would continue to provide services which we already provide services out your road. Um so show that we would continue to provide services. Um there is some contiguous requirements on your property has to be I think 1/8

18 contiguous to an existing town's proper property that's within the town limits. I believe that road um may be within the town limits and so it it would qualify there. Um there may be some ways around that. I just don't know. If you're if you're interested, I would maybe suggest um sending an email to the uh probably clerk treasur's office and saying you may be interested in exploring voluntary annexation. Um and then we can send that off to the attorney. We then have to send it off to uh actually I think it was Lori from police and Vanderbreak that did the cont continuous. We have

and she also had has some questions. I think she talked in the past about this uh but just need some information data on like daily flow and the characteristics of the what you be receiving as far as CBOD TSS ammonia phosphorus that type of stuff so that you know what you're receiving down the plant so it doesn't simply change your treatment or less is what he's trying to do down there. So, um, so it's just some information that I guess we would recommend getting, okay, prior to

So, if you maybe you can if you want to email the clerk treasur's office and we can kind of explore two paths. One, we can send it to the attorney and see if it's a viable option to to do that. And then the second, um, we can connect you with Fleece and Vanderbrink. They will have some questions. You know, I think my my first question was Flo. It sounds like they're going to have a few more questions that maybe you can try and assist in getting that information just so the town can make an informed decision on what are they accepting into the system. Is it going to cause issues long term? So, is this this clerk uh treasurer in Shelby County? That girl right there. Oh, we're in the K County right now. Yeah.

Okay. Just the town clerk treasure. Oh, clerk. Okay. Yep. Is this something that Les could put a professional eye on? Could you weigh in on that or go take a look? Thoughts were like uh Eric said was the the material that they're going to be washing down the sewer, you know, system. So, yeah. Well, we would probably require you to get it tested basically sent to a lab and get the waist stream analysis on it. Yeah. because our our our thoughts were to we have like two two tanks and the first tank picks up all the solids

and so we have that pumped out and so it would just be liquid anyway. So that's a hard and you can test, you know, we'll get testing or whatever you want done. That's no So you want to keep that in place then, right? You're going to Yeah, he's want to keep the solids. Yeah. Yeah, that's Yeah, that's the right way to do it so we don't plug you up. Yep. That's the proper way. You know, he's he was in an old septic system. Blah blah blah that comes out of the Is that two tanks you say you have or Yeah, he's got two tanks and one keeps all the solids

and then it gets flow. My question was and of course he's asked me to help him but uh you know where how far do we got to go to get connected? Yeah, we we have investigated that. Yeah, a couple times actually. And I was wondering about going under the railroad track. Is that a possibility to get across? I don't think so. I don't think on it. Yeah, you probably can bore it. I mean, sometimes Well, in this feed,

is the railroad done? Is it done? No, they still own the property. Okay. Why do all this? Because uh Wal is dealing with them currently on a easement they got. So heard about Yeah. Yes, it's a they have to pay I think it's like $2,500 $5,000 a year for an easement underneath the railroad even though the railroad's not you know but they're trying to fight it but the railroad's not giving up. They're not going to

it's easy money for them. I mean it's just one of those but the thing that showed the boundaries GI we see where where he would connect that see if there's any the uh actually that's Shelby County GIS uh I don't know I think it's just not as fun as it works the same way but the Zoom If you like barely touch the zoom, it zooms you out to the United States view. It's a really weird. Let me see if I can refigure it out.

Okay, let me see if I can get it. Oh, they have a Zoom box. Just thinking if we knew where it what sides were connected. gravity feet out of it. That's something that is that road owned by the county or is it sitting on the road there? He's trying he's trying to pull up the GIS for Shelby County right now to see if we can tell where you're connected to the town and how and

routing up confusing. Yeah, he's on this side of the old railroad that went to the I think the closest line to was Dorsy and then where Dorsey address by the water by your see what happened. Oh gosh. like that's I'm pretty sure that's the county but I have

I think we can if you want to send an email we'll we'll we can assist in kind of helping it go two directions. One to the attorney to determine is hey is this a viable thing that the town can even do. The other being we'll connect you with police and Vanderbrink to determine hey can the town accept what you're trying to put in the in the system. And the reason personally I'd in a in a another day hopefully in a couple years I would be able to say yeah great you know we'll do it but the town's on an early warning ban from IDM and so we have to be very careful about what we put into our system and so it's not just an easy decision for us to say I think all of us would love to help and but we just have to make sure we're

we're already in trouble with IDM we don't want to be in any more trouble with basically make sure we cover our bases so that we don't get any more slaps because we've gotten a lot of slacks already. Yeah. And early warning does not mean we cannot. It's just we have to be very careful and limited what we're doing. I don't Well, we deal with the board of health every day, so I'm not and and I will say annexation's pretty important to the town. um just because we I I think we're we're trying to set a precedent now that going forward we're not going to make those decisions. So Yep. But I I'm more than happy. So is that something that you're willing to consider? Yeah. Yeah.

Exactly. So my first step, do I have to see her? Yeah. Yep. Email. Yeah. I'll give you I don't have any cards, so I'll just write my name. Okay. My email down. Do you want my email? Sure. And Alyssa, you just want to connect him with the attorney and then Les, can you get give him your email and you can handle the police the police? Got his phone number and everything. So, yeah, I can send

We'll let we'll let you handle the what's in it. Can we can we take it? If Alyssa, you can just connect him with the attorney. That's all you have to do. Is there some kind of way that we might be able to help determine how much guesstimate how much usage he would have? Like that would be based on water, right? Put a put a water meter in. Water meter. Yeah. You need a meter. Yeah.

Okay. We'll get the we'll get the ball. Sorry. you if you get the ball in the in the court, we'll we'll reconvene and see where we're at.

Of course, there's a lot. You've got your water, right? And the water's right there. Got the water. Yeah. the other end. I don't know. And I knew that you guys are in that situation.

Those chairs are not kind. All right. I think that's it. I just want to add one last thing. Yes. uh in the last meeting there was a question about GIS systems yeah

that you're implementing or if you are willing to implement so I have so whatever information I had back in the office I have submitted it to I forwarded to but when I was getting that information uh we just merged with FNV first it was Korean associate and we just merged with the FNV so when I was getting that information I regret that back in Michigan office they we internally have a GS system as well and we we now have the capabilities to do the own GIS map. So what we do is that we have all your utilities under one map and you'll have the right you you'll have all the data with you. You'll you'll be the owner of the data and we'll just assist you with on how to make that map. Uh and yeah so this is what this is just something new in Indiana that we are going to start. This is just a small feature that I

okay I have from uh Michigan and if you would like we can set up a demo for you and on the back we have the capabilities on what we can do. So yeah, this is just I want to introduce. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So you would we would pay for would we pay for a service or would it be a onetime fee? You help us set it up and then we own it. Subscription platform. I I thought it was but I wasn't sure.

Just that what we looking like people that can if you don't have people in house that can want to do updates, build the maps out and just constantly be twe we can set up a demo call and we can go through it in detail. Okay, if you want to demo it to less, he's the one. All right, we'll never look at it more than likely. I might. Yeah, maybe if you if Tim wants to be All right. Yeah, maybe if Tim

Yeah, I'd like If you if you set up with less less you can contact me. I'd like to be on the demo and I can send an email on that. I can copy all of you if you want to jump in on the call and we can have a call. So you set it up or you only uh keep it up to date. We set it up and then we can keep it up. They can manage it. you guys the initial build as far as I think GPS over the years previous water projects I assume this

I assume this would be like a a system where we could put in work tickets and all that stuff make life a lot easier for you and also have the husbands in that so we can actually implement. So if you click on that map or if you click on a C, you can find as builds as well, you can file old notes for a hydrant, you can have the inspection report in that in build so that over the years you can just have those inspection all your stuff right there. Nice.

I think if so we have someone that's kind of made a proposal to help us with that. If you guys as part of your demo want to give a proposal and that way we have some some sort of comparison that we make we can make an informed decision. What's the other? It's the lady that does our websites as Emily's husband Jeff Steel. Am I saying that right? I think he's done the county for county. Yeah. So if we if you just want to give us a proposal we can kind of look at it side by side and see what makes sense. Thank you. All right. Any any other public comment? I was going to bring in something that when you talk about storm sewers and things.

Yep. A lot of your issues are the fact that some of the uh storm drains, the catch basins haven't been cleaned in years. Uh and the water's not getting away fast enough because of that. So that water actually washes on the road and gets into the sanitary. I think it would be probably a good idea to hire somebody to maybe come along and back out back. John mentioned that. I don't think John's here. Yeah, he's

Yeah, John mentioned that to me a couple weeks ago that, you know, he noticed that there was a lot of them around town that were full debris. So, seems like a great idea to me. I don't think we have even I don't think we even have to I think you can do that. It needs to be done if it's a m if it's a maintenance issue. Let's do it thing. That's not Maybe we don't bite off the whole town in one chunk. Maybe we see what we can get on how many dollars we got going on there. Shout out to John. He does a lot of free work for you guys. I wasn't even aware that you guys didn't pay until a couple weeks ago. So, yeah, he's he's pretty valuable actually. Yeah,

I agree. looked up on Pierce Street, South Pierce. That's probably the first area I would start looking at catch bases and lines. Start start from the lower end and work uphill all the way to high street. Yeah, makes sense to me. I think we we've got the maintenance dollars to do it. Let's start doing quotes. Actually, see how much some of them charge by the day, some of them by the hour. I mean, it just depends. I don't think we even have to approve the right. It's a it's a maintenance item. So I think you can Okay. Get get some quotes and make a competitive decision, but you're authorized. I can do that. Richard has Yes, sir.

This is this is on something that you talked about at the beginning about voluntary annexation. Is it possible that you guys could consider voluntarily annexing the old property, the new property that came in, the gym and that property, whatever it is. Yeah, that would it' be pretty easy for you to do it because you could just say, well, you're right on town. Do we do we have to write a letter to ourselves saying we voluntarily want voluntarily and with I think the water department too. We may do the Yeah. Yeah.

I think I think it sends a message too that we're going to these are our properties. We're going to annex them into the town. Yeah. If you're doing annexation, it's good practice. Yep. Yep. Makes sense. All right. Any other public comment? Yeah, he does now. He used to volunteer a lot and then we finally had him fill out paperwork and get him covered under a women's comp and all that and now I came. Oh, really? That was um He's gonna Yeah, probably a year.

I didn't know that. Even Even paid, he's invaluable. We couldn't possibly pay him enough. We'll just say it that way. All right. Any other public comments? I mean to believe he's just barely survived. So, yeah, we got one more. You think I can do the first on the agenda? So absolutely. So actually I spoke Did uh at least what is really Yeah. Did Lori talked to either one of you before tonight's meeting about the CCM about first about first street?

I talked to the engineer about first street. I called Lori at like um I was tell I walked in. Um, she's listening, so she can start, but I'm pretty sure the fall time, same time that we uh talked about the C or there's another Oh, I she text me. I'm sorry. I'm just looking at a text where she text me. Um, I just forgot what she

I can I'll just I can respond with what she asked. So, we applied for the grant for First Street and they for whatever when the state responded, they excluded First Street. So, obviously they allowed some things to go through. we open bids tonight. Unfortunately, it did not include First Street. I asked Lori um on the way here just asking procedurally how we should approach and then she responded that um I I just wanted to make sure if we if we went forward with this grant that we couldn't move forward with another because if so, we would probably hold off on this one and then reapply with First Street back in and fix whatever issues they had with our request. Um she responded that uh we can apply in September and we will be eligible to apply even if this project gets funded. Tonight's project that we uh requested bid bids for is not guaranteed to get funded from um on as part of the grant. So but I I but we can have two projects going with the state at the same time. Could it get some hatched?

Yeah, some of the worst parts. I don't see how they exclude. I don't see how they street that we looked at. We could put we could put hot patch in that, but we don't know how well that's going to patch to concrete. Yeah, it needs to be cleaned out really well. And then yeah, it's concrete, but it's made in sections to do a section at a time. But they replaced some stuff. My first Yeah, I think uh their business is some of our own not just but in the paving contracts. There's some patching going on in places. Yep. That can we out of our out of our funds?

Yeah. Do some of that patching up on First Street. There's one particular place that needs it bad. Very bad. Yeah, there's something down there by the stop sign at the end of it, you know, coming out and it's where a water man. Yeah, they patched that water man and it sunk in. We have money authorized in the budget this year. We authorized 250 or 275. Do we recall? I thought it was 250.

275. So I think in our budget adoption we authorized 275 the CCMG is a 25% match. Sorry the CCMG 20 I think it's 20 CCMG grant is either 20 or 25%. As far as match match 20%. 20%. So our low bid is one if

no commitments. Okay, we averaged around 200. So 20% of that is what would come out of our authorized 275 if we get approved. We have leftover money in the budget. I think we can whoever we get to uh to do that work. We can probably contract with them directly to patch, you know, and then long then we can look at a long-term solution to the problem versus just patching bad areas. It's, you know, like potholes, but on down the road towards the circle, it's just breaking apart. Yeah, the whole road's breaking apart. Yeah, okay.

You should be able to get them if they all get pushed through and approved. You have unit prices, so you should be able to, like I said, add a little bit if you need to do some cash work. Yeah, it was the first it was the top of our list. That's why we applied for the grant. That street was one of was the main reason we applied for this representative here that you know we were on top. We had it on top of the list but for whatever reason they excluded it. There was more than just that road. There was three. There were three three exclusions. Yeah. Yours was one. I I had a question on another read also.

I I think I saw West Washington on the bed is getting paid and West Washington is in very good shape. The problem with it is it wasn't wide enough. I don't know if CCMG will let us widen it. If they won't let us widen it, there's no reason to pay it. We could use that footage on another road or two. I don't know that we can move. Can we move money if they appro if if the state approves the funding for this street? Can we here's the thing?

I don't think that the town wouldn't have paid that. If it's privately owned, the town didn't pay that. I would not think I don't think it was grand paid because I live right on their side of that pro more than likely was done by the the same people. It was the exact same people they may I don't know that that was probably my I'm all for repairing it 100%. We'll do everything we can do to hopefully get a short-term repair, but we'll more than likely apply again in September to resolve the issue permanently.

Well, that one down there by the stop sign when still worked there. They lor really temporary. Yeah, that's real temporary though. I'm talking maybe a month before it's there again. Well, you see where they patched the road up right by the gas station where we had to dig all that out and there was our big pothole there. That was last month and they filled it full of lime. So, that don't last. Yeah, we've been working on it. It's been a priority. It's just getting getting this money is not easy.

All right. Anybody else? All right. Motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I