City Council - Regular Meeting

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At this time, I call to order the regular meeting of the Teroot City Council on Thursday, March 12th, 2026. First item on the agenda is a moment of silence and pledge of allegiance to the flag. Tonight, the pledge will be led by Council Person Todd Nation. 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. Sh. We have a calling of the role.

Council person Azar here. Council person Boland. Council person Chaos. Council person Debon here. Council person Dingle present. Council person Hinton present. Council person Louderdermilk present. Council person Nation here. Council person Thompson here. Seven present. Two are absent.

We heard from both council persons Boland and council person Chaos that they were not able to be here this evening. At this time, we reserve up to 30 minutes of time for public comment on non-aggenda items. We ask that you please limit your comments to three minutes and address your comments towards the council. First on our signup sheet is Deborah Considine. Hello, Deborah Considine, 1625 South 11 Street, Terraote. When there was discussion about homelessness, maybe about in October of last year, there was a gentleman who suggested a tax to help fund it. That led me to think that I was wondering if there'd be a way that you could donate to help people with housing through your sewer bill with a donation. And I'd even have a name for it. I'd call it the Chanty Rose Fund. Even though he helped orphans and widows, I think, you know, people unhoused would be something he would do if he were alive today. I personally have donated items to all three of the warming centers this year, in particular, the one on Lotus Center. And even though there have been a lot of people giving stuff, they needed stuff all the time because every time I bring in bowls, they said they've run out of them. And it is a need that's greatly needed here in Terote and throughout VO County. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next, Dwayne Malone. Good evening,

President Dinko. Council persons, good afternoon. Um, my name is Dwayne Malone, longtime resident of VO County. And I wanted two things. The first thing I wanted to follow up on the email you received that I sent out regarding the request for the ad hoc committee and wanted to know the next steps in regarding that. Did you see anything? We haven't had uh to be honest time to discuss that at all to discuss it.

Um typically we have standing council committees that deal with business right in front of the council. Okay. Um, since we've had nothing formally come before us, there we have not had a chance to create one. Okay. So, you'll have a chance to look at it and then maybe next week. Will there be a response? So, I guess that's what I'm when you do have a chance to look at it. Just to to be clear about how um you know how the budget works, even if we wanted to fund something, it has to come through the the executive through the mayor's office

for a budget proposal. So that would have to start with the mayor and then if it got to us um if if there was something before us an appropriation of funds at that time we could create the the ad hoc committee to study it. Okay. So it have so from my understanding it would have to come from the mayor's approval to create. Yeah. Essentially I mean the the council can budget and appropriate funds, right? But we can't direct them how they're spent. That's ultimately the executive of the city's function. Okay. So, not even involvement from your position as a county person regarding your community. You wouldn't have input. Only the mayor would.

We can have input, but essentially once we've appropriated, that's our that's our duty. Okay. All right. Thank you. Uh, can I Yes. So, the your note to us was a two-part. I think the first part was the was the ad hoc to do to study the 13th Street quarter, right? The second part was for funding funding for for Jonah. I don't know if those two are the same

um or or do we we separate them out, but but at any rate, I think it uh the mayor's office may set up the ad hoc team to to examine the 13th Street Quarter. And then the funding piece is also from the mayor's office, but I don't know that we have the authority to set up the ad hoc committee. I mean, we we can create a committee of the council, but it would be only council members. And I don't frankly know if that's going to accomplish what we really need to accomplish here. I think um to really look at this issue, it needs to be a collaborative process with multi-players from the administration, from community members, and from the council.

I yield. Okay.

Thank you. All right. Uh my next reason for standing uh we've had a tragic situation in our community uh where young lady uh passed away in our jail. Very very unfortunate situation. But what I want to bring to your attention is within the African-American community, we make up 8% of our total population. But when it comes to our jail population, we make up anywhere from 30 to 40% on a daily basis. So some may ask, why is this happening? And and what can we do to change it? Okay, I know sometimes when we look at the African-American community, sometimes say, well, they're just criminals. They're savages. Whatever the case may be, and it's up to our responsibility to change a mindset. The 13th Street corridor changes a mindset within our community to have a lot of relief and a lot of support from our community and individuals that's living in and around it. We just need support. We have to have support to change mindsets and to change our community. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else from the public who would like to make a comment on non-aggenda items? Okay. At this time, we'll have a presentation from Indiana State University students on the neighborhood investment grant program research project.

Good evening, President Dinkle, members of the city council. Um my name is at Ryan, the director of the human relations commission for the city of Teroot. Last summer, um, Mayor Brandon and I began discussing the idea of creating a neighborhood investment fund, a program that would provide small grants, um, or project funding to neighborhood groups for projects that strengthen and invest in communities. Um, as we started to think about how to build a program like this, we wanted to take a thoughtful and research-based approach. So last um in the fall semester of this past year um we partnered with PhD students from Indiana State University um who helped us to study how similar funds operate in other communities and identify best practices for launching a program like this. Tonight they will be sharing their research they conducted and some of the ideas that came out of this work. We're incredibly grateful for their time and thought that they put into this project and the research and recommendations are helping us to build the framework for this what this program could look like here in Teroot. So just to give some context of um how we will be proceeding with what they have done as a city over the next few months we're going to be refining um what they have will share here tonight and with a goal of beginning this project in the spring and fully launching to the public in May. We appreciate again their partnership and are excited to have them share what they learned. I'm going to turn it over to them.

Good evening, President Dinko, city council members, clerk Edwards, and individuals in the gallery. My name is Joseph Harris,

and I am Sarah Fierce, and we are PhD students with the higher education leadership program at Indiana State. do a little quicker. Awesome. Um, so we're going to start u our presentation now. Um, if you we we have a booklet for everybody. You could follow along um if you would. Um, I'm going to start with the scope. Um, the city of Terra Hope had allocated 75,000 from casino funds to empower local neighborhoods through the neighborhood investment fund. The object the objective is to distribute these funds equitably to neighborhood groups for community empowerment pro projects. This report outlines the implementation plan specifically designed to bridge the gap between equality and capacity. Uh research and stakeholder interviews indicate a strong desire for a process that is transparent, accessible to informal groups, and managed directly by the city to reduce legal liability. The following report details the program guidelines supported by literature review. Um we're going to go on to uh administrative recommendations. Based on the mayor's vision and stakeholder feedback, we recommend the following administrative structure. funding model. We wanted a city- managed project proposal model. The city retains funds and handles procurement installment directly rather than dispersing cash to groups. That's to minimize any sort of legal problems. Marketing branding should focus on neighborhoods and families to minimize political skep skepticism and um the timeline was already covered by at go to the next theoretical framework. Um one of the things we did, we looked at other cities first to kind of see so we didn't have to reinvent the wheel. Um we wanted to see what kind of models were doing the similar work. So um we wanted to find communities from which we could take ideas and inspiration. So we started with a uh assetbased community development. Um the NIF project aligns with the assetbased community development framework. Unlike needs-based approach that focus on deficiencies, ABCD emphasizes the strengths and existing assets within the community. Stakeholders noted that some communities uh possess strong organizational assets while others lack formal 501c3 structures but possess

significant social capital through churches and informal kitchen table groups. Um we wanted to find ways to uh strengthen each individual community and rely on their strengths and not just just their weaknesses. Um 2.2 the broken windows theory and beautifification. Several stakeholders emphasize beautifification as a crime reduction strategy. This aligns with the broken windows theory which suggests that visible signs of disorder can encourage further crime. However, the literature cautions that beautifification within comm community without community buyin is unlikely to have lasting impact. In response to NI NIF guidelines prioritize projects that demonstrate a neighborhood vote or a clear neighborhood consensus rather than projects driven by the preferences of a single individual. Um equity and municipal funding. A recurring theme in the research is the tension between shovel ready projects and equitable impact. Shovelready criteria often bias funding towards wealthier, more organized neighborhoods that already have grant writing experience and formal structures. To counter this, our framework intentional intentionally deprioritizes speed and in and instead centers local highnee areas with a specific focus on the broken promised neighborhoods defined as annex areas that have historically lacked basic infrastructure. Um the uh the next part uh stakeholder interviews. Um we conducted 10 in-depth interviews with state key stakeholders including city council members, United Way representatives and community center leaders. The purpose of these interviews was to identify barriers for entry for neighborhood groups particularly those without nonprofit status and determine the most effective and equitable distribution mechanisms for the NIF. Um our key findings um and this is sort of just the large overview. Um there was a capacity gap. stakeholders unanimously agreed that highnee areas lacked administrative qu uh capacity to manage traditional grant funds including banking procurement and reporting. This finding supports a city- managed procurement model in which the city handles the financial and contractual components of each project. Another uh finding that we found was that there were trust issues. Um there's a significant distrust of any type of

governant initiative among some residents. stakeholders emphasized that marketing must clearly be non-political and should be framed around neighborhoods and families or validated by local uh trusted local leaders such as pastors and community center directors. Uh practical deliverables. Um so the mission of the terote neighborhood investment fund is a neighborhood-driven initiative designed to transform community ideas into reality. Funded by the city of Ter Hope, the program empowers residents to define and shape the improvements their community need most. Our core philosophy is that it should be neighborhood driven. Residents know best what their block and neighborhoods need. Um it should be inclusive. Formal nonprofit profit status is not required to imply. All informal groups are welcome. Tangible impact. The program prioritizes projects that families and children can see, use, and enjoy in their daily lives. Um eligibility. Who can apply? Neighborhood associations both formal, registered, and informal such as the previously mentioned kinship table. Neighborhood groups can apply. faith-based groups, churches, and religious organization organizations acting on behalf of a neighborhood. Ad hoc committees, groups of neighbors formed specifically for a project with a designated lead contact. Um, residency requirements. Projects must be located within the city limits of Terra Hope. Priority priority is given to a project in high need areas and annex neighborhoods that have historically lacked infrastructure. Ineligibility. Individuals applying for improvements to personal property are ineligible. For-profit businesses are also ineligible. project scope. Um, eligible projects are physical improvements such as benches, signage, tree planting, landscaping, and public right of way, and public art. Uh, gathering spaces, picnic tables, uh, small park shelters or enhancement to share community spaces, events, um, time limited events such as neighborhood block parties, picnics or concerts that foster community connection, uh, and are part of a broader neighborhood improvement effort. Um other things such as tool libraries, shared equipment such as lawnmowers and edges that are owned

and managed by a neighborhood association or group. Ineligible projects are things like surveillance. Uh we found from a lot of our conversations with uh stakeholders that surveillance um security cameras, speed cameras, alarms, monitoring devices, they fail. It's hard to keep up with them and the upkeep isn't worth uh the risk. Uh private property improvements to private driveways, individual homes or backyards that are not accessible to the public. uh payment to individuals solely for organizing groups or attending meetings and political activities. Uh the next part is a rubric. I'm going to skip that part. Those are just suggested rubrics so that people could have an idea of how we could score some of these issues. Um this is just more of a suggestion and it takes up a lot of time so I don't want to waste our time sort of going over a rubric that you may not decide to use. Um process and timeline. Um informal mandatory meetings. representative from the ISU student consulting team and city staff will explain the NIF process and answer questions. Um, a letter of interest, a simple one-page form indicating your group's intent to apply and summarizing your project idea. Applicant workshop uh also known as technical assistance. A mandatory workshop to assist assist informal groups in writing their proposals and estimating costs using their project menu. Application submission. Applications must be submitted by the final deadline. There will be no rolling admissions review and reward. Applicants will be scored by a balanced grant selection committee. This process is designed to ensure fairness, transparency, and authentic neighborhood representation. The next is our marketing and outreach strategy. Um our core strategy once again is to focus on neighborhoods and families. Um and that was to address the government distrust identified earlier in our stakeholder analysis. The NIF campaign will be framed primarily around families and neighborhoods rather than a traditional city project. The core mission is to create safer, more welcoming spaces where families, children, and neighbors can connect because who doesn't like families, neighborhoods, and children? Um, critical branding approach. We want to

avoid bureaucratic language. We don't want to present the NIF as a complex bureaucratic process. We want to use plain language and emphasize opportunity, community, and pride. We want to focus on trust, frame the grant as a tool for neighbors helping neighbors. The city provides the funding and logistical support, but the ideas and priorities come from the residents themselves. Key themes when describing eligible projects or the mission. Prioritize language about neighborhoods and families such as safe places to play, walkable streets for strollers, beautiful mirrors, murals rather than abstract terms such as infrastructure or capital projects that some people may not quite get or understand. Um defining neighborhoods for outreach purposes. Um for the purposes of this grant, a neighborhood is defined by people who connect there, not just lines on a map. A neighborhood is the immediate community where families interact, children's children play, and residents share common spaces. Whether you are a formal association, a group of concerned parents, or a block of neighbors who want to make a change, you constitute a neighborhood under our definition. I'd like to introduce Sarah Fears for our next part of the presentation.

Have to relinquish clicker control. And that's very sad. So for this project, our core campaign assets are to ensure that there's a consistent, inspiring and clear message following the development before launch. And so we have decided to create a couple campaign slogans that might resonate with the community such as change begins at the crossroad, stronger neighborhoods, stronger terraote, and terote let's build better. We also generated a few hashtags so that we can track our metrics and how well we're performing on our socials for those who are digital natives and our friends who are digital immigrants and coming back to different platforms um such as invest in terote built by neighbors terote together and hope helps neighbors. We did a mockup flyer here, as you can see, that lists how people can uh participate in this grant opportunity and what it could potentially look like as we start canvasing in these neighborhoods. So, our digital strategy is we have to meet people where they scroll. um for a lot of these people um rather than relying solely on city's own social channels, this is the marketing strategy that will partner with trusted thirdparty platforms. So things like coat happenings to identify um stakeholders as a key platform for reaching families. It would be a very formal partnership. There is the community resource alliance that has a larger list serve about 300 or more local organizations. Chamber of Commerce today in terote newsletter and then see you in terote. Our vision here is that we would have video and content strategy that we could leverage through microbits. So, taking larger chunks of a longer form YouTube video, cutting it down for a reals for Instagram or Facebook or any of the meta platforms as well as cutting them for Tik Tok, so

they're quick and digestible, but something that they could retain and easily share with the community. Next slide, please. So, our hope is that these are hyper local outreach tactics. So neighborhoods with lower digital engagement uh particularly maybe district 1 in the southside areas. This campaign will rely on hightouch in-person marketing. So we want to create a neighborhood champion street team. This is a grassroots promotion um that would be modeled for an opportunity for people in the neighborhood to see other people investing in them again. Um so that there's not so many strangers saying, "Oh, wouldn't you love a bench?" It is your community saying we need this bench for comfort, for access, for spending time together, right? And so our hope is that we would find passionate volunteers who represent their own neighborhoods and to support large-scale canvasing uh tap into local organizations including but not limited to our local graduate chapter sororities of the divine nine um our other um national panh helletic fraternities and sororities as well as the terote volunteer network the wab bash valley district of crossroads of America council girl scouts of central Indiana, our honor scholars at Indiana State who have a U volunteer requirement and both Tero North and South National Honor Societies to tap into. The other process that we'd like to tap into is the candy method. Volunteers will distribute door hangers to our mailboxes, flyers, uh accompanied with a small item, perhaps the candy bar, perhaps the candy cane. This encourages residents that, hey, there is a treat attached to some rather interesting material so that they're just not easily thrown away. And then locations would really focus on these neighborhood champions um that will help explain

these idea cataloges and barber shops, laundromats, corner stores, and every other day gathering opportunities. So, our idea here next is that we have a proposed timeline um that is I'm so sorry my eyes are not as good as they once were. But this timeline includes a soft launch that would have um a toolkit and project idea catalog sent to our previously identified partners. We'd finalize these so that they know exactly what the marketing strategy would be and the content and the language that needs to go out in the newsletters and on socials. Uh then we would do a public launch. This would bring awareness to what's happening obviously at large through social media and other traditional platforms. Uh we would then create a street team drive. So this focuses again on district one and these broken promise neighborhoods and our neighborhood champions would distribute these door hangers with candy or chachki item in these targeted areas. We would then move on to technical assistance to host ideal workshops and labs to help informal groups complete proposals. This was the most equitable way that we could imagine um bringing people to the table and then we would do a review which would be our six in one committee. So, council members, community leaders, um, and so on who would review these applications and confirm, uh, neighborhood verification. And then finally, at the six month mark, we'd hope that we would have, um, completed projects that we could host celebrations and list all of our completed opportunities. Our strategic recommendations for the city uh, is to ensure the success of this program, the consulting team advises that Teroot adopts the following strategic measures. These recommendations come directly from the

equity versus capacity tension identified during our stakeholder interviews. So the first that we'd like to do is a six and one voting structure to ensure that there is fair governance and reduce skepticism about political influence in deciding funding. We strongly recommend a grant selection committee composed of seven members, six community leaders, one from each district picked by their city council member providing democratic legitimacy and knowledge of district's histories and needs and then as a seventh tiebreaker the mayor who would facilitate these discussions and cast a deciding vote when necessary. This is an extra layer of verification for our legislative branches with grassroots reality. This is the presence of community leaders to help in uh counter perceptions that this program is top down and the odd number of members prevents voting uh stalemates. We will then create a project venue for budgeting support. Stakeholders reported that many res residents are unfamiliar with the cost of municipal improvements. So to bridge this capacity gap, the city should provide a standardized project menu in the application packet. So, an example, again, we talk a lot about benches here, commercialgrade benches. That's approximately $1,200 including installation. This is a tool that will allow informal groups to develop realistic budgets without needing to independently obtain quotes from um other vendors. Our hope then is to bridge the gap in these forgotten neighborhoods. The city should intentionally market this to traditionally marginalized neighborhoods that have experienced delay in infrastructure improvements. We hope to use this as a resource to support smaller connectivity and beautifification projects in these areas. These visible improvements can serve as good faith gestures and help to rebuild trust in neighborhoods that feel overlooked.

So our hope then is to plan a postcycle wrap-up celebration at the conclusion of the grant cycle. a planned citywide event such as a ribbon cutting and recognition ceremony for all of the funded neighborhoods. The benefits include maintaining program momentum and morale, provides compelling visuals for media coverage, reinforces the city's commitment to neighborhood investments, and ultimately helps recruit new participants for partners for a potential year too. And we have included a few marketing mockups in your packets and we're happy to show at a high level what some of these could look like.

So, um if you look through your packets, um you'll see the marketing mock mockups. Um they're just different ideas that we had. We used the um we we used the uh the colors and some of the font recognitions for uh that the city of Terobe had on their web page um so that we could retain the idea of people knowing that this is a city um initiative. Um so we have the neighborhood investment fund with uh the city behind it with the small swish going through representing the river on A. Uh we have the TH with the houses on B. We have the this the the river running through with the neighborhoods around it on C. D is our house with many rooms. E is our just th um F is our star. Um G is our growing together with hands. Um H uh which is my favorite today. My favorite changes on daytoday. Um and I is sort of a map with um flames coming out of it. And J, our last one is the outline of a neighborhood. So, we just wanted to provide uh potential ideas for for marketing mock-ups so that everyone could sort of see what it could look like. And that is our presentation. We'd like to open up for any comments or questions or concerns.

Questions, comments, Mr. President? Council person Nation. Um well, thank you Joseph and Sarah for um presenting this to us and uh to your other classmates who also helped put all this stuff together. Can you remember or remind us of uh exactly how much money is available to implement all these good ideas? $75,000. Yeah. Okay. And um has there been any thought given to the idea that this might carry over from year to year and not just be a oneshot deal? AC is so happy to answer.

Good. Yeah. Um I think that we're pulling this funds from gaming revenue. Um so obviously we have to look at our you know gaming revenue what we will have for um 27. Um, but I think that Mayor Brandon um would like to see this be an ongoing initiative. Um, of course evaluating at the end is always important. Um, so no, this is a pilot, but um, like our free transit, we would love for it to be an ongoing initiative.

I think it's great and I appreciate all the work that went into this, all of you. Thank you very much. I yield. Mr. President, Council President Hinton,

just want to uh I know these folks intimately. They're our students and um I remember them working on this project very diligently and so I I had not seen the finished pro product because I didn't lead this class. Uh but looking I see the work that went into it and and uh we're appreciative. Thank you for shouting out District One too. I I don't know why they shouted out district one for some reason. Thank you. I yield. Thank you. You get an A. Thank Thank you all very much for your time. Thank you.

This time we're going to close public comment. Um corrections to the journal of the preceding meeting communication from the mayor. I received nothing. While Jesse's making his way up here, I do want to congratulate uh Mayor Sackbun on the birth of his new child. I don't know if it was this morning or last night, but um we wish him and his wife and their new family the best. Council President Dinkl, are we ready for reports from city officials? Sure.

All right. Uh thank you, Council President Dinkle, members of the council. Um Jesse Tohill, director of public works and safety. I want to provide you with a couple of updates here. uh one specifically regarding a uh request for funding um from the county council that myself and uh at Ryan, our human relations director, made um this past Tuesday. Uh there's been quite a bit of social media discussion about this and I just kind of want to clarify um the content of that request um and then put it into context uh regarding the original request that was made to county council um back in December. So, I'm reading from the VO County Council uh special meeting agenda from December 29th, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. Uh I'll just skip down to number eight, ordinances relating to appropriations and item A, additional appropriation 2025-61, Terote Mayor's Office warming center operations. Um, it was the exact same request that was made this past Tuesday and and it did pass through council uh unanimously, albeit there were two council members um that were not present at that meeting. So, this is the I I'll read verbatim um what I provided to county council last Tuesday for their consideration to Vego County Council regarding additional appropriation for warming center operations. Council President Ellis and members of the Vego County Council, on behalf of the city of Teroot, the city respectfully requests approval of an appropriation in the amount of $15,000 to assist with funding warming center operations in VO County for the 2025 26

season. This request was previously approved by the council on December 29th, 2025 during a special session. However, the funds were neither expended nor encumbered. In September 2025, the city convened a warming center working group to revise the current white flag red flag plan, which provides operational guidance and establishes parameters for opening and operating warming centers in VO County. Key objectives included broader but more clearly defined opening criteria and more consistent aligned communications. This effort has included representation and input from multiple city and county departments as well as community stakeholders and has resulted in the current warming center operations agreement with Mental Health America. To date, as of last Tuesday, um the warming center has operated for 34 days under this agreement. Uh a a copy of the agreement is attached to their request. The city appreciates the county's continued partnership and support as we work to provide this critical service to our most vulnerable residents. The city will come before the council later this year to provide relevant updates regarding warming center operations and related coordination efforts. Respectfully, Jesse Tohill, director of public works and safety. Um, so there's been some discussion as to whether or not this request was confusing or ambiguous in some way. Um, and I won't speak to that. I just wanted to put it on the record here exactly what that request said. Um, I think we can safely say that uh it's a fragile partnership um in regards to uh future um financial investments uh from the county council as we look to the 2026 2027

uh warming center operations. I'd be happy to answer any questions about that part.

Council person Thompson. Um, Jesse, I hope you don't feel that you are responsible in any way for what happened. Um, I I don't want to speak to everybody on the council, but um, I went back after I heard about the vote and watched the meeting. Um, and I remember seeing the meeting back from December. Um, I don't think there was any ambiguity or confusion about what was promised and uh what was then basically a broken promise um earlier this week. Um we also just got word um I guess the bridge uh will not be reopening their wing center uh this year. So um we're going to be in a even worse position. Um, so many nonforprofits stepped up to the table this year. So much of our community, um, people that their name wasn't even made public that came in and stepped in and helped with funding um, when it wasn't there. Um, and I'm uh, when I get angry, it's hard for me to articulate.

Okay. Um, but the likelihood of nonforprofits wanting to work with the city city count city county proposal in the future. Um, I I will tell you the word has spread beyond just the agencies that were involved in the warming centers. Um, that frustrates me to no end because it is important for our government to work with our nonprofit agencies. Um just like we heard from our our students here earlier presenting um you need buyin from a community, you need support from a community. A government can't just dictate and tell. There's a lack of trust. Um so I have serious concerns about moving forward. Um if and I know you you and the mayor are going to do great work and find a way because you always do. Um, but I am beyond angry with uh the county council vote. Um, it they turned a blind eye to one of the most serious issues that our county has. Um, a lot of you probably saw what I posted on Facebook earlier this week. Um, I was recovering from the flu and then was in the also in the middle of a jury trial when all this went down. Um, and I I could not sleep that night. I was just that furious. Um, this will continue to be an ongoing issue and if we have four members of our county council, they can't see that. That's a huge problem. Um and beyond that, it they had made a promise last year to do this funding and I understand that um people in the community have stepped up to make up that 15,000 difference that the county completely dropped the ball on and I'm very glad to hear that

because and I know the city probably would have found a way as well. But what if the money wasn't there? these nonforprofits would have been holding a $15,000 bill when they are already strapped for funding. Um, I hope the county council members that voted no take a very good look in the mirror. Um, and I hope our voters heard very well what happened at that meeting earlier this week. Um, and I'll I'll leave it at that. Thank you. I yield. Thank you for your council person Don. Council Person Thompson.

Yeah. When uh Mayor Sackbun brought this to us late last year as an opportunity to work with the county on on such an important issue, um I saw it as this is a great opportunity for the city and the county to work together on something uh life-saving, right? Um something very necessary for our community. I don't know how or why the vote went the way it did at the county council. Um, but I'm going to remain optimistic that hopefully um we can all continue to work together on this going forward. Um, that's my hope. Um, I'll yield.

Thank you, Council Person Laddermilk.

Um, I just wanted to try and echo Amanda's um, sentiments. I happened to be at that meeting that night. Jesse and and at did a wonderful job um sitting back there in the corner and was absolutely in complete shock at the at the answer and and as Jesse knows I was pretty angry when I left. Um I guess coming from my experience I don't think we should have ever had to have gone back. the ball was dropped um from the very beginning. Um second, their agendas say reappropriate right on the agenda. So any question of stating they didn't know what they were voting on, whether it was new funding or not, it was in their packet. The mayor's letter was in their packet. I guess I'm disappointed that we have council members that can't read what's in their packet then and understand what they're voting on. Um Jesse's comments as he stated he read you your statement. The first thing he says is this was appropriated in December was not spent. There's an error. It didn't get encumbered and we're back to ask for that same. Um, I'm not speaking for everyone, but most of the time when I don't understand if we're what we're appropriating or if we're doing something, I'll ask a question and say, is this a new appropriation? Are we now giving? So, I I am have my concerns going forward also um with with what might take place. Um, again, I have all the faith in the city and as Amanda said is how many people have stepped up. We have an nice lady

here who spoke about how much she has stepped up and and went to the warming centers and um I guess just you know I sometimes the the county um officials believe the city should do everything on their own when they're working in the city. And I'm just going to make my normal statement and that is the city does not hover over the county. we are part of the county and city taxpayers pay into the county coffers. Um just a little statement I wanted to make and with that I will yield.

Thank you. Council person Nation.

Just one quick thing. Um, council personal alluded to Deborah Consid Considine's uh suggestion earlier that um we use our sewer bill uh to promote a uh a fund that would be voluntary that people could write a few extra bucks onto and uh and donate. I think that I would be specific toward the warming center initiative because that's what you know we can all uh we don't have to imagine it. You know, it's an actual solution that's been implemented and I think probably saved lives. Um so I I would uh urge you Jesse with your uh

storied past and uh sewage management uh to to try to implement Mrs. Wisconsin's good idea. All right. And I'll yield with that. Thank you.

Thank you. I will add that um since operating um the warming center under the current criteria, we have had no loss of life um during a pretty brutal stretch of weather in February. So, it really has been a lifesaver. Um, if there's no other questions, I'll move on to what else I've got here. Um, so we are officially about one month out from the citywide cleanup. It is currently scheduled for April 13th, um, 2026 from 8 a.m. to noon. Our locations will be 1329 Deming Street, which is the transit street department garage. at that location. They'll accept up to four tires, they'll accept electronics, and they will accept um like tree trimmings, limbs up to 4 in. And of course, they'll also take those large item uh as well there. Our other location um is going to be at the solid waste um VO County solid waste district up at uh 3230 Haythornne and I'm sure everybody will be excited to know that we are bringing the citywide cleanup back to 1211 Waw Bash. So very popular site um that'll be mostly for large items. Um so we'll have three sites going. Uh please do share the word um with your with your districts and your contacts. Um I do want to give a shout out. I think I already heard he heard one shout out for Neighbors Helping Neighbors. Um but Neighbors Helping Neighbors will be doing their program where they will actually um you can contact them and they can help you get some of those large items out of the house. if you're

not able to uh yourself, you schedule that with neighbors, helping neighbors, and they go out a couple days before and they get those large items to the curb and then we send some crews around the city um picking those uh items up. That's been a great success and we love that partnership with Sheila Romanelli and United Way and Neighbors Helping Neighbors. Um, also, uh, Birkhard Insurance does their, uh, $10 a bag initiative, um, during the spring cleanup. So, your nonforprofit, um, can sign up through Birkhard Insurance, and they will pay you $10 for every bag of trash that you bring them up to $200. And that information is available on their social media um, as well. Um, let's see. Also, just one real real quick update, pretty exciting. Um, February 2026, uh, we almost hit 25,000 riders, um, on our buses. Uh, so that is a pretty astounding number. Of course, we were fair free last February. We were over 18,000. Um, so we're growing still from those numbers of of the first year of the onset of Fairfree. So, any questions about either of those?

Council President Debon. Yeah. First, uh I love hearing those transit numbers. That's that's great news. Um I just had a quick question. Are we still doing the citywide cleanups twice a year? We are. You know, I I've volunteered and and worked at a couple of those and and I know how successful they are, right? How how frequented they are by by the people. Um have there been talks about maybe doing maybe one or two more a year as well? Well, I know there's probably a lot of effort that goes into them. I have no doubt.

Right. So, um we the city has allocated x number of dumpsters to use um through our contract with Republic Services. So, we try to make sure that we fill up and use every dumpster that is allocated to us. Sometimes that number's a little bit lower because we may have a oneoff cleanup that we need to use one of those dumpsters for. Um the city has spearheaded several large um encampment cleanups here and there been some some properties that were just sort of abandoned and left for the city to clean up. Um we view some that way, but generally we uh will use and we'll have as many cleanups as were provided dumpsters. So, I think maybe 2024 we did do three cleanups that year, but we kind of we kind of mixed the the one over the summer uh in with more of like a beautifification sort of project and we went around and uh abated a lot of graffiti um you know, painted over some graffiti. So, yeah, I would like to bring something like that.

No, thank you for the work you're doing. I I appreciate it. I I yield.

Council person Nation. Jesse, can you talk just a little bit more about um how the level of wrership uh for the bus system can be translated into more years of free bus service? I mean, what what's our what what number are we trying to hit to ensure that that continues going forward? Um, the best that I could really describe it as is that there is some federal formulabased funding that's based on your writership numbers. Sometimes that formula um and that change is pretty slow to roll out. Um, so I think you do have to show some consistency um over a few years and when when um the the federal government that who who provides quite a bit of the funding um to transit um decides that you deserve a little bit more money um that's when we would kind of see fair free u maybe even more than pay for itself. And I think we discussed when we first um approached this council, which thank you for for for entertaining that idea, um really the type of fair that we eliminated only accounted for about 4% of transit's total budget. So once we kind of crunched the numbers, it was like, you know, why are we making people dig in their pocket for the loose change and the riders are waiting and the bus drivers getting behind in his schedule? um the numbers made sense and hopefully uh the wrership will sort of uh you know kind of tip the scales there and and actually uh bring us more revenue in than that type of fair was ever bringing in.

Well, I I hope so too. That's why I'm asking for the number uh like you know what the what the actual target number is. Uh and if you don't know, it's okay. I don't know if AT has had any discussions about where we're I think we're just we're just trying to go big. Right.

Okay. Because I I understand that, you know, we've always been mostly federally funded on transit and I remember your story about um you know, how small the actual margin was for fairbased ridership. So I I I get all that. Um, but I I'm I'm I really want to see this not just succeed, but persist into the future. And it I know that things are changing at the federal level and that it's less reliable than ever in some ways. But my goal or my what I would think that we would want to be doing is like seeing where that threshold is and then working toward that, knowing what knowing where the goal line is at least for now.

That's a very fair question. Um let us let us talk to Ryan and Jeremy over at the NO and kind of see if we can get an idea of based on our projections where we might see um that break even or even sort of that tipping point. Yeah. Thanks. Okay.

Thank you, Jessica. Welcome.

Any other reports from city officials? not to um come back to the warming center, but I did want to let you all know um that regardless of all of the funding conversations we've had, um the it is going to get cold again. Um we did have 75 degrees, I think, on Tuesday, but on Sunday, it is supposed to drop pretty significantly overnight. So, Sunday, March 15th at 4 PM, the Lotus Center Warming Center will open through Wednesday, March 18th at 9:00 a.m. Um it's on um city socials. So, please share um there's a flyer available um that you can download and print out and share with individuals as well. So, we just ask that you do that. Um I also did just want to quickly like reassure everyone, you know, we're I'm in constant contact with our friends over at Mental Health America and the Lotus Center. um and they have been nothing short of exceptional um as partners um and so I just want to um again extend my thanks to them um but also say that um that partnership there are between the city and Mental Health America remains strong despite everything else in the world. So thank you.

Thank you. Other reports from city officials. I have something to share.

Council person Henley. Uh we got a note from um the grandson of Carl Ross. Uh he writes, "Good evening. My name is Keith Cunningham and I am the son of Ernestine Ross Cunningham who was Carl Ross's youngest daughter. Grpa had just two daughters, my mother and her older sister, Katherine Ross Glover, who are both deceased. On behalf of his four grandchildren, we want to thank you. We want to thank the city council of Teroot, Indiana for honoring our grandfather. A special thanks to Candace Hinton and Todd Nation for being so kind. Uh, also very special thank you to our cousin D. Reed who brought this to the attention of so many in terote these advocacy and telling the story of such a brave man who saved the lives of 52 people has given meaning to our grandfather's heroic efforts of choosing the life of others before his own. Once again thanks everyone who is taking who is making this dedication happen in honor of our grandfather Carl Ross. on behalf of his four grandchildren, Bobby Ross of San Bernardino, California, Brenda Vaughn of Toledo, Ohio, Vanetta Cunningham and Keith Cunningham, both of Grand Rapids, Michigan. We are grateful for your remembering our grandfather. Thank you so very much from the bottom of our hearts. Can't wait to meet you and thank you in person. Have a blessed night, Keith Cunningham.

Thank you. 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 statements for confirmation, there are none. Items on second reading. General ordinance 2, 2026, amending city code, chapter 7, article 2, fire prevention code, division 4, fire service features. You have a proposed amendment before you.

Thank you, petitioner. President Dingle, council persons, uh Bob Malone, deputy chief teroof fire was here last week. Um had a few few issues I just wanted to go over and make sure everything was good prior to uh coming before you uh to vote on this. Um, we found that there was an issue uh where it stated uh building was was to be 50,000 square ft um instead of 5,000. So that was one of the errors. I I don't even know that we have a 50,000 foot building in Teroot, but it should have been five. So I'll answer any questions if needed. Is there anyone from the public who wishes to comment on general ordinance 2206 hearing? None. Council,

Mr. President, Council President Nation, was it just last year that we updated the uh code to require the radios in big buildings? Uh yes, it was th this is actually uh part of it. Um I believe it was August August 20. There's been a if I may uh there's been a couple of times um that it's a little there was one big one I think that was a 2024 ordinance that carried over to 2025 and then a couple of small ones after that.

Mhm. And then uh part of that I think you can see that we're working with the engineering department now. We've kind of uh our inspection and investigation division has worked handinhand with engineering and inspection here at the city level so that we're all on the same page as new buildings are being built or old buildings are being renovated. So, and you know, you've talked about your cooperation with engineering. Are is the fire department using city works too? uh the the software program that the building inspection department uses in engineering.

Uh we we use something similar to that but uh we are using ESO uh for all of our all of our programs uh from from ambulance patient care reports to um investigations, inspections. It's it's kind of a full meal deal that is specifically tailored for fire departments.

Yeah. Uh and that makes sense. Um anyway, and my point in asking about the past with this stuff is that um you know, these have always seemed like pretty straightforward um requests to me. And um if there's no further discussion, I would move that we amend general ordinance number two 2026 as presented. Second. It's been moved by council person Nation, seconded by council person Loudermilk that general ordinance to 2026 be amended. All those in favor say I. I. Post say nay. The motion passes. The ordinance is amended. Mr. President,

council person Nation. Um again, if there's no further discussion, uh I move for approval of general ordinance number two, 2022 as amended. Second. It's been moved by council person Nation, seconded by council person that general ordinance 2 2026 be approved as amended. All those in favor say I. I. Post say nay. The motion passes. General ordinance 2 2026 is adopted. Thank you. Next item, general ordinance 4, 2026, amending city code chapter 7, article 2, fire prevention code, division 6, fireworks. Commissioner,

yeah, we uh again, same thing. Uh it was last week. I just wanted to make sure everything was uh uh up to snuff, I guess. Uh had a had a meeting with Michelle. I've talked to city legal. So again, this is just um uh an ordinance on on fireworks and and when you can um shoot them off, where you can shoot them off, how you can display them. So is there anyone from the public who wishes to comment on general ordinance for 2026? Hearing none. Council, Mr. President Council person Nation

I'm embarrassed that I didn't bring hard copy my hard copy from last week uh and I don't need to see it uh because I have read it and I understand uh what what's being proposed. I think though that this would be a good opportunity uh given the viewership that we have and the level of engagement that this has to try to for somebody to read into the record the dates on which a person can legally shoot fireworks in the city of Teroot. Please.

Yes, please. Um, fireworks would be allowed on June 29th, June 30th, July 1st, July 2nd, July 3rd, July 5th, July 7th, July 8th, and July 9th between 5:00 p.m. and 2 hours after sunset on July 4th, from the hours of 10:00 a.m. until midnight on December 31st between um 10:00 a.m. December 31st and 1:00 a.m. January 1st.

Thank you, Michelle.

Thanks. Um you know, that's roughly 10 days. So, just bear in mind that there are about 355 days a year when you shouldn't be hearing fireworks in your neighborhood. Thanks. I yield. Oh, I'm I am in support of this. Uh, but I'll let somebody else make the make the motion. And and I will say, you know, there are are some um uh uh businesses or or special clubs that that might come and ask us for a permit uh for for a big event or something where they might be shooting off fireworks, not on those days. And then we would allow that as long as there wasn't a burn ban in effect. Um if if they had adequate fire protection. If not, we would we would come out there and and try and uh mitigate any issues with the fireworks. So,

that that all totally makes sense, Bob. And I'm glad there's a process in place to be able to petition outside of those 10 or so days when everybody's allowed to do it. I yield. Council person Laddermill. Um, I think that we might need to amend this because July 6th isn't on here unless you're leaving off July 6th for a reason and we go on the seventh, 8th, and 9th. If you would like July 6th, maybe it didn't get Maybe I overlooked. There's no reason we left July 6th out on purpose, right? I think we were matching the state statutes. It could be. Why would July 6th? Why would July 6th not be?

Oh, I don't know. Because it's the state. Um, a mistake is there. Sorry. Um, I don't I mean I know we follow Can we uh pause 10 seconds? Yes. We got some attorneys here. Oh, and ali go ahead. I'm sorry. And just one other um in the subsection A um it says LC as opposed to IC. Um, so that probably needs to obviously scrier's error, so it just needs to be changed to IC. What's that?

201.

Yeah. State code has July 5th through July 9th. Okay. So the 6th is concluded. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think there I don't recall it being exempt, you know, being excluded. So, shock me to learn that there's something. Yeah. I mean, I'm not trying to be picky. I just want to make sure we don't have You think we'd be okay to make those two changes?

Oh, yes. You just mentioned Yes. My mother will be happy and she forever herself. So,

make council person louder. Um, I'd like to make a motion that we amend general ordinance 4 2026 um under section 7101A1 to include July 6th. Second. It's been moved by Council Person Laddermilk, seconded by Council Person Nation that we amend general ordinance 4206 by inserting July 6th into section 7-101 subsection A subsection 1. All those in favor say I. I. Post say nay. Motion passes. The ordinance is amended.

Mr. Present. Council person Laddermill. Um I'll make a motion that we approve amended ordinance general general ordinance 4 2026 as amended. Second. It's been moved by council person ladder, seconded by council personation that we approve general ordinance 4 2026 as amended. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose say nay. Motion passes. General ordinance 4 2026 is adopted as amended. Thank you councel. Thanks Bob. Thanks Bob. Next item,

special ordinance 2, 2026, amending special ordinance 21, 2025 as amended, city hall salaries. You must vote to take action.

Thank you, petitioner. Good evening, Mr. President, members of the city council. Michael Wright, city attorney. The uh Can I could I see how So this request goes along with the um resolution following it. But in essence, what the administration is requesting from the council is permission to hire a uh legal officer. Um amending the salary ordinance for city hall employees. The responsibilities of that officer would be uh assisting the engineering department in a lot of the acquisition work that they have going on related to various projects that require those sorts of services. They had planned um for that

uh which is in part what the next request is related to and uh built that into their budget for those anticipated legal services and the uh code enforcement portion of the legal office has increased. weekly ordinance violation courts from two weeks per month to 3 weeks per month. And another responsibility of this position would be to assist on um some of those court dates. So, I'm happy to answer any questions and uh Marcus is here as well to assist with those. Thank you. Is there anyone in the public who wishes to comment on special ordinance 2206? Hearing none. Council council person Thompson.

Thank you. Um I haven't seen the numbers exactly on what um has increased in terms of the actual numbers uh coming through, but I do know just from uh my personal experience working with um my constituents in my district uh since passing uh the change in their ordinances about um keeping better care of yards and and that type of thing. I know I've personally just had a lot of constituents uh calling in reports um through 311 and um they they indicated the city's been very responsive to those. So, I can only imagine uh even as the year goes on, especially as we get into spring, uh how much more of those ordinance violations we're going to have uh coming in. And I also appreciate, you know, again, making the change last year with uh the filing fees and everything like that um to to make the engineering um department move towards the direction of being self-funding and um I think this is a sign that that's working and you know pretty soon we might be be to that point. So um I fully support this. I yield.

Thank you. I I would um you know piggyback on something uh Mr. Tohill mentioned earlier. You know we we have tried to be um you know assertive in dealing with you know not pretending that there still aren't problem prop problem properties out there in the city of Teroot. But in those instances where we're not finding anybody um responsible or willing to be responsible um you know we are trying to take action that we feel is justified and and approved by the court. So um you know that's something we will continue to do to try and maintain the property values of all those people who live in this community. Mr. President, Council President Nation,

as one of the longer serving council members uh currently, I remember when there were more people working in city legal. And one of my initial asks to Mayor Sackburn when he was elected was to try to get the legal department better staffed and back up to um you know having it be um a more manageable job. I think you're doing an admirable job, Michael. Uh and I know that your staff works hard, too. And I'm glad that there's some creative thinking going on and how to get you more help.

I appreciate that, Councilman Nation. I mean, I would and just, you know, for the record, in our structure, the legal department oversees human resources, which is also a twoperson department.

Yep. And um so you know we are called on weekly if not daily um you know to assist in those sorts of issues and it you know that's not um we're better for it but it just hearkens back to your point. I would imagine there were a time where there were probably three or four people in each of those departments. And um I can tell you the nature of this world has not gotten less latigious and so we are in need of help. Um and greatly feel that this position would provide that and would provide a good resource for engineering which comes up against issues with utilities, issues with you know projects, construction sites, inspections, uh other businesses that are you know coming into the area to start um contracting or doing something that the engineering department supervises and it you know I have no doubt that they could have an attorney on staff full-time and uh not run out of things to do. I mean there's um matri you know all the things that engineering is tied up in transportation it is uh a broad range of services to cover and um as I alluded to Marcus was thoughtful and Brandon and Jessica in

planning for it and um we looking at 2026. Thought it makes sense. We've got another day of ordinance court each month that you know um would be another thing that we could have another person getting sped up on so that if you know uh just to have some air redundancy. So um yeah, I'm happy to answer any other questions.

Oh, that all makes sense, Michael. And um in the end it provides better service to the citizens of Teroot because things get done quicker and or they just get done period. Um so if there's no further discussion, I move that we take action on special ordinance number two, 2026. Second. Been moved by council person Nation, seconded by council person Hinton, that we take action on special ordinance 2, 2026. All those in favor say I. I. Post say nay. Motion passes. We may now take action on special ordinance 2, 2026. Mr. President, council person Nation.

I move for approval of special ordinance number two, 2026. Second. It's been moved by council person Nation, seconded by council person Hinton that we approve special ordinance 226. All those in favor say I. I. Post say nay. Motion passes special ordinance to 2022 is adopted. Thank you very much. Next item. Resolution 5, 2026, transfer of $30,000 in the engineering non-reverting budget number 0292. Petitioner.

Thank you, President Dinkl, members of the city council. Michael Wright, city attorney. I've got Marcus Mau, the city engineer, up here with me. Um, if you would, Marcus, you want to just give a little background on on this?

Good. Good evening. Happy to give you an update on this. So, I think it's maybe already been alluded to. Um, this fund was set aside within our department's budget from our non-reverting budget, which comes from uh permit fees and a few other items um that come from the work we do within our budget. because we use a significant amount of legal's time. Um, and again, Mike and our legal team do a great job, but there's times we almost feel guilty coming down with the next the next big thing. So, this was set aside um in the budget last year in order to ideally hopefully help them get someone hired and get someone else on the payroll. So, I I think this is a great use of this fund and um it's exactly what it was intended for. Is there anyone in the public who wishes to comment on resolution 5 2026 hearing none council council person debon

Mr. President, if there be no further discussion, I'll move that we uh pass resolution 5 2026. Second. It's been moved by council person Don, seconded by council person Azar that resolution 5 2026 be adopted. All those in favor say I. I. Post say nay. Motion passes resolution 5 2026 is adopted. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks guys. Next item. Resolution 6, 2026, amending, I'm sorry, approving and adopting a safe streets for all vision statement and action plan.

Petitioner, let's put the presentation. Thank you, Michelle. Good evening, council pres president and members of the council. Uh I am Maitri Desai city planner and I'm excited to give you a quick update for the final terraord um safety action plan. uh also the updates since the last October presentation um and to ask for your approval uh to officially adopt the plan. Um just for the quick recap uh this planning initiative is funded by US Department of Transportation safe streets and roads for all program. This is focused on making our streets safer and preventing traffic deaths and the serious injury. In December 2024, the city hired the Lock Mueller consultant to help develop this plan through the RFP. Heidi Thomas uh she's here today and will present the plan details shortly.

This plan was also guided by the steering committee uh made up of uh representative of the various city departments, school corporation and metropolitan planning organization. I want to sincerely thank you all the steering committee members uh Jesse Ad Marcus um to help guide this initiative. Also I want to thank all the community members, the city staff um anyone who helped in any way whether by providing the feedback um or contributing directly or indirectly to bring this plan across the finish line. Um together we set a clear goal uh as a part of this uh grant requirement uh the vision zero eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries in city of Terraord by 20150. I'm also excited to share that city of Teroot is few of the frontr runner communities now who has successfully completed this planning initiative um in the state of Indiana um by this federal program and I'm really proud to contribute my uh expertise and technical uh sorry I'm also sorry that's yours Um, sorry, I thought that was all right. With that, uh, I'll hand over Heidi to present some of the C, uh, safety action plan, some key points and new addition that we have updated. Uh, the plan itself is 100 pages document. The safety with the safety toolkit and

the appendix. Um, I have printed some executive summary for you guys to look at it. Uh, but I'll hand over to you.

Good evening everybody. As Matri mentioned, my name is Heidi Thomas. I'm with Loch Mueller Group and was the project manager for this project. Back in October, my counterpart Peter Williams presented to you, but he was unable to be here today. So I will provide a brief overview brief condense an inch and a half of really good information down to summarize what has been done in this plan. So in addition to what Maitri has covered so far, crash data has been collected for all roadways within the city limits from 2018 through 2024 and was used as the foundational data for the safety analysis. This crash data was used to develop an interactive crash dashboard which is what you see here. Using the dashboard, it is easy to see that 15,185 crashes occurred in that time frame and 35 of those resulted in fatalities within the city limits. Please note that this dashboard is publicly available on the city's data hub, enabling users to zoom into specific parts of the community or filter and dissect the data themselves. For example, we can look at the pedestrian related crashes and see that one-third resulted in fatal or serious injuries, which highlights the vulnerability of our pedestrians. There were eight fatal pedestrian-reated crashes, which is nearly a fourth of all fatal crashes in that time frame. We can also see the trend of pedestrian crashes, which has steadily increased since 2018, nearly doubling in 2024. The 2025 crash data was recently released and although not incorporated

in the actual plan, that data has been added to the crash dashboard. that's on the website. Analyzing both crash and roadway data, a risk assessment was conducted based on roadway features such as traffic volume, lane widths, and number of lanes exhibited throughout the network in order to identify locations with greater risks for serious and fatal injury crashes. A high injury network was also developed which shows roadway segments with the highest concentrations of those fatal and serious injuries. I will note that for the high injury network location, Interstate 70 data was excluded from that particular analysis in order to keep focus on the city's roadway network. Community input was gathered through various avenues throughout the entire project. Stakeholder interviews were conducted with safety and enforcement, community leader, community organization and transportation groups. An interactive public survey was available this past spring which generated 290 responses and openhouse style informational events were held in both April and October of 2025. In October, the public was invited to review the draft plan and provide feedback. Combining the data analyses, public engagement feedback, and steering committee guidance, a set of prioritized strategies and project selections were identified. This includes 20 priority corridors from that high injury network, three focus areas to target risk across the roadway network, and nine policy improvement strategies. The 20 target locations are shown here

and detailed information for each of these is identified in the plan. Additionally, three focus areas identified for possible systemic improvements are intersections, bicycle and pedestrian fatalities, and traffic calming measures for safer speeds. Nine strategic policy goals have been identified and the question at hand is how does the city take a policy improvement strategy and make it come to fruition. So, we'll look at two particular specific examples in a moment here. A key piece of the plan is the safety toolkit, which is a step toward implementing many of the projects and strategies just mentioned. The toolkit provides a menu of potential safety countermeasures for enhancing transportation safety and highlights the importance of targeted interventions to address specific safety challenges and effectively decrease risks. So if we look at that first example, example number one, a complete street is one that is designed for all users regardless of age, ability, income, and transportation mode. The toolkit includes design guidance reference tables such as the one shown here for a range of specific design elements. When drafting a formalized complete streets policy, the city can use this consolidated resource to identify the specific appropriate designs for Terraote's roadway network. Although these tables are an excellent technical resource, they do incorporate a wide range of various parameters and details that can be a bit challenging to discern. Therefore, the toolkit

shows you what those could be. The toolkit identifies six concepts that could become the foundation of the city's complete streets policy. As you he see here, the six concepts visually demonstrate how an appropriate combination of design elements would appear on the appropriate Terraote roadway, visually depicting a roadway's potential transformation into a complete street. And the key word is appropriate. Appropriate design elements on an appropriate roadway. The other policy strategy I wanted to highlight is development of a citywide safe routes to school program. These programs combine engineering, education, enforcement, encouragement, and evaluation to improve safety near schools in a consistent manner while also promoting healthy habits for the students. A plethora of information is available for creating a program and the toolkit brings focus to the five recommended steps for program creation prior to implementation. As you can see, assembling a motivated coalition dedicated to seeing the program come to life is the key essential first step. The information we just walked through is documented in great detail in the safe streets terote safety action plan. It is the culmination of a year-long development process and supports the mayor's commitment to community well-being and public safety. It is important the city's momentum developed and achieved during the development of this plan continues forward into the future which is supported by your adoption of the plan via resolution this evening. This concludes my brief briefing of the safe streets terote safety action plan and I would be happy

to entertain any questions you may have and I'm sure Matri would as well. Thank you Heidi. Um also this plan this toolkit this all the informations are available under uh city website under engineering planning section. I'm happy to answer any questions. Is there anyone from the public who wishes to comment on resolution 6 2026 hearing none. Council Mr. President, Council Person Nation,

thanks uh both of you, Matri and Heidi, for your work on this. Um, you know, the one number that that stuck out to me is that fully 29% of bicyclists in Teroot feel safe biking. Um, and that's that's awful. Uh, we can do better than that. And I, you know, I think always of pedestrians. I think always of bicyclists. Um, but the reality of course is that our transportation system is built for cars. Um, so any steps that we can take to get from where we're at to a safer circumstance for those of us who aren't in cars, uh, is the right answer from my perspective. Um, and if there's no further discussion of this, I move that we I move for approval of resolution number 6, 2026. Second

been moved by council person Nation, seconded by council person Hinton that resolution 6 2026 be approved. All those in favor say I. I. Post say nay. Motion passes. Resolution 62026 is adopted. Thank you. Thank you both. Move to adjurnn. Second. Been moved by council person Azar, seconded by council person that we adjourn. All those in favor say I. I. Post say nay. Much passes Tero City Council stands adjourned.