City Council - Regular Meeting

the regular meeting of the Teroot City Council on Thursday, March 5th, 2026. The first item on the agenda is a moment of silence and pledge of allegiance to the flag. This evening, the pledge will be led by Council Person Tammy Boland. Council President, can we dedicate the moment of silence to the six soldiers who lost their lives in Kuwait this week, please? 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. Michelle, will you please call the role? Council person Azar, present. Council person Bolan, present. Council person Chaos, I'm present. Council person Don, here. Council person Dingle, present. Uh, council person Hinton, present. Council person Laddermill, present. Council person Nation, here.

Council person Thompson. Um, eight are present, one is absent.

Thank you. At this time, we reserve up to 30 minutes of time for public comment on items not [clears throat] on the agenda. First, this evening, we'll have a presentation from Thrive West Central. All right. Thank you so much. All right. Good evening, uh, members of the city council. Thank you so much for allowing us some few minutes here to come and kind of present the progress on the ARPA housing that you guys were so generous to to trust with us. Um I have a really kind of thorough report and I uh I would encourage you to ask a lot of questions and um you know I think we're making tremendous progress on everything that we've been doing. Just to kind of set the record straight for folks who may be new or are not familiar with us, uh Thrive Central has been around since 1968. We're a 501c3 nonprofit. We're structured in four different um areas of of work, economic and community development. We're an area agency on aging. We do transportation uh data collection as well as transit services. And then we also doing housing solutions here now for uh communities. Um the first thing I'd like to start off with is just our housing data. So this first infographic kind of shows you VO County as a whole. It shows you um that to date this is what we've seen. This includes um ARPA dollars as well as some ready units uh as well. And so in VO County as a whole we're up to 560 units.

Is this outdated what we have?

What you have in the printed version I uh I fatfingered my presentation. I realized on the uh on the time when I was coming over here that I didn't also have the secondary graph in. I uh I thought I copied and pasted both, but I only did the one. Uh so I printed off the copy uh for you all to see just specifically for the city of Terote. So City of Terode housing uh specifically has been 392 units to date. Um we have a so far of our project dollars we are at 2.7 million invested and we've had an 82 uh million in private investment to that. So a lot of these housing uh units are still getting developed. They're under contract to finish later this year, but we've had some already completed, some have not. based on where we look at residential and then multifamily housing in with this. Currently, we are sitting at um a collective at 100% of the estimated kind of tax value, your assessed value if they were all 100%. You'd be at $954,958 estimatedly if you're at 100% assessed value. Now, we all know that none of our assessed values are generally at 100%. They're always lower than that. Uh, and then starting to take into consideration what Senate Enroll Act One is going to look like in your assessed value as well. I like to estimate somewhere around 68 to 70% of what the assessed value is going to be for the tax collection. So to date, looking at just what's on this infographic that you see at that 70% assessed value, you're at $668,740. Uh, and that gives you kind of an annual increase of what you would see now coming back in for tax collection on

just those units. So, just thinking about recouping your initial $5 million ARPA investment, you can do the math on that. So, it'd be a little less in 10 years. Now, by the time we finish, you're going to see a lot more coming back within that. I'm hoping that we can stretch that up north of um 800,000, if not a little bit more, uh, is where I'm hoping to estimate. And that's just the work that we're doing. The work outside of us where folks are finding private financing and they're going on at their own that's not captured in what this is. So we're starting to track that data. We've been really kind of looking at building permit data and trying to assess what all of that looks like through VO County and the city of Teroot. Um and we're following along with that. last year in 2025 uh between the city of Teroot and Michelle, does that also include VO County and VO County building permit data? We pulled um 1,049 units to be constructed. Now, that's pulling the permit in 25. There would obviously be a period of development time for that. So, that's quite a bit of housing growth that we're seeing. We're on target for what our regional goal was, which if you remember when I first came to you, I said the regional target was between 3,800 and 4,500 units by the uh by 2030. [clears throat] We are going to hit that. We are going to surpass that in our region. And that's really just looking at VGO County with the 1,049 units that we've calculated off of everything that's going on. And we still have 26 and we still then have funding coming down the road for 27 and 28 as well. So, we are continuing to really make a lot of headway here and I think you're going to see a lot of really great returns on your investment for vesting investing in housing because it's going to come right back through tax collection and give you a lot more in your budget to play with as you're

starting to say, "Oh my gosh, Senate Enrolled Act One is going to cut our budget majorly. What are we going to do?" We're going to give it to you right back in new housing. Any questions before I move on past the data? Okay, great. So, I have lots of things to talk about. I want to highlight first the Liberty Avenue uh neighborhood housing projects that we're doing. So, as you know, part of that 5 million also had a million dollars dedicated towards a catalyst project. This is where we've decided to do the catalyst project. And there's a reason that we're doing it in this area. So, one, it's historically for a long time, it's really not seen much investment. It has some of the lowest property values in the city of Teroot and it has a lot of vacancy on open lots in there because it's been just been under underdeveloped. Um we want to invest when it's all said and done. I think it'll be close to $5 million building 28 new single family homes, three bed, two bath. Some will have garages, some will not. Right now, the comps in that area range from about 129 to about 143 145. So, we will start our first house somewhere around 148 to 150. And we'll start to build the comps up. We'll get it above the 60% area median income threshold, which is going to be about 164. and we'll we'll our target price is somewhere between 164 and 180 as we're starting to build all 28 of them. We think our market cap is probably going to be around 180,000 give or take, but if we can go a little higher and folks are in the market can bear it, absolutely we'd love to get there. So what that does is one, it starts to put a lot more investment in that Liberty Avenue and you start to see a ton of redevelopment in that area and I think all of us could say that would

be a terrific thing to do for the city of Teroot for the residents that live there to improve their property values. Secondly, it is going to uh support my hypothesis a little bit that if we're able to go and build new construction housing in an area that's been constantly underserved for years, we will be able to reset what that property value market threshold looks like. So, we're basically raising the baseline from here all the way up to here. And now, every piece of property in Teroot that's a vacant lot now could be actually sold rather than given away. So the government doesn't have to just take a loss on it for the demo, for the upkeep and the maintenance. They're actually able to sell it. And then two, you would be able to then have all sorts of opportunities now for private developers to come in and build at the housing that they're choosing that fits that neighborhood and goes right into it. So it basically raises the tide of all the ships in Teroot and it resets what our baseline is. So, I'm thrilled about that as a catalyst project and I'm really looking forward to seeing how we can do that. It's going to be extremely challenging. Right now, we we had bids open from late December all the way up through the early part of February. We spent the last several weeks kind of comparing apples to apples on our bids and we just got to the point where we've decided to move forward with um an initial contractor and now we're working to see how can we our bids came in a little high on our subcontractors, but a lot of folks only bid seven houses instead of the full 28. So, we're going to go back through and say, how do we get bulk pricing on some of these things? And how do we get that price down a little bit more so we can actually make it to where we need to? Cuz right now, a lot of the bids came in between 160 to 180 with just building the house, but they didn't factor in where we're going to have to help with closing costs. We're going to have to help with some down payment assistance. We're going to have to have other

permits and fees, incidental prices. So, we need to we need to trim that off just a little bit more to really make it work, but more will be coming in that project very soon, and I'm super thrilled with it. Any questions? Okay, next is the Indiana State University partnership. So, Indiana State University, as you all know, gave uh a whole bunch of parcels uh that they had extra land of, and as they were kind of consolidating in their side size and streamlining down, it went through the city of Teroot and through redevelopment. uh they have 74 parcels there. Uh we have now identified those parcels. We have an active interactive map on our website that you can click on it. You can see exactly where it is. Those parcels are for sale and they do have an ARPA infrastructure incentive with them. We are working with our very first developer who's who uh we think has a a good opportunity to take a large first bite out of that project. It's always a little risky. Nobody wants to be the first, you know, uh cuz you have to reset the comps. So, the first person is going to be that one that goes out on that ledge and says, "You know what? I can do this. I'm going to get I'm going to be brave and I'm going to reset those comps." So, we're going to walk with that person every step of the way. We're almost to a point where they're ready to come to a redevelopment commission meeting. The redevelopment commission will be voting on those projects, not Thrive. and we are just acting as the partner within the community to work with redevelopment and the city of Teroot. So, we're super thrilled with that. That's 74 parcels. We look to have a good portion of those all developed this year, if not all of them under contract. Absolutely. Uh construction may not all finish this year, but the projects will be well and going at that time. Uh last but not or well, I got a couple more slides here. This is just the project as a whole, just to remind you

of how we divided up what that 5 million looked like. Um, so 2.55 million was going into grant funding for specific projects. We set aside a million dollars between uh the city of Tero and VO County for a revolving loan fund for housing. You'll get you'll see a press release later this month for that to come out. And so instead of just giving things away as grant funding, we will now do a lowinterest revolving loan to builders to be able to use and cycle in and out. What we didn't want to see happen was we spend all of this in just grant funding. It's used one time and it's done. Now we have a tool that will recycle back and forth, back and forth in perpetuity and it will continue to longlast what this initial catalyst money looked like. The county matched it with a million. So now we'll have a 2 million work in and out of all of VO County and uh we'll continue to roll up revolve that in and out. What that also does is that creates a new builder pipeline. A lot of our existing builders today, they started before the economic recession of '08. It was so much easier to get money to go build projects. Now if you walk into a lender, boy, and you're trying to build on spec and you're a brand new person stepping into that market, super super tough. Um, and so we're now going to be able to be a partner with the private sector to derisk what that project looks like and again keep revolving that in and out for years to come. So when all this initial grant funding is done, we will we will see building just keep going and keep going here. Uh, next is housing uh, programs. So there is a federal program out there through Fanny May and Freddy Mack. um that is called uh the Hooser Homes Plus program. That's where Fanny May and Freddy Mack at the federal level will match up to two 2 and 12% for down payment assistance. And if we contribute

locally also with that match, then we can get up to a full four to 5% down payment assistance. And that is designed to one help first or second time, third time home buyers who uh are looking to buy a house in our community in VO County or city of Teroot. And two, it has uh it that acts as a low or a no interest rider on their mortgage. So it takes the down payment off. It acts as a rider and then after 84 months, 7 years, it falls off. So each month it takes a little off. if they sell their house and they move in that time, no big deal. They pay that portion back to us and then we would go and do it again. So, it really starts to create um a little bit of a reason to stay in Teroot, not just buy a house, live here for a few few years, and then move on. It gives people a lot of pause and says, "Man, this community is vesting in me. I should stay here because otherwise I'm going to have to pay that 5% down back." But it's a great deal for folks. So to date, uh, the collective total between the federal and the local match is 146,000. So 73,000 has been our local out of our $500,000 pool is what we've done so far. Yes, sir.

How would a young person or someone take advantage of this program? Who would they get a hold of? Just go right to our website. We have a we have a special page. They go to thrivewestern.com and click on the dropown menu under housing and it says club 720. Go right there. you sign up and that goes right through our special portal and then we can see kind of everything. We can help them through the pipeline. We can get them connected to wherever they need to be connected and go right to it. Awesome. Great question. Yes, ma'am. Are we using local lenders for that now? Because I know in the beginning there so wasn't anybody local that was participating in that.

Yeah. So, we had First Financial and the Hometown Savings Bank both were looking into it. Um, right now the hometown savings bank, they keep a lot of their mortgages in-house. They don't go and sell them off to Fanny May or Freddy Mack. And so that was a program that right now they weren't interested in doing. Okay.

First Financial is somewhere in that process of completing it, but I don't think they've completed it all the way yet. So it goes with lenders who are here, but also statewide. So like Ruof Mortgage and uh things like that where they have offices in our community but they're not necessarily like a terote specific lender or anything in that. Now what we have been doing is working with this because Landome Financial is the lender that covers the state of Indiana and the federal loan program. with that. We've been working with them and Stiflel who is their national kind of broker in between um to see how can we get more local bank lenders in this program especially if they want to service their own loans if they don't want to sell them off to Fanny May and Freddy Mack. How can we still get the 2 and 12% from the federal source but keep the money in the community? So, we're close to finding an agreement in a solution. Most likely it's going to involve those banks contributing some of their CRA money um their community um what is that uh reinvestment act money and if they're able to put some of their CRA money into this program in our pool then I think we're going to be able to get that deal done so they can service their own loans and we no longer have to use the you know use the ones that are going outside of our area. I appreciate that because I mean it's a new program so we knew you'd have to work through some of those things. I appreciate that information. Thank you. Oh,

absolutely. We're only the second region in our state to use it and we're probably the power user of it right at this moment. The Fort Wayne, it's been up in Fort Wayne a little longer and I think they're starting to really catch on and go through it. But um we've worked through more kinks than anybody else this problem. Most of the time they just agree with it and go on. But a lot of us is we're kind of saying Julie has really been our our champion on this and she's like wait a minute that doesn't sound right. How how does this work? And so we're we're building a lot of bridges and something that most people have just said that's okay. I'll just keep moving. So we're working on it. Been a lot of bumps and bruises.

Not surprised. Thank you. Thank you.

Um so last but not least here is our future funding. Um I wanted to be able to talk a few minutes. So we have ready 2.0. O that is coming down the pipe. We are going to see that. Of course, that's that's regional funding. It serves five counties in our RDA region. That will go through our Wbash River RDA and it's already it will be awarded here through Thrive. Again, it'll operate very similar as Ready One. We're going to be looking at about 1.65 million. In addition, we uh we are really close to being able to sign a contract with our Lily Blight and rehabilitation money. Um before we signed the contract, you know, it's hard to guesstimate exactly, but what we've initially discussed, we had $1.6 million ask. Um we are going to be somewhere less than that. I think we're going to be total in what we have available that we're able to access through a couple different avenues is going to be around 8 million give or take. Um, a lot of that will be in a low uh lowinterest revolving loan fund is how it will go out to projects for developers. Uh, but the great thing is we've been able to to really work with IEDC on this and um that will come back to our community and we'll be able to then create a long-term revolving loan fund regionally uh to use it again and again. So until the ink is dry, I prefer that we we we hold our breath and we say our prayers and we hope that everything works out the way it should. But right now, we're really hopeful that that's going to be the case. Uh and then, you know, last but not least is really just the extra recap on what I what I talked a little bit about before is the would be the VO County and city of Teroot revolving loan fund. That's the 1 million each. And again, it will act just like that and it'll keep that that going. The only thing I haven't mentioned yet, and we talked about this when we first came, was a pattern book.

And I know Mr. Nation was very interested in that, and I have been too. So, we have uh went through several vendors uh national and just in in the state of Indiana, firms that do this work. We have had prices all the way up to $500,000 for a booklet to 250 to 150 and and beyond. And so I am uh I'm pretty frugal when it comes to money and uh that for a booklet I I just couldn't do it. So we have uh we've been really kind of trying to find firms. I finally just landed one. I had a conversation with somebody about a week and a half ago. I've seen their work now twice. They're really reasonable and I think we're going to be somewhere 30 40ish,000 to get everything we want at a at a reasonable price. So, I'm waiting on them to come back with a proposal. I gave them the scope of work and we're waiting here in March for them to get back with me so we can do that. We talked a little bit about price and what was realistic and what was not. And I really do think that this firm is going to be able to finally deliver on what we had hoped for. And then we will open that up to the public and we'll allow uh members such as yourselves and the in the general public to come and really talk about how we can develop a really rich pattern book that will help a lot of future growth especially in our neighborhoods that are historic and we have open vacancies and people are looking to rebuild. What other questions do you have? Counc [clears throat] Ryan, thanks for uh updating us on all this stuff. I appreciate the comments about the pattern book. I'm glad you've identified a vendor. Um the uh I do have a question about revolving loan funds. You know, it's kind of hard to keep track for a lot of um people who might

participate in this program, builders, whatever. uh and as you meet with more success and get more uh units built and have these kinds of presentations uh I think that there will be people who say hey what about us you know and I'm interested to that end in some more details about the revolving loan funds I see that you know on one of your slides you're calling out a million dollars in revolving loan funds for the city of Teroot and VO county and I think that I understood that that was with the ARPA money. Uh and then you know on another slide it says about $2 million in seed funds um in revolving in a revolving loan fund. Is that ready money? Uh the second one the

No, I'm sorry if that was confusing. It's a a million from each the city and then the um and then the county. So, it it collectively comes to be a $2 million. Okay. And I'm sorry if I if I haven't made that clear in my diagram. I'll work on that. No, actually, you did mention that now that I think about it. Um, so there will So, there's a million from the city and a million from the county that will be administered by you that will come back and be continue to be available through revolving loan funds.

Yes. Yep. Absolutely. And it's very similar to we'll set it up very similar to how we do our small business loans. So we operate a $1.3 million small business revolving loan fund. And that goes out as quick as it comes back in. Uh right now we bring in about everything's loaned out and we bring in about 24ish,000 a month in loan payments. And so usually when we get up to 30 40 50 there's usually candidates that we'll have, you know, will come in and they'll they'll want it. That's been about the right pace. With this, there might be a little larger loans. Um, I think we do a max of 200,000 in that small business loan. Um, with this in building infrastructure, we would allow a little larger loans and what that, but we would try to do very short terms, maybe 3 to 5 years, depending on what their project is and how that capital is revolving in and out because we don't want it to just be an open line of credit where they're going to just use it and use it and use it. We want them to go and do, you know, the first few houses that they need to make, you know, they should be making a profit because that's how the private sector works. And then they may not need to use that revolving loan near as much and they can pay it back and it's available for other people.

Great. Um, I have lots of documentation. Uh, it's getting vetted by our legal team, but uh, I'm always happy. I'll come back and I'll present what that looks like so everybody can hear that in a public meeting as well. That's great. Um, also just a couple more questions on your Liberty Avenue neighborhood uh project. You know, you called out 28 lot locations. Are these these are lots that the city of Terode owns, right? Yes. Redevelopment. And then we purchased each of them because I wanted to set the model. We purchased each of them for two uh,000 each. Instead of having them given to us, we went ahead and purchased them.

Okay. Uh so they so they were owned by u the city of Teroot through probably through taxes uh taxes and other mechanisms. Uh okay and uh you've identified I I assume there are more than 28 lots available in the Liberty Avenue neighborhood. So you picked 28 of them and bought them.

Um all right great. And then uh finally with in a similar vein with ISU um that's the 74 lot locations are is that part or all of what ISU gave the city? So, I believe ISU, and I may be off by a number or two, and the mayor may be able to speak to this, but I believe they gave the city 111 parcels. By the time they were combined and and kind of reasset, reserveyed, and and everything was done, it came to about 74 buildable sites

uh with today's codes and standards for lot size. Can you characterize, you know, when I think about ISU's footprint in the last 25 years, uh, to the north of campus between Third Street and 13th Street, uh, from the northern edge of campus, let's call it the CSS tracks, CSX tracks, uh, up as far as they they reach beyond Locust, but can you characterize where these 74 buildable lots land. Is it within that huge rectangle or is it in a specific place? Like

they're all within that huge rectangle. Uh I believe the eastern most does butt up against 13th Street there by Walgreens and then I think the northernmost goes up to Locust Street and then cuts back west. Uh so it's all within that kind of corridor up to the campus and adjacent. Okay, great. Um, [clears throat] last question. Also on the ISU uh partnership, you uh call out a $6,500 ARPA incentive per lot and [clears throat] excuse me, you mentioned that that was for infrastructure. Can you elaborate on that a little bit?

Sure. Um, so we have the there's a purchase price of those lots of $4,000 because we think they're valuable. They shouldn't just be given away. And then um also then there's that $6,500 ARPA. We have that that is set up to do sewer laterals. It could be driveways if they're doing rear load garages into the alleys, sidewalk repair, water line, you know, anything along that infrastructure wise. We have that. And we figured on average there might be a little lot clearing grade. You know, some of these a lot of these have trees on them. Uh ISU planted a lot of trees. uh small sycamores at this time, but some of them are a little bit larger overgrowth. But um we calculated on average it should cost somewhere between 6,500 and 7,500 probably maybe maybe 8,000 for actual infrastructure of what it's going to take because you will still have to run the laterals and you'll still have to to do all the rest of that stuff. But a lot of these lots are fairly decent shape and they're ready to go. So that just goes to offsetting that infrastructure cost for the developer and getting them to be incentivized to build in that area where again there's a challenge with comps and that's been kind of the hesitation of our comparables are so low in that neighborhood. That's why it's been a little slower for people to want to adopt and just jump right on and take them. We weren't sure what kind of um what kind of interest we were going to have with it. At first, we thought, "Oh, we're going to have a ton of interest and they'll fly off the shelves." What we found now, there's been a couple months that it's been open. And what we've heard from a lot of developers is, "Boy, I want to do this, but I just don't know. The comps are so low. How can we get it going? I don't want to be the first one that's going to take the risk." So that's where we're we're really working diligently with the very first person who's getting uh I think getting a lot of courage up

to do it and then we're going to we're going to really work side by side with them. In summary, I think it's really good that we're focusing on these areas of the inner city that have had um the where government for, you know, whatever reason has come in and affected the clearing out of these neighborhoods. Um I, you know, I I some of this is in my district. uh the ISU footprint is definitely there and um I didn't want that to happen but given that it's the way it is to see reinvestment happening that's the thing that needs to happen next I'm glad that there's a mechanism to do that thanks I yield

thank you so much thank you Ryan

thank you all so much we really appreciate your time this Evening. Next we have Dwayne Malone. Good evening, President Dinko, Mayor Sackman, members of the council. My name is Minister Dwayne Malone, and I am a lifelong resident of the city of Terote. I come to you tonight guided by God's Holy Spirit and on behalf of the 13th Street Quartrer Committee. I would like to remind some and introduce to others on the council of the created economic development plans to bring growth and uplift for a quality of life for individuals living in and around the 13th Street corridor. In 2004, members of the Charles Tight Community Center board along with members of the community develop ideas and plans that would create healthy vibrant commu communities in blighted neighborhoods in ter. These plans with the assistance of West Central Economic Development Court, now known as Thrive, included new residential, commercial, recreational, like manufacturing, educational, medical, and technology outlets within the quarter boundaries.

The boundaries of the corridor of this project on the north side extended from Waw Bash to Maple Avenue, 13th Street to 25th Street. Southside boundaries run from Popular Street to Borhees, 10th Street to 17th Street. These plans were included in VO County's comprehensive plan for 25 years in 2025. In 2014, these plans became alive again under Mayor Bennett, but never gain the support of public funding for these visions. It has been wonderful to witness the work of this present administration through Mayor Sackbun. street sidewalks paving, Liberty Avenue housing project, the demolition of old homes, and the creation of new. The concerns we have is that the vision and plans of the 13th Street corridor be not overlooked and that we have an opportunity to work with the man. The other problem we have is that gentrification is not the process as growth and progress is made within these corridors. I believe the presentation you heard here tonight from Thrive is doing just that. And I please ask you to look into that. I also asked this body to please create an ad hoc committee that would provide insight insight to the quarter committee for need of the such economic outlets within our community. We need to know how these plans would

create better quality of life for citizens living in and around the corridor. We also asked that this body for funding to create schematic renderings of the plans of the 13th Street corridor project. It would assist us in gaining private and public funding to bring these this project to fruition. on a second level. Second, if you'll allow me to talk about housing, which was something else that was talked about tonight, [clears throat] Jonah Incorporated, which is a nonforprofit housing organization developed in 1997, has been working with our county government and hopefully our city government [clears throat] and building 16 new homes. We have asked for 150 we we will be asking for 153 $150,000 for the next three years from city coffers and county coffers to be matched dollar by dollar by Jonah incorporated. We just want to be involved and we're not. I've had several meetings with Thrive. that's gone nowhere. We need your assistance and we need it badly because these are public funds. These are our dollars, but we're not getting the opportunity to spend them for the benefit of our community with ownership. This has been going on since 2004. It needs to begin traction, especially with the kind of money that has been coming into our community and it's not spread equally. And I'm sorry that we don't have a voice that comes to you and addresses these concerns to you monthly, but hopefully that will gain and gain

traction and we will engage in this process to create a better community, but we need your involvement. We need your assistance. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Malone. Council Personal, Mayor, could you come up and speak about the corridor? I think it's an important project.

Thank you, Councilman Chalos. Um, to be very direct, this council's actually helped us with uh three projects in the specific area previously referenced. The first is currently they've started pre-sight development. That would be 13th and Homeman. This was a transaction between uh the city of Teroot redevelopment commission and Indiana railroad. So the total amount of jobs there continues to increase. We have a follow-up meeting with Indiana Railroad uh Jordan and I in April. We were supposed to do it on March 15th, but both of us have a second daughter being born in and around March 15th. Um, but we are working with Indiana Railroad and two specific companies, one from uh Indianapolis and one from Chicago to relocate to our community right there at that location. So, you might have noticed that they've cleared out some of the trees. They are going to start doing some dirt work, but we've got a final presentation with them uh hopefully end of April. The second project uh would be the Booker T. Washington renovation that we have discussed at the city council meetings. Matri continues to meet uh with a couple contractors. What we're looking to do is add on to that facility uh upgrade their multi-purpose sports facilities and continue to do some expansions there. It's looking to be a $2 million update that we would start hopefully next year. Do that through a build, operate, transfer process. Uh the third being a mixture of the Liberty Avenue project, but also uh traditional redevelopment housing as well. I did go on site to two housing developments. Uh we were not doing a ton of work today for obvious reasons with the rain. Uh but that we've started to see more housing finally start to pop up. You know, and I want to be very direct here. What we were doing up until the last two years, three years really, was not working. We would tear a house down, get it on the tax sale, vacant lot sits, and then it sits, and

then it sits, and then we say, "Well, hey, people aren't building here, right?" That's a problem. And the problem gets even worse because as properties start to fall into disrepair, everyone in this room knows who buys these properties at the tax sale, the out of town slum lords. And it's continuing to be a problem in our community. So by using our public dollars to reinvest them here and increase our housing three-fold because that's how high we've increased our housing we're finally starting to see quality housing units be built uh in and around the community specifically in the inner city. So uh we are faced with a number of problems in terote uh this council you all have helped me uh specifically in this corridor with the three projects just mentioned.

Thank you. Is there person challen Malone's family and I go back years to our grandfathers I think. Yes sir. Um is there any way to create a situation where we can he's an adjunct committee but something where I think their voices just want to be heard in a lot of ways and maybe some brainstorming sessions. I don't know if that's possible.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean I I understand Councilman Taos have met with him and Jonas several times and have shared with them the the paperwork that's now being required by the federal government for the CBDG HUD funds. Uh so HUD funding as we've discussed goes to CBDG um as well as home funding. I know that's a lot of acronyms. So housing and urban development at the federal level distributes funds to municipalities and states. uh at the municipal level that goes to usually a redevelopment commission. It's cut up into community development block grants and home. Uh now there's this process that you know you got to be a CHTO certified uh organization and that that has been a challenge for this community. Currently we've got one CHTO which is Habitat for Humanity. Uh we have sent those documents out. CHTO

Councilman Hinton I do not know what that acronym stands for actually. Uh, I I knew the other four. Say that again. Community housing development organization. Community housing development organization. So, and then Jordan continues to send that application out. It does require a pretty expansive participation from their board and their organization. I think Mr. Malone would I'll give you one more minute.

Thank you. We we have had numerous meetings with the mayor, with Jonah. Uh as you heard tonight, even in the housing projects of Liberty Avenue, the people living in Liberty Liberty Avenue now cannot afford $150,000 house. So what you're going to do is you're going to clean out that whole area. They don't want to help Jonah because they don't they're not going to receive the tax funding because of how we're set up. Okay. So, yes, we have been legally advised not to become a CHO since we've been developed in 1997 and working with HUD funding. My request tonight is not HUD funding due to the fact I know how this city count the the mayor has addressed this with us. Even the state funding state funding is not doesn't shouldn't fall under those requirements. This is federal dollars. So what about the state dollars? Okay, we're like he said not for profofit is Jonah and Habitat and we have been excluded numerous of years and just been able to receive crumbs falling off a table to build homes. When we come up with plans as we've had in the past for ownership to create ownership to create wealth in our community for people that look like me, you have to have an opportunity and this is what we have created. Even the plans that they have for the hike community center, we've already done that with more with a technology

center built on the swimming pool plus the gymnasium. We can't be included in those conversations. [clears throat] But that time has to stop and the only way it's going to happen is from this board, from individuals like yourself, hopefully Mr. Nation, definitely Miss Hinton. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anybody else from the comment who public who would wish to comment on non-aggenda items? Okay, at this time we'll close public comment. Corrections to the journal of the proceeding meeting. Just wanted to Oh, I I jumped up too late. May I just real quickly just couple of couple of things. Just wanted to say that this evening wanted to wish the uh mayor a happy birthday. And there's a new business in town, nothing but cakes. And Miss Mila Fuller, the owner operator, uh donated a cake this evening. And she wants to make sure that she's in District 1, that you all come support her business. And she is going to have an open house soon. I just wanted to say that.

Thank you. Thank you. That's very good. tax resolutions corrections to the journal from the preceding meeting. [clears throat] There are none communication from the mayor.

Hey, uh good evening, Council President Dingle, members of the Terote City Council. Couple of quick updates today. Um as you might have seen in the news, we have started uh demolition for the 13th and 8th Avenue overpass. Uh we I believe we're up to six houses, three garages, six houses, three garages, and then moving forward, we'll private contract out the rest. That's just what we were able to accomplish with our city crews. Once that gets to a certain point, then we move to right-of-way relocation. They have 270 calendar days to do that. Uh the project is slated to go out for bid the construction of the overpass itself. July of 2027 or June. I was

August. Oh no. Did you add a month? [laughter] August of 2027. Those INDOT projects are are always fun. Um, on the note of infrastructure, last year or sorry, in 2024 into 2025, you guys approved at $3.2 million for the Park Avenue main lift station. That project was going to cost 6.4 and we were going to split it over two years. We spent last year actually updating the designs cuz we felt like we could bring that 6.4 number down. Because of that process, we didn't have a contract to encumber the first 3.2 of the project. So that amount went to the cash balance in the wastewater treatment plant or in the sanitary district account. We did get a good change order and that price has been lowered from 64 to about 5.3. So now instead of coming in for an appropriation for 3.2, we've been working with the contractor. They think they can do 90% of the work this year. So, we are working for the appropriation request, really using last year's funds that are currently in this year's cash balance to do that project. Uh, we will continue to work on that. I hope to have that by April. Quick parks update. I we had our parks board meeting uh earlier this evening. Uh really good news over at Ray Park. We continue uh today. They agreed to issue a letter of support for a USA grant uh to work with the United States Tennis Association on a a large grant to help with an indoor tennis facility at Ray Park. Uh the trail is slated to start. April, as you can see, I phoned the friend there, the city engineer. Uh in April, that is that trail that's the connection of the the Riley Trail, and we're we're happy for that. Couple things I do want to hit. So the state legislators over and I'm very thankful for that because you don't get the time you spend in the state house chasing

people around for 2 minutes of their time back. One of the good things is Senate Bill 279. Within that Senate bill, it used to be if David Kroni here was in charge of Ego County and we're the city of Teroot, he has a wheel tax. Now we need to have a wheel tax to be eligible for additional community crossing dollars. but you all live in the city which is part of his county. So you would pay his wheel tax and our wheel tax. That went away after several long animated discussions with mayors and legislators. Now this double taxing relationship is over. If we want to be additional uh if we want to be eligible for the third bucket of community crossing dollars, we're eligible for the first through our match program. The second is basically all Indianapolis. But to be eligible for the third, we can add our own wheel tax and we would stop taking from theirs, the counties. So the county would have their dollars for their work. We would have ours for our dollars. I'm pricing it out now to see if we do ours. The current rate is $20. That's what everyone pays. So we're trying to do the math to say if we did 15, it would actually look like a discount when people register their vehicles. But the headlines would say, "Oh, city ads $15 tax." It's like, yeah, you're getting a discount. But, uh, we're trying to figure out if that amount is the same as the current aotment that we're receiving from the county. So, a little more analysis on that long- winded way of saying we actually got something passed that stops double taxation, which is a tall task. I do want to thank both of our legislators, Tanya Path and Greg Good, for their support in those efforts. House Bill 100001 did pass. You might [clears throat] have heard about this House bill. You might hear the governor say that this is the affordability bill and he's super happy he did it. They quote a study saying 25% of the increased cost of housing is due to government regulation. Well, within that study, 90% of those costs are state and

federal regulation. And instead, they chose to attack the 10% of the 25%. So, 2.5% of an overall cost increase. Uh, and I say that because they really went after local zoning, building codes, essentially removing area planning and city council favorable and unfavorable or sorry, no go or go build decisions. And a lot of it is opt out. In fact, almost the entire bill's opt out. Some of the things I do want us to do though is it says in there you either have to submit your zoning code by the end of this year or submit that you started to update it. I think we can all agree our zoning code does need updated. The last time we saw a big update, correct me if I'm wrong, Councilman Nation, was the uh C classification for downtown in the 2000s.

Yeah. Well, CHC9, but we also did the very very last one was 12 points adding in. Okay. Oh, that's right. That one did slip my mind. C9. Perfect. So,

this would be an attempt for us to actually update our zoning. And I'm very, you know, I I love our local attorneys here, but this is a project that we need someone who is not in the city of Teroot to do. Like, we need an objective look at zoning setbacks and those conversations. And I I'm going to look for a firm to do that. And building codes have been updated with this administration. They'll continue to be updated. I'm not worried about that. But I do want to update our zoning code. There is language within House Bill 10001 that refers to what's called a UDO unified development ordinance. You see that a lot with honestly situations like us where the county and the city essentially makes up the county. Um we've started those conversations. I don't think we're going to get there this year. But I do I I am pushing that conversation. It does not make a lot of sense to me that builders are held to different standards in the city and county. It just it just doesn't. Uh, another thing is they attempted to fix Senate Enrollment Act One. So, I know there's going to be questions. Bear with me here. We are delaying from make a decision 2027, pay in 2028 the change in local income tax structure. Now, you would make that decision in 2028 and you would pay it in 2029. The good news is we can create a must task force. Not the smell must, but a municipal unit something what S stands for and tax task force. What does that mean folks? That means if Councilwoman Hinton here is a county council woman, we are the city, the two of us, the mayor, county auditor, and every township or municipal unit that receives income tax create a task force this summer and by October 1st, submit a report to the state that is non-binding, non-binding that says, "Hey, instead of the county and the city

passing our own lit, our own local income tax, and a city resident paying both. Again, double taxation. We don't like that. Instead of that situation, what is one countywide income tax that we could all agree to and then we could all agree to how it's dispersed to these different municipal units. Cheryl or Councilwoman Louderdermilk is smiling because that is literally the current system basically that we operate in. Uh so we have somehow come back to this unified uh income tax discussion which [clears throat] we should be grateful for. I am going to get some documents from AIM probably midappril that will set a proposed timeline for how we do these meetings. We will need two to three council members to serve on that. My recommendation is the folks from your the finance committee. Um Jessica Thome, city controller, and I will be very involved in these discussions with the council members who are on this. They will be open, so obviously the rest of you can come, but we're just trying to follow some of the the loose guidelines under that bill. The next is Senate Bill 279. So, this was a a very interesting one because it started where if you're sleeping in a public rideway, you get the misdemeanor. And then we were able to change it to where there's like a six-month waiting period. They have to deny emergency shelter wraparound services. What else did we get added? They have to deny uh warming shelters if it's in the winter. And basically, if you read through the bill, it does sound similar to the emergency detention procedures. Uh the change would be they would go to a jail instead of a hospital. The benefit though that we did get kind of into the bill is if there are no beds available, you are able essentially to opt out of that the enforcing that law because there are not beds available. So

there it's not as bad as it was. That's what I'm basically trying to say. I think it's a very ill-intentioned bill. I did ask them to move the bill to next year when it was a budget year because my request was if you make us do this then we have to have funding for homeless shelters. So like if we're going to go down this road we got to do everything else right. And I'm a firm believer that if we did everything else right this law wouldn't really matter. But now we have to go back next year to work on homeless shelter funding through permanent supportive housing, which is also in HUD, housing and urban development, which is at the federal level, and it just got a 40% budget reduction. So, the state's going to have to fill in that void because this bill really can't be enforced due to the lack of shelter space in the state of Indiana. I will stop there. I'm open for questions. I'm sorry, Councilman Chalus. I said I would do three and a half minutes. I think I'm at seven. Council person Boland

here. When [clears throat] you say beds available, is that any kind of shelter bed including the jail beds or is that just refer to the jail bed? I am trying I'm trying to get clarification on that. I am um initial reading of the bill. It does look like like for example, you wouldn't count the lighthouse mission beds because it's from a religious organization. So, we're trying to get that language clarified on what beds available means for our community. I mean, we we'd have to monitor that day by day by day. And I'm not sure, Councilwoman Bolan, how we could Sounds like less government to me. Yes. Yes. There are severe challenges with the current wording of the bill. I appreciate your work on all the things that you were dealing with at the legis through the legislative session. I know you spent a lot of time there on our behalf.

Well, I tried to get the Chicago Bears, but they didn't give it to us. [laughter] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Reports from city officials. There are none. The cake is good. That's reports from board of public works and safety. There are none. Reports from standing committees, there are none. Reports from non-standing committees, there are none. Items previously tabled, there are none. Tax abatements for confirmation, there are none. Items on second reading, there are none. Items on first reading,

we have one. General Ordinance 1, 2026, amending City Code, Chapter 7, Article 3, Division 7, Fire Prevention Code. As a reminder, if you take action this week, you will need to vote to take action.

Petitioner, [clears throat] some wants to two and four. So we're gonna discuss this one. Thank you. Oh, it's Amanda. There's three different

three different from what we got. Okay. There's three different than what we already have. We already have some. We got four here. Unless they're different.

Okay. I'm just making sure.

All right. Good evening, council. Um, I had um four ordinances. uh specifically for fire ordinances um within our IPI division uh that we were coming to change. Ordinance one and three, excuse me, two and four. Ordinance 2 and four. I would like to table. There are uh a few issues with um some state ordinance uh state state bills that might be changing some of these ordinances. So I'd like to get a little more clarification from them uh before we delve into it. And I think I can get that handled by next week. So, ordinance 2 and four I would like to table, but we can talk about ordinance 1 and 3. Is there anyone from the public who wishes to comment on general ordinance 1 2026? Hearing none, we'll close public discussion. council. This ordinance, this ordinance I brought last uh November. You guys um reviewed it. I gave you uh copies of it, but I uh some of it kind of fell through the fell through the cracks, I think. Um not all of it was distributed. uh section 7 of ordinance number one, section 7-103.4 are false fire alarms were put in there and uh I appreciate that. We are working on um taking care of some of those

problems we've had with the false alarm fires. But um if you go farther into it um such as section 7-105 uh the cost and fees were not put in there. Uh we we changed the fees within our inspections divisions uh to classify them as square uh square footage of buildings. Um, most of the time it was, you know, $25 for all inspections, but a an inspection of a daycare compared to the inspection of Sony DADC, that would take us 2, 3, 4 days depending on the inspection. Um, obviously warranted a different price on that. So, we've we've adjusted [cough] the [clears throat] inspection fees on there as well as uh different types of uh inspections for sprinklers, uh suppression hoods and the likes. on the next page there. [clears throat] I'm open to any questions you may have, but this is kind of something we went over last November as well.

Mr. President, as a reminder, you'll need to vote to take action um on general ordinance one. Thank you, Council Person. [clears throat] Louder. Yeah. So, I just want to make it public to clarify. We did address this in November, but we did not adjust the fees in the ordinance basically is what did not get changed, right? Yes, ma'am. The the only I believe you discussed it. We talked about it, but it wasn't actually in correct. Just the just the false alarm fires got put in, not the whole change of the ordinance, although we as as well as general ordinance number three. Yeah. I just wanted to make sure we had that on record that we had all discussed that but okay thank you I yield

Mr. President Council Person Nation.

So, um I remember the discussions that we had before and I remember adding um the section on false alarms that hasn't been that long ago. Um but like all the other work that we um act on or consider, um this is formatted in such a way that when there's a change, it's under the ch the proposed change is underlined and what it's replacing is stricken through. And you know, I've read all this. I've read it a couple of times in preparation for this meeting. And um just one quick question uh here at the beginning on the first page, section uh 7-102.1. Um it looks like it's for apartment houses. We're uh going to we change from fewer than 10 dwelling units to fewer than eight dwelling units. Is that informed by like a change in state code or something like that?

Uh yeah, that is part of the state code. And if you if you look through some of these ordinance changes, um the Indiana State Code has been stricken and the new Indiana State Code has been put in there. Uh one of those being u a a building that has been turned into a two apartments has been changed from 10 to 8. Yeah. And coming down in that same paragraph, uh there's language about exit signs on egress stores. There's nothing stricken out. So this is new language that's being added in. Yes. Correct. Address. And then also uh gas meters. Can you just talk about those a little bit where that's where that comes from?

Um well uh let's start with exit signs, right? Um, a lot of our commercial buildings, be it a business, um, from 8 to 5 might also house living quarters where somebody might or there might be a livable dwelling in the back or upstairs, wherever it may be. Uh, that requires it to have an exit sign for state code. So, in in order to make sure that all businesses all businesses have to have an exit sign regardless during their during their times of operation, but also putting the exit signs there for dwellings after hours as well, lit exit signs. And the way that I understand this stuff is that um you know some of these u properties that you're describing may have been developed um under previous versions of the code or whatever and may not have this kind of exit sign exit light equipment. Um, but to be clear, we're talking about exit signs and exit lights in common hallways that take you out of the building, not inside the dwelling units themselves. Right.

Right. I You're talking about an exit sign like this, an exit out of the building that hopefully you can see in in the event that there was a fire in the building. Yeah. And uh don't get me wrong, I most of the buildings I go into and uh the apartments that I'm in and upper floors of old buildings, they have all of this equipment. It's because they've been developed as modern uh things with modern amenities. Um gas meters talk

uh the gas meters. Uh so we've th this is a state code. Um, but the gas meters, uh, my inspection division have found a lot of gas meters that don't have the bullards around them. Um, or a new parking lot has been developed on, say, a side of a commercial building that maybe didn't have a parking lot there at one point in time, but the gas meter is there as well. So, they come back and they do their inspection. There's a gas meter there without pro bullard protection where a a vehicle could strike pull into and strike that that gas meter.

Sure. Um so don't get me wrong, I'm not going to drag you through this whole thing. Yeah.

Um point by point. I just wanted to say for the benefit of my fellow council members, all of whom I'm sure have also read this and you know have their own understanding of what you're proposing. Um, this is all reasoned. Uh, the detail stuff that I see makes sense to me. Um, and as has been previously represented, I think that the main changes are that we're adding a fee schedule. Um, and and upping fees where they're, you know, and adding more layers of fees. That's what it looks like to me. And, um, I, you know, in my opinion, [snorts] uh, they seem to be reasonable. It's not crazy. U I see the language about false alarms. Is it substantially what we passed last year?

It it is verbatim what we passed last year. Yes. It is just in the same ordinance of of other items that didn't get added to it. Yep. Great. Um that's really all I had and thank you for your patience with me. I mean Yeah, no problem. I

if there's no further discussion, I'd make a motion that we take action on general ordinance, 1226 as presented. Second. It's been moved by council person Loudermilk, seconded by council person. Yes. One moment, please. I said vote to take action. Would you wait one moment? Yes. Okay.

Are we waiting for Council Person Chlo to return? Yes. Okay. It requires to move forward on the first vote. So, it's Thank you for catching that, Michelle. Thanks for that clarification. Yes, let's discuss. And everybody stare at him. [laughter] Clap. Clap. Everybody clap when he comes through the door. I need to go back. I'm waiting him. We can get probably a false alarm. Do we know that he's coming back? [laughter] If you need a ride home, let's [applause]

And you thought you were sneaking out, man. Hey, my age is all the talking. I have to take a pit stop. We need a unanimous vote. So, now that we have all council members present, absolutely. It's been moved by council person, second by council person Devon, that we take action on general ordinance 1226. All those in favor say I. I. I oppose say nay. Okay. May I take action on general ordinance 1 2026? Mr. President, council person ladder. I'd like to make a motion that we approve general ordinance 1 2026 as presented. [clears throat] Second.

It's been moved by council person laddermilk seconded by council person debon that general ordinance 1 2026 be approved. All those in favor say I. I. Post say nay. Motion passes. General Ordinance 1, 2026 is adopted. Next item of business, general ordinance 2, 2026, amending city code chapter 7, article 2, fire prevention code division um uh for fire service features. I do believe uh if you take no action, it will just carry over to next week. Okay. It's your your wish that this beep till next week.

I'll move to table that till next week. Is there anyone from the public who wishes to comment on general ordinance 2206? Hearing none, we'll close public discussion. Council, have a motion to take action. Okay. General ordinance 2, 2026 will be heard again next week. Next item, general ordinance 3, 2026, amending city code chapter 7, article 2, fire prevention code, division 5, fire protection services. You must vote to take action. Petitioner.

Yes. Uh so this is again just part of the fire protection system and and and our IPI division. Um, we've been working with um, uh, engineering and and inspections here at the city, making sure we're all kind of all on the same page. Uh this kind of just coincides with with what my inspection division and all of them have came up with on what what should be inspected when uh the fire department comes in to do their aspect of the inspection on a new build or or a remodel. um specifically uh with sprinklers and standpipe systems. Uh kitchen hood suppression systems. Uh it it's defined out. It's just a couple pages long here, but it it just changes it up a little bit to make sure that the my inspection division is checking it prior to signing off on approval for it. Is there anyone from the public who wishes to comment on general ordinance 32026 close public comment council

just one question counc existing commercial hood and exhaust system which would affect restaurants of course correct yeah y u you're saying the property owner owner or tenant most of the times in if there's a change in Hood system corer, whoever, they're the ones that do this. Why wouldn't we want them to contact the fire department to let them know because they're going to know more about what needs to be done than the property owner?

And I think we've been I I think we've been working more with Corson and and those companies. Um, can you maybe help a little bit on this? I know I know that I know it says the fire department will inspect, but the fire department will more or less green light it after everything's done from the companies that that come out and do it. We're just we're just ensuring that a company is coming out there to actually do it, such as Porson. So basically though that the the the owner, property owner or the tenant has to notify the fire department that it's going to be modified. That's basically what this says.

Or or contractor. Yes. Well, it doesn't say that. I don't think says property owner or tenant in one. It says the installing company where right up here it does say. Okay. Maybe I didn't see it. That's any that's any new installation. Thank you. I missed it. Okay. And I can add to this a little bit. You know, this is something that

our building inspection department, fire department had noticed as we were doing building inspections. Um the fire hoods fall outside of building inspection. But a lot of times require work that require permits. And as we were talking to fire department, that was, you know, we kind of got on the same page of, hey, we see this stuff, you see this stuff. um lets us work together a lot better on it. Well, I didn't see the part. Thank you. Yep. I missed it. Thanks. I yield.

There's no further questions. I move we take action on general ordinance three. Second. It's been moved by council person Azar, seconded by council person that we take action on general ordinance 3, 2026. All those in favor say I. I. Post say nay. Mini take action on general ordinance 3 2026. President Council person that we approve general ordinance 3 20226 is presented. Second been moved by council person Azar seconded by council person ladder that general ordinance 3 2026 be approved. All those in favor say I. I post say nay. Motion passes general ordinance 3 20226 is adopted. Next item,

general ordinance 4, 2026, amending city code, chapter 7, article 2, fire prevention code, division 6, fireworks. As a reminder, if you take no action, it will carry to next week. And this is another one that you wish.

Yes, I would ask you to take no action as it kind of coincides with general, excuse me, general ordinance number two. So, um, again, I just want to look those over with state code and make sure everything's right before we move forward. Is there anyone from the public who wishes to comment on general ordinance 4206? Hearing none, we'll close public comment. Council a motion to take action. Okay. General ordinance for 2026 will be heard again next week. Thank you.

Next item. Special Ordinance 1, 2026, reszoning property located at 2722 South Fruit Ridge area. Uh, you should have the proposed amendment at the top, okay, of your documents. And I do believe I forgot to print your area planning recommendations, but I did email them to you. It was favorable with um a site plan approval. As a reminder, you must vote to take action. Petitioner

council, thank for thank you for your time and attention to this. Uh my name is Ron Hodgej. Um I own and run Valley Group Wealth Management. Our family has run that for just over 15 years. During that time, we've rented a space in a strip mall down in Riley, but it's long been our desire to move into the city. The city's our home and our community. It's also very central to our client base as well. Um, we found this property at 2722 South Fruit Bridge and uh thought it would be a great place to make our business home. It is naturally, in our opinion, on the edge of housing and not in a residential block. It was one of the reasons we picked it. It's also on a major uh th throughway uh with Fruit Ridge Avenue and close to Road that way. happy to answer any questions on context of it or intentions. We sought the planned development uh for the purpose of limiting the use of the property um and making sure it it it adds value to the neighborhood and does not detract from it. Is

there anyone from the public who wishes to comment on special ordinance 1226? Hearing none, we'll close public comment. Council,

Mr. President, I would just uh I worked with uh these individuals on this and the amendment was removing an unneeded setback variance and then adding language um on physical on uh uh uh stating that it would revert back to R1 if it ceased to exist or um uh anything like that. So there is that caveat put that in there so that the neighborhood is protected that it would go back to RO1.

Council person Debon if there be no discussion um I move that we take action on special ordinance 1226. Second. It's been moved by council person Don, seconded by council person Boland that we take action on special ordinance 1226. All those in favor say I. I. Post say nay. We may now take action on special ordinance 1226. Cerson Deon. Um I make a motion that we amend special ordinance one as presented. Right. Yes.

Yeah. Okay. You're all looking at me like you got it. [laughter] You got it. It's been moved by council person Debon, seconded by council person Boland that we amend special ordinance 1226. All those in favor say I. Post say nay. Special ordinance 1226 is amended. Council person Don. Uh Mr. President, I make a motion that we um approve special ordinance one as amended. Second. It's been moved by council person Don, seconded by council person Boland that we approve special ordinance 1226 as amended. All those in favor say I. I. Say nay. Motion passes. Special ordinance 1226 is adopted.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Good luck. Next item. Uh, resolution 3, 2026, approving an interlocal agreement concerning civil for petitioner.

Good evening, Mr. President, members of the city council. Michael Wright, uh, city attorney. [snorts] Resolution three is a uh interlocal agreement concerning the seized asset fund that is administered by the county council um through the joint combined drug task force that includes both city officers and sheriff's department including and you know at times federal officials uh participating in DTF investigations. So the state board of accounts uh indicated that they would issue a finding on this issue if we did not have an interlocal agreement in place governing the administration of those funds. here 24 it has been um a process by which the prosecutor's office who's the entity that oversees the seized asset funds would make a request to the county council for a piece of equipment or training and that issue would be voted up or down and um if it were approved then that equipment or training would be procured cured through those funds. In essence, we are just cleaning up an issue that uh at the be behest of the state board of accounts. For all intents and purposes, this won't change the way that process works. It won't involve any more of your time as the county council

is who oversees that. But you will obviously see the byproducts through uh offsetting, you know, otherwise money that the city would have had to spit for training or equipment. I'm happy to answer any questions. Is there anyone from the public who wishes to comment on resolution 3, 2026? Hearing none, we'll close public comment. Council, Mr. President, council person loud remote. Um, I believe we did this at the end of last year to clean up last year's I, you know, Cheryl. Oh, we talked about it. Yeah, we definitely talked about it. I I know the um we did one

there was some question and as to whether or not this body needed to approve it because in in process it's not something that ever comes before you. correct for consent beforehand, but you obviously are impacted by the decisions that are made. So, we thought it best to just wear belts and suspenders and and make sure that it's all, as I said, been approved by the county council, city council, county commissioners, mayor Sackbun.

Just one of those things for state board of accounts. With that, I'll um make a motion that we approve resolution 3 20226. Second. It's been moved by Council Person Louder, seconded by Council President Hinton, that we approve resolution 32026. All in favor say I. I. Say Nay. Motion passes. Resolution 32026 is adopted. Thank you very much. Next item. 2026 designating Memorial Way for Carl Ross. petitioner. I believe that's council person nation.

Yeah. Um I was contacted by my friend Andrew Connor uh about this. It's a Carl Ross' story is one that I've been aware of for some time and u I'm heartened that we're taking action to recognize him. Um it may be a little confusing to you that you were just handed a a a fresh version of this. I noticed that there was some confusion in the process. There was a one version with four wherees, but it should have been the version with five whereases and that's the one that was just passed out. So that's the one that we're considering, the the the version with five whereases and I would like to ask D Reid, the author of those whereases to come up and talk about this, please.

Good evening. I'm D. Reid, Lost Creek settlement historian. Let me share just a little bit with you about Carl Ross. Carl Ross is remembered for an extraordinary act of courage and selflessness that saved the lives of more than 50 people in Teroot. Carl Ross grew up in the Lost Creek community where he learned the values of hard work, faith, and responsibility. He spent much of his life working in the coal mines and later as a custodian of the downtown YW.CA. CA. On the morning of September 19th, 1961, he arrived for work and discovered a bomb inside the YW.CA building. Rather than fleeing the building to save himself, he immediately warned the residents to evacuate and ran through the hall with the bomb. The device detonated just three feet from the exit of the building, taking his life. His actions gave 53 women, many of them ISU students, the precious moments they needed to escape to safety. To this day, the tragedy remains unsolved. Carl Ross's heroism was instinctive and deeply rooted in care for others. His sacrifice ensured that families were spared unimaginable loss and generations of lives were preserved. While his story has publicly gone unrecognized, his actions stand as one of the most powerful examples of bravery and devotion to humanity in Teroot's history. I along with other Lost Creek descendants that are here this evening are also proud to call him Uncle Carl. Thank you.

Thank you, D. Um, I'd like to just go ahead and read this resolution into the record uh before we vote on it. And it's resolution number 4, 2026. A resolution designating a memorial way at 7th and Cherry Streets. Whereas Carl Ross, a respected member of our community, embodied service, selflessness, and bravery, and whose heroic sacrifice on September 19th, 1961 remains unforgettable. hand. Whereas, in a moment of unimaginable danger, Carl Ross encountered an explosive device within the YW.CA and without hesitation chose the safety of others and tragically lost his life. And whereas through his decisive action in attempting to remove the explosive device, he successfully averted a horrific tragedy, preserving the lives of 53 women. And whereas though his light was extinguished, his kindness enriched the lives of all who knew him and will always be remembered. And whereas the Teroot City Council honors Carl Ross, a true hero as part of our history and an example of the human spirit of our community. and we express our profound gratitude and sincere condolences to his family. Be it now therefore resolved that the following oneb block section of North 7th Street from Cherry Street to Larry Bird Avenue be designated as follows. Carl Ross Memorial Way. Be it further resolved that the board of public works and safety is hereby directed to prepare and erect a sign reflecting this memorial way designation at the intersection of North 7th Street and Cherry Street on a traffic signal

light pole facing westbound Cherry Street traffic. This is a great story and a great way to honor the sacrifice sacrifices made by Mr. Ross. Thank you D and everyone else who worked on this. I yield. Is there anyone from the public who wishes to comment on resolution 4 2026? Hearing none. Close public comment. Council Mr. President. Council person Henman.

Miss Reed or family members. How far did the investigation go into resolving or solving this crime? I've tried to do as much research as I could, but only um a few months after the explosion, um Teroot Police Department did not have those records from that long ago. The uh newspaper articles indicated that bomb fragments were sent to the FBI. I contacted the FBI through public information um in Indianapolis because the newspaper articles had indicated that and they referred me to the national portal and I'm still awaiting um their results.

Is there a possibility that the case would be reopened? I I I honestly don't know. Thank you for your question. Thank you for um doing the historical work uh in Lost Creek and throughout the city of Terote and thank you family. Thank you. I yield. Council person Don.

I'm somebody who uh really loves looking into Teroot history. Um I don't pretend to be an expert in it, but I certainly enjoy looking through it and learning as much as I can. And I'll be completely honest, I had never heard this story with Carl Ross. Um, I'm very grateful that you all have have brought this to us. Um, and uh, from what I've learned, it seems this recognition is very long overdue. So, thank you all very much. I yield. Agree. Mr. President, Council Person, there's no further questions. I move that we adopt resolution 4 2026. Second.

It's been moved by council person Azar, seconded by council person chaos that we approve resolution 4 2026. All those in favor say I. I. Post say nay. Motion passes. Resolution 4 2026 is adopted. [applause]

President, I move to adjourn. Second. It's been moved by council person Azar seconded by council person louder we adjourn. All those in favor say I. Post say nay city stands. Thank you. Sitting here looking at I didn't know. I wanted to give everybody a chance to participate. I was sitting here looking at you like Well, I didn't I never heard anybody say heard the story. I've never heard a great story. That's awesome. Not that it happened. Why the earth?