- Hello and welcome to Cats Week. I'm Annalise Poorman. The Monroe County Public Library Board of Trustees met on Thursday, June 26th. The meeting was held because there was not a quorum of board members at the previous meeting on June 18th. Library Director Greer Carson began by sharing the news that the current bookmobile had reached the end of its lifespan. Our current bookmobile has reached its expected lifespan, which is about 15 years.
- We've been building the specs, desired specs for this vehicle for a while. Chris Jackson, our Outreach Services Manager, has led this process. We did engage a consultant, Michael Swandrowski, who we've used in the past for outreach vehicle purchases. He's our principal liaison with the vendors who submitted bids, and we received two bids.
- from the industry leaders in terms of the vendors who build these machines or these vehicles. And we were very impressed by the one from TechOps, and that's the one we're proposing this evening for approval. Comes in at our budget mark.
- and we're comfortable with everything they're proposing. We ran the proposal itself through our legal team who also had no concerns. So we're to the point where we're ready to say, yep, we're going to order this vehicle. Carson explained that the steps to begin the building of the new bookmobile are currently underway and a vendor needed to be approved to build the new vehicle. Carson said that library staff were impressed by a vendor called TechOps. The board unanimously voted to approve the bid proposal and purchase a
- agreement for the new bookmobile. The Monroe County Board of Commissioners met on June 26, 2025. During department updates, Martha Miller from Monroe County Soil and Water Conservation shared details about the first annual Conservation Day at the upcoming Monroe County Fair. There are five main areas that we're going to focus on, forestry, sustainable food production, grazing and livestock, production agriculture and yards and lawns.
- Each group will have identifying signs of those areas that they actually focus on. So you'll be able to quickly come in, look at the chart and say, oh, I want to talk to these people about this and go to that space. Excuse me. Thanks to the generosity of Monroe County Farm Bureau and a pretty good donation, we're going to have some really cool door prizes. People will be able to put their names in the hat at the front of the building there.
- We're also going to have some activities for kiddos that are conservation natural resource related, so you can do that too. And if there is an agency, organization, or business that's conservation minded and would like to participate, they just need to reach out to me and they can do that through the county's website and the link under the community for Soil and Water or find us on Facebook.
- Next, county auditor Breanne Gregory made note of recent legislation which will impact property tax reductions. Essentially we're shifting from property tax to local income tax and we're shifting from deductions to credits so more information is coming but it's just going to change the way tax bills will look and
- and just generally how my office processes things. As far as to the taxpayer, if you already have these deductions in place, the transition will be smooth.
- As far as you're concerned, we're gonna handle the brunt of that for you. For residents that are looking to have some of these deductions in the future, we'll work with you and make sure that occurs. The commissioners also discussed a service agreement for the health department, which would allow them to test and decontaminate homes where meth labs have been seized by the Indiana State Police. There are currently 11 homes waiting to receive the treatment. Commissioner Jody Madeira emphasized the importance of the service.
- I'll just add that this is an incredibly important process, because, without this, we cannot get the process started. And the homes just sit there. And there are eyesores. There are health hazards. And these homes need to be remediated, because we cannot do anything else with them. They are inhabitable. And, basically, the only thing you can do with them is knock them down, because they cannot be inhabited until they are remediated. The board voted to pass the decontamination agreement unanimously.
- The Monroe County Board of Commissioners will meet again on July 3rd.
- The Monroe County Board of Health met on June 26. A large portion of the meeting was devoted to discussing changes to the board's policy on public comment. The proposed change would require the public to sign up for public comment in advance, and it would require that they state what their comment would be about ahead of time. A lengthy discussion ensued with board members arguing both for and against the changes. Some believed it provided protection against non-serious
- or non-compliant public comment requests, while others believe public comment should remain more easily accessible. Ultimately, board chair Aurora Diorio announced that they have a new online form for members of the public to sign up for public comment. We are piloting a new online form. So those of you that are online, if you think that you're going to want to make a public comment at the end of the meeting,
- I'd like to tell you where our new form is. And if it doesn't work, we'll try some other method, but we're hoping this is gonna be awesome. So in order to track, just like we do, if you were in the room, we have folks who wanna make public comments, sign up on a sheet of paper so that we can make sure to know who everybody is and then kind of make sure everyone gets heard. We now have an online form.
- So, and we wanted to put it in the chat, but the chat has been turned off. So if you wouldn't mind, if you think you want to say something later, it's on the county's webpage. So co.monroe.ind.us, you would go to the events calendar, you would pick today's date, you would find the health department meeting, and it is right there under event description. And it's really short, just open it up, fill it out,
- and we will receive it. And that way, when we open it up for public comment, we'll know who all of you are and we'll be able to call on you. Diorio said that her goal is to get a draft for the policy and then host a public hearing on the draft sometime in the month of July. What I'm hoping tonight is if we could come up with a second draft that we all feel like is about as good as we can make it.
- then we can have a public session in July and let the public do nothing. It won't be a board meeting. It will just be to hear public comment on the public comment policy because this body has never had a public comment policy and we've done things exactly the same way always. And I think it's good sometimes to have things in writing.
- Board member Lisa Hanner Robinson shared that she has three concerns with the proposed policy. I have issues with three parts. The first part is the sign up. I just feel really strongly that people should be able to either show up at the meeting or raise their hand online and be addressed and not have to sign up ahead of time. D'Orio responded and board member Kay Leach chimed in as well. They are signing up ahead of time. It's right there.
- They've signed up before the meeting begins. This is a change in the policy, or they've always done? We have no policy, Lisa. I know that. I'm saying I disagree with that. Well, we do have a policy, and that's the Indiana Open Door.
- Section 15, I mean, we follow that. And that's what we've done in the past. Hanner Robinson then made the argument that members of the public should not have to sign up for public comment in advance. Board member Steven Pritchard clarified the language used as prior to the meeting rather than in advance. I don't think they should have to sign up ahead of time. That was my interpretation of. You mean prior to the meeting? Correct.
- that they can just come to the meeting and sign a sign in sheet and or raise their hand on online like we've always done. In the end, a new draft was accepted that tightened the rules surrounding public comment while removing the prerequisite to sign up ahead of time.
- Moving on to new items, Health Department Director Lori Kelly requested the Board's approval to submit an application to the Opioid Settlement Application Review Board. Due to changes at the federal level, the Health Department has seen cuts to funding for their Harm Reduction Specialist position.
- Kelly explained that the opioid settlement fund monies could be used to pay the full-time harm reduction specialist and to hire part-time workers to support the program. Given some of the grant funding cuts that have just been occurring, we typically have been receiving grant funding for the harm reduction specialist position. We are anticipating receiving some
- But we, the state has still not received any award. And so there's really just a lot of uncertainty around what funding we may or may not receive and when that may occur. So.
- What I'm proposing here is that we submit an application to the Opioid Settlement Application Review Board to be able to secure some funding to keep that full-time farm reduction specialist position and request just a small amount, so less than $20,000 for part-time workers.
- worker to help support that program. Board member Lee McKinley asked if there was a backup option if the application is not approved. Kelly said that there is not and that the position is set to end in November. Let me have a backup plan in case we get zero. Our backup plan is that the position is currently funded to November. We don't.
- nothing else to support that position. Right and with the changes to Health First Indiana and the citizenship requirements, I think it would be quite challenging to operate the program. So we might lose it. We could lose it. The request was passed unanimously.
- The Monroe County Council met on June 24th and discussed reestablishing minimum cash fund balances. The county's consulting firm, Financial Solutions Group, recommended that the county lowers minimum balances for the motor vehicle highway fund from $1 million to $750,000 and the health fund and election fund each be reduced from $1 million to $500,000. Council member Marty Hawk reminded the council
- that future budget discussions will determine the amount actually allocated to the funds. She said that putting too much money in frozen levy funds could restrict the flexibility in the county general fund. I think we have to have the opportunity to at least keep an eye on that because otherwise we may be spending money to make it look like it's rainy day for everything in the frozen levy and not
- have the dollars we need in county general to do what we need to do. County auditor Breanne Gregory expressed concern about the election fund being cut down to half a million dollars. She said that maintaining a higher minimum balance smooths out costs over multiple years.
- I disagree slightly with FSG as the election fund. I don't know that we would ever want that to dip down to 500,000. And I know that's the minimum, but we like to keep that relatively consistent so we don't have to have a spike for those big election years in the levy. So just a thought.
- The council approved reducing the minimum cash balances as recommended by FSG, but set the election funds minimum at $750,000 instead of the suggested half a million dollars. The council then discussed approving compliance findings such as job creation and wage levels for businesses receiving tax abatements. Approval is required within 45 days of the reports being filed, meaning July 1st is the deadline.
- Council members expressed frustration that the item appeared on the agenda so late in that time frame. Hawk voiced her concern that the short notice meant businesses were not invited to speak at the meeting. This is not the business's fault at all. And so for those people who might have wanted to share the success of their business and the growth of their company, they were not
- notified so they could come and share with us. All businesses were found to be compliant with the abatement requirements, so the council allowed the resolution to pass automatically with no formal action. The council also discussed moving to health emergency preparedness positions to different funding sources due to recent state legislation.
- Health administrator Lori Kelly said that moving the positions to other funds would ensure that services continue to reach all Monroe County residents. Council member Pete Iverson supported the resolution, saying that it provides access to health care for all Indiana residents. We're so thankful that we're able to work with you in doing this. Thank you for bringing this important topic to our attention and allowing us to be part of this important work in not leaving out anybody from valuable public health services.
- Council Member David Henry asked about future funding for preparedness supplies and training. Kelly explained that grant funds, reserve funds, and county funds can cover the costs, although funding would be reduced. The Council unanimously approved the funding shift. And that is all for Cats Week. Thank you for joining us. For Cats and WFHB, I'm Annalise Poorman.
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