- Tuesday, Ellisville Township reorganization meeting. If we could have, well, who would like to do the
- prayer? All right, I will do the prayer. Dear Lord, bless our vision, bless that we make the right decisions,
- and give us the wisdom and the humility we need in doing so. In your name, through Christ our Lord, amen.
- 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. Okay, Andrew, if you want to do roll call. Roll call. I am President
- Andrew Henry Scott Reynolds. And then we have Kevin Ferris, absence.
- William Ellis, present, Don Durnall, present, and Mike Korman, present. Sorry, my mic's not on that
- whole time. So I'll recap. Basically, everybody here is present. Andrew Henry, Scott Reynolds,
- William Ellis, myself, which was me, Don Durnall, and Mike Korman, Kevin Ferris, and Dr. Jerry Sanders
- are not here today. So the next thing on the agenda
- is public comment, and this I guess would be general public comment, the general reorganization. Is
- that correct from the rest of the committee's understanding? Okay, so do we have any public comment
- on what they would like to see? Please come up to the podium, state your name and sign in. Noelle, is
- there a sign in sheet already there? Awesome. Of course it's me again.
- I didn't even know about tonight's meeting until my husband said, hey, are you going to the meeting
- tonight? That's a problem. I actually went through my spam to see if I had gotten an email since I'm
- on a subcommittee. I did not have an email. I did have your email that you sent on the 9th that said
- I'd been accepted to the committee. But like I said in the last time I spoke, it went to my spam because
- it came from an unknown message or unknown person, and it had multiple people on there.
- So, I don't check my spam regularly. I don't know people that do. So, just again, I mean, you wonder
- why people worry about information and notification, but that's a perfect example of I didn't even know
- until maybe 45 minutes ago is when I found out about tonight. So. The subcommittees, I mean, it's great
- to be here, but it's not required.
- I don't know if you have an agenda, if the public does, but it's basically to get those committee objectives
- that I said in the email that we'd be getting to you guys and deciding on that and get approved and
- the postcard that we're mailing out with all the further committees so that way you guys can serve.
- Objectives or our tasks would be important to hear. Oh, absolutely. I will be emailing those out to
- you also, as I said in the email. Okay.
- so I get stuff from you now. Can you add an entire domain? Because if you can do... Maybe. Okay.
- I'll try it. Because I don't know a way around that because even if we use things like constant contact
- or MailChimp, it's going to have the same issue even worse because every time they have a separate email
- address and it flags it as spam. Yeah. So... Well, and I wouldn't even know, like I said, I wouldn't
- even know when I made it to the subcommittee, but Dawn messaged me separately and it came to me because
- she and I had chatted before, so.
- Thank you. All right, anyone else? Oh, okay. Mr. Perry, how you doing? You're muted or are we muted
- on our end? Hold on a second, Mr. Perry. Okay, let's see. It's showing we have
- that you're not muted. We're working on fixing that here. We had some issues last night, we're hoping.
- And Zoom is highlighting where I can see that it's getting,
- Sound when he talks. Okay, Mr. Perry, can you try to talk again? Can you hear me now? Yes. Excellent.
- Okay. This is something I raised not last meeting, which I missed because I was ill, but the meeting
- before, and that is,
- if we could get a financial analysis of revenue implications of Senate Bill 1. Our town manager Mike
- Farmer indicated that that would be created easily and that would be available, but I would like to
- see that so that we know what the financial implications are of Senate SB 1. Okay. Mike, you still think
- that would not be a problem?
- Giving the report, a page you give us from Baker-Tilley indicating what our revenues will be like for
- the next three years, which results in 2028 of being a half a million dollars in the red, just to kind
- of give you an overview. And that is if we give no raises or grow our budget, not at all for the next
- two years. So it's a bleak story, but I can send it to you.
- And that's for the town. Was that analysis, did it also consider the impact on the township?
- Or was it? That was just for the town. It did not relate to reorganization. Because I think the township
- and their projections probably went in with the town's projections.
- not separate by township. So I think that's where we may run into some. And Mr. Perry, I assume you
- want an overview and you don't want a stack of papers to read through, right? I can read through a stack
- of papers. I've got some financial advisors who could look at it carefully. But my reading of what's
- been written about SB 1 is that there's a lot of uncertainty about precisely what will happen. And that
- influences what decisions this committee has to make.
- I'll send you everything I can I'll have to get some help sending that much information to you it'll
- be a load.
- So I'm wondering how firmly we have projected the implications of the financial changes. I believe it's
- down to the dollar. We'll send you the information. I'm wondering, assuming that other people might
- want to see the same thing, would it be easier just to post it on our website, just to make it more
- efficient? OK, yeah. And I'm not real techie, so I don't know how to do that much information. But I'll
- get somebody that knows.
- can do it. And we can link it and we'll discuss that on another agenda item for the reorganization website.
- Okay. Any other public comment online or in person? All right, seeing none, we'll move on. Discussion
- of subcommittee objectives. Darla, did you want this since you kind of drafted this up?
- Well, what I tried to do is I went through the Indiana code and looked at deadlines and looked at what
- the statute, the Government Modernization Act requires with regard to your plan and things of that nature.
- And then I also cross-referenced it with the Sheridan's Adam Township plan and came up
- This is a short list of the reorganization committee's duties. And then at the very end, I put down
- thoughts or suggestions for the subcommittees to consider. So I have ideas for planning and zoning,
- finance, governance, public safety, parks and rec, roads and streets, water, stormwater, and sewer.
- So obviously, this is living documents.
- it may change, but I just thought I would try to come up with some discussion points at the subcommittee
- objectives and certainly the board can add to those. There obviously will be some overlap when the committees
- start to meet and start to discuss things or maybe topics that may be really suitable for two committees
- to discuss or two committees may have thoughts on, you know, for example, cemetery maintenance, that
- could be a street department issue, it could be a parks and rec issue, so in any event, that's what
- had anticipated that if the board approves this by consensus, this is something that could be passed
- around to these subcommittee members so that they could have this to look at. That's a question. Would
- the 2017 annexation proposal from the city of Bloomington, which covered a lot of areas southeast of
- Mertz and Township, is that still on the books of being
- that they may be trying to annex. I am glad you brought that up because that is something this board
- will have to consider at some point when you draw your maps because there's an Indiana Supreme Court
- case, town of Zionsville versus town of Whitestown, which in shorthand says there is a concept of the
- first in time rule with regard to two tribunals possessing concurrent complete jurisdiction in such a matter.
- shorthand, because the city of Bloomington initiated their annexation some time ago, they are first
- in right, and so what the committee will have to do when you draw your maps is take that into consideration.
- Complicating matters for you is this city of Bloomington, and I'm sure I will be corrected if I'm wrong
- about this, has two cases that are pending for the Indiana Supreme Court. So there is one
- which involves what I call areas 1A and 1B, which are not the donuts but the, what's the word I want?
- Thank you. And so briefing was completed on that either right before or right after Christmas and that
- as far as I know is still before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has not decided to take transfer
- on that. My experience is the Supreme Court
- with the Supreme Court is that a decision could be rendered March, April, which is about when you're
- going to be finalizing things. City of Bloomington has another annexation case before the Supreme Court,
- which is the one involving the validity of the annexation waivers in exchange for extension of services.
- The Supreme Court heard oral argument on that back in October, end of October, so I would expect the
- Supreme Court to rule.
- So you may have to pivot a little and you may even have to do a couple of different maps. But yes, you
- will need to when you draw the boundaries, you will have to take into consideration city of Bloomington
- boundaries and you also will be required to draw maps for your election districts. So that's where the
- city of Bloomington annexation is coming to play as well. So. Okay, so for the members of the committee,
- I have an opinion that
- We should still just move ahead as if it's going to be all not withstanding the current city of Bloomington
- limits in Southeast Fritzland Township that we do consider taking it all until we find out otherwise.
- I don't want to cause more profit down the road, but I don't think we should be drawing any maps up
- today, so to speak. We have to have due diligence.
- and having it ready in case it does happen. So the annexation does go through, they get permission to
- do so. Thank you. We can adjust one of those rulings. The one in October, has the Supreme Court already
- agreed to transfer and there'll be a ruling or is that? Good question. I'm not sure if the Supreme Court
- actually agreed to transfer on that or not. Okay. And will one or the other of those decisions make one moot?
- Well, because there may be some overlap there, but they're really two different issues. Okay. All right.
- I mean, what's the committee's? I really think we should just assume the entire Richland Township and
- then we can adjust if the court rules. I mean, right now Bloomington's lost at the appellate. They've
- lost at the trial. So, I mean, I don't want to assume anything, but I'm thinking
- Why would we leave those people of Richland Township out in the wind? A map that showed Richland Township
- and then had a shaded area for the potentially contested area would also be a really helpful reference.
- But I want to be sure we proceed to inform everybody in the potential entire Richland Township affected
- area. Yes, correct. At some point I have a map of it if anybody wants to look at it during or after
- the meeting. Don, being on the Township Board, what's your thoughts on this and what you're familiar with?
- that they should be looked at. I think that we should just move forward assuming that they will be allowed
- to go with us and not be into Bloomington and change course if we need to. All right, so are there council
- discussions on these discussion subcommittee objectives?
- under the finance subcommittee, I think needs to be in there concerning public assistance, if we're
- not gonna have a separate subcommittee for public assistance. Absolutely. Darla, that wasn't in one
- of the others by accident that we missed over, was it? I don't think so. Okay. And it was not my intent
- to leave that out.
- So I guess in that question, so public assistance. In our last committee we had a finance and public
- assistance as a created committee. Right. Yep. Yep. So if anyone makes a motion to approve these, they
- should amend it to include that, correct, Darla? Yes. Okay.
- Under public safety, I think the building department needs to be added, the building department. The
- building department traditionally falls under our current planning and zoning. However, it is a part
- of public safety. It's the biggest part of public safety for the insurances for the people of the community.
- So I really think how a fire, police, and building department budgets will change should come under
- the public safety issue.
- Now, building department, are you meaning, like planning? Building inspections, yes. Oh, okay, building
- inspections, okay. Right, because we would be taking those over from the county. And also under the
- Indian law, building inspections is a part of public safety. Okay, and I guess the question would, even
- though that has a public safety component,
- It also has a planning and zoning component. Are we talking about two different things here? I think
- the actual work is separate. Okay. And if they're governed by a UDO, that would kind of imply it would,
- that's covered that. It's still a state building permit, so state building code.
- One thing that I mentioned that I would like to entertain is, and at least have discussion and definitely
- from the public on this, is the water, stormwater and sewer subcommittee. Since we contract that out
- to Bynum-Fanio, I'm wondering if they would be the better one to give us the information we need from
- water, stormwater and sewer.
- What's the committee's thoughts on that? I think if we're going to do that, we just allowed the fire
- chief, the police chief, the, you know, department heads to do all the work then. So I don't think that
- was the intent. I think it was the intent is to have public involvement. And I really think we need
- to have public involvement, especially this involving rate payers, you know, they're paying taxes and
- they're paying the utility rates. So I think, I think they're going to be a big part of it because all
- the department heads are going to be a part of it.
- one way or the other ex officios, because that's where the information's coming from, is their departments.
- And so I think they're going to be included regardless, but I still think we need to have a subcommittee
- on that. So there'll be four water companies that'll be serving in a reorganized town. So there'll be
- different attitudes and thought patterns
- what to do when it comes to maybe economic development and uh... and preparing different utilities to
- uh... maybe to react to what the reorganized town wants to do in the future and so it does seem like
- there'd be need for some coordination i mean informally we do that uh... currently uh... city of bloomington
- has meetings where all the water companies come together
- That's going on currently anyway. So my point, we do need a way to get public input to that. Um, especially
- if there's going to be cost increase and, and, and such, and we'd have to decide how that public, there'd
- have to be public hearings on cost increases. Correct. If even with this, um, well, you're not raising
- the rates as part of this plan, but yes, if there is a consolidation in the future, yes, when you do
- your rates and charges,
- Okay. They're depending on whether you're doing a 30 day filing, whatever there is a certain. Okay.
- But each entity does their own charges. And so coordination would help with when you consider economic
- development or maybe residential housing. Um, even the ability to hook on affects how, uh, people that
- might come here, you know, thinks about whether it's a good idea or not. So, um, I just, like I said,
- currently we,
- We all talk now, and we basically have a committee that does that now, so it doesn't seem unwise to
- not coordinate that. Obviously, there actually is three sewer companies that will be active inside the
- Richland Township area, which would be a reorganized town. And I think we have interest in
- people participating, so. I just, I hadn't seen anybody come through yet to apply for that. I had somebody
- from Eastern Richland and from Beaton Blots and Patricksburg. Yeah, and then Terry Davis, who lives
- inside the Richland Township and is on the board, he said he'd serve
- And so he would be glad to represent them. And I... The main concern was I didn't think we had more
- than one or two people, but it sounds like we have a good group of people to pull from. So I'll retract
- my suggestion because I thought it was just the one that you had mentioned. So, all right. I also, I
- just was able to finish reading through this.
- And under parks, recs, cemeteries, we have cost for cemetery maintenance slash burial assistance. And
- I don't know if it's gonna make a difference. I mean, just currently how the township runs, we do cemetery
- maintenance, but that is completely separate from burial assistance because burial assistance falls
- under public assistance.
- that doesn't have anything to do with maintaining the cemetery. It has to do with assisting the public
- who does not have funds to bury a loved one. So I don't know, you know. That should probably go under
- the public assistance aspect. That's what, right. Because one is going to the, if I'm not mistaken,
- physical property, the others I can't afford to. Right. Okay. So again, remember these, if anybody
- any other council comments don is suggesting that burial assistance be moved to finance but the cost
- for cemetery maintenance under parks and rec correct correct okay any other council comments I think
- this is a great start obviously there'll be additional questions and considerations that probably come
- out of the discussions at the subcommittee and the committee level but I just wanted to commend Darla for the
- a great outline. This is really helpful. Right. Is there any public comment on what they would like
- to see? And this is rough draft, so we didn't have it where people could really look over it. But is
- there anything from the subcommittees that you would like to see that maybe we haven't touched on in
- this or previous meetings?
- on the table about cemeteries. All right. Thank you, Don. All right. Seeing no more public comment.
- When the topic of subcommittees, we still have vacancies we need to appoint and have a couple one that
- just came in today. But there was one that I sent to the council members here last
- Wednesday, I forgot to nominate somebody for the planning and zoning subcommittee. And I just talked
- to him right before I dropped the ball, but Jason Bell would very much like to be on the subcommittee
- for planning and zoning. So. And there was one that I. Monique Miller. Yes, Monique Miller. And that
- would be on,
- she had wanted to be on governance, I believe. Correct. I agree. And then this one here we can discuss,
- but I would like to take those separate. I'd like to nominate Jason Bell for the planning and zoning
- subcommittee. And if Jason's here, if you, since we, your name's already out there, we kind of talked
- about if you want to come up to the podium and just give kind of an elevator speech on
- Why do you want to serve? Could you tell me? Yes. Good evening. I am Jason Bell. And yes, he did tell
- me I should get on this committee. I have been the executive director for the Builders Association for
- 10 years, president three years before that.
- I've worked with the state on several bills, working on one now. So I think it's just kind of a good
- fit on some of the experience that I've had over the past 13 years. So anybody have any questions? Or
- the township? Township. Yep. I go the same barber as you. So. Mr. Wall? Yes. How'd you know that?
- Any other questions? Okay, thank you. I'll make a motion on a Jason Bell to the Planning and Zoning
- Reorganization Committee. I'll second. Moved. Dawn seconds. The motion is to appoint Jason Bell to the
- Planning and Zoning Committee. I vote yes. Scott? Yes. Yes. William? Yes. Dawn? Yes. Mike? Yes. Motion passes.
- And the reason why I'm mentioning names is we only have like one or two people to talk about it. And
- we've had a chance, has everybody had a chance to review Monique Miller's application that she had sent
- in on the subcommittee? I sent that out last week. Right, kind of like right after the meeting. So not
- your fault. No. All right, so is there any action on that?
- I nominate Monique Miller to the governance subcommittee. I'll set it. On mood. Mike seconded.
- And I vote yes. Scott? Yes. Yes. William? Yes. Don? Yes. Mike? Yes. Motion passes. All right. And then
- finally, if I'm going by my notes in my memory,
- which are dangerous things, but I think the only other subcommittee we have to actually assign tonight
- would then be the water and waste, water, wastewater, stormwater, and that is on number seven. I request,
- since we're discussing subcommittees now, we move that up and address that now. Does anybody have any
- objections to that? All right, Mike, do you wanna nominate the people you mentioned in Dawn?
- I'm not on the board. Well, I know that. Well, I'll give you a couple names that are interesting. Right.
- Yes. OK. Terry Davis lives on Red Hill Road. He's in Township. And he represents Beanblossom Patrickburg,
- just so his background. And Kurt Hayes, was it Kurt that wants to? Yes, Kurt said he, yeah. And he's
- with Eastern Richland Sear Corporation? Yeah. For anybody that doesn't know.
- What that is, it's a rural sewer company that empties into Ellisville's wastewater system. And they've
- been around since 1970. And then. And he lives in the township? He does. He does, yeah. I didn't know
- if, you know, it kind of goes in. He does. He does. And then Connor Collier, C-O-L-L-I-E-R.
- He works for Bonifacio Utilities. He lives in town and he would be good for cross-referencing anything
- they talk about. Okay. Rick Coppock, that was one you mentioned before. Does he not live in the township?
- Yeah, I'm not sure that he would want to be on a committee. Okay. But I would tell everyone that he
- would be a good source of information and I can liaison him getting with you.
- He probably knows more about land use, utilities and development than anybody I know in Murrow County.
- So he would be a good reference for anybody to call, pick up the phone and call. And he does consult
- for the town of Ellisville as an engineer. Do these three people then, do they cover everybody that
- services this new area that would
- be serviced. There there's nobody I don't know that I don't I'd have to think of somebody from the city
- of Bloomington I know there's quite a few people in the utilities that well a few people that live in
- this area so but I I've had no contact with them and then Van Buren water I I would recommend that maybe
- we maybe reach out to Jay Humphrey. He's on the Van Buren Water Board and he lives on Vernal Pike. And
- the only reason I mentioned him is because it's the only person I could think of on their board that's
- in our township. So we might reach out to him and that's Jay Senior. Okay. Okay. Does the council want
- to do any action on the current suggestion of names tonight?
- There's a reason not to. Yeah, I don't see a reason not to. I think we should so we can just keep moving
- forward. Terry Davis. Kurt Hayes. C-U-R-T. C or K? C-U-R-T. It's a C. C, okay. Thank you. And the last
- one, what was it? Connor Collier, C-O-L-L-I-E-R.
- on our CONNOR. Do we have a motion? None as of yet. I'll make a motion that we put Tara Davis,
- Kurt Hayes, Connor Collier on the water or wastewater stormwater subcommittee. I'll second. Seconds?
- I vote yes. Scott? Yes. Yes. William?
- Don? Yes. Mike? Yes. Motion passes. All subcommittees are now. After the last meeting, Valerie Duar
- approached me and wanted to be appointed to Parks and Rec. Oh, okay. Oh, yes. We talked about her, but
- we didn't make a motion. Okay. So yes. All right. So Monique Miller, she's mentioned first. Do we have
- any council action on her?
- I thought we did. Yeah, okay. That's right. So Valerie Dewar would be the next one. For Parks and Rec.
- I move Valerie Dewar to the Parks and Rec Committee. I'll second. Scott seconds, I vote yes. Scott?
- Yes. William? Yes. Dawn? Yes. Mike? Yes. Motion passes. Wow, okay. So all subcommittees from now
- formed does not mean we can't add people on later. So just letting the public know, but great job to
- everybody that's applied and thank you. I do ask the committee for permission to, I want to send out
- the approved, well, actually we haven't voted on the approval yet, have we?
- whatever's approved, permission to go ahead and contact those people, because I've already let them
- know so far what it is, and if they've whitelisted my email address, like Sherry said, there was an
- issue. If they get a different person, we're gonna go through the whole thing. Yeah, so I'd like to
- get them their scope of service, their scope, their basically, so do I have permission to do that once
- we approve what they are? Okay. Just to clarify,
- And for the public we did have somebody that had we just received tonight that had applied very busy
- business consulting with
- radius indiana very familiar with that her her name is and mccomb specific committee i'm not seeing any
- from her background, just to me, it seems like finance or planning and zoning would be the better place,
- one of those two. Am I correct in remembering that planning and zoning currently has more members than
- finance? That is correct, yes. So that might lend toward finance?
- and volunteer your finance committee seems cruel and unusual. So in other words, you're not making the
- motion. I'm not making the motion. Planning and zoning. So we currently have six for planning and zoning.
- Right. Do we anticipate there being benefit from seven?
- If there's ever a tie, yes. We have five on finance, so the difference is not enormous. We're not putting
- seven on one. Finance would create an imbalance, an even number. The planning and zoning would put it
- as an odd number, which is traditionally what boards and commissions are.
- I think the planning the planning and zoning committee where she needs to see if she can help out there
- I'll make that emotion Mike moves dawn seconds I vote yes Scott yes yes William yes yes dawn yes yes
- Mike yes okay motion passes
- So do we have any more applicants that we have not addressed yet? Does any, that we're aware of? Not
- that I'm aware of. Okay. So then the next thing would be any council or a call for public comment, any
- council discussion and action on the actual reorganization subcommittee duties.
- Reorganization duties and objectives, will they be section two on, will those be subdivided out to give
- to those respective committees? Yes, yeah, I'm not gonna load them with the whole document. I'm going
- to, yes, exactly what pertains to their. But they will receive everything prior. I can. I feel like
- the more information that people have kind of about what they're doing and
- I hadn't thought of that. It helps to have the big picture in mind and to know where your bit fits.
- I completely understand. Chances are, knowing the subcommittee members, they're very responsive. If
- I would have just sent out their section, I would have gotten a request, what's the overall? So I have
- no problem doing that. May I ask a housekeeping question, please?
- reorganization duties and objectives that you have before you is there a public place that you want
- those placed I would I would think the town website so we can link it to the website and that would
- be the whole document not just not just for a recommendation if that could be the board's recommendation
- when they're saying that they were going to release things to the public just so that we know where to put it
- going forward. If you say you want this released to public, then I'll make sure that it goes on where
- it needs to go, but. And Dawn, do you think you could put this on the Township website? I can ask. Well,
- you personally, but yes. No, I can ask. I honestly do not know that he will agree with that. Okay. I
- guess what I'm just saying is that I don't want you to think we're leaving the Township out. We just
- need it hosted somewhere so we can get out to the public.
- post it on the township site or just post a link where they can but on the website that we're going
- to talk about shortly I need to get him the information so he can put like duties of the subcommittees
- duties is a so that way somebody could just click it and go so it has to be somewhere publicly accessible
- to begin with I was gonna I was recommend against also hosting an average and if you were trying to
- actually post it in both places no it would just be one link
- for our website. But that way, if a township resident is looking at their website and says, oh, what's
- this reorganization thing, there's some information there too, plus goes back to the website. And she
- doesn't know if it'll be approved, so. Yes, all right. So again, do we have any action on this?
- accept the reorganization duties and objectives with the changes we spoke about under finance to add
- public assistance and remove from parks, recs and cemeteries the burial assistance place that in finance
- and under public safety to add the building department specifically inspections.
- I'll second it. Seconds and the vote. I vote yes. Scott. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. Next
- is approval of contract for reorganization website. And we've we did have one really right now. Speed
- is what we
- truly need to get this out to the public. We had a couple places that one just time-wise wasn't going
- to work. We found another one that they can do it all-inclusive till November passed. And did you guys
- get a look at the contract? Has that been? Okay. All right.
- Since the town's gonna host it, I think it was sent to Mike. You saw that, right, for the website? Oh,
- you got it right there? Do you want me to pass it up? Yeah, actually, if you could. It's pretty simple
- to the point, and I think... That's not for the website. Oh, for the website, I'm sorry. Yes. I thought
- you saw it right there. No. I got that. Yeah, I don't have anything for the website. Well, that's what
- I had sent you.
- that was last week. Sure it's in there somewhere. Andrew, did you want to talk about the... Okay, gotcha.
- But without going through my phone, what's his name again? Ben Crum. Ben Crum. I couldn't remember the
- first name. I want to make sure I got that. Ben Crum has offered to do the website all-inclusive for
- $1,500 and
- Uh, he would just like one point of contact to funnel the information to him. Uh, until we met tonight,
- I agreed to be that contact just for expedience sake. Anybody can do that to let him know what needs
- to be on the website. But the biggest thing is we just need this on the website. Most of the links will
- be on the town from the town website. Videos will come from the YouTube channel that Dawn has set up
- with the township. So they'll have a one stop shop for everything.
- including the minutes and discussions we've had on this. So the other bid was for upwards of $4,000,
- but they also could not get it in a timely manner, so. Not before the 26th or whatever meeting that
- was. This can be, as soon as I get the information, we can get that done.
- uh... the website up well in a couple of days or so so i guess is there any discussion concerns with
- the website so i will say one thing ben crumb was my recommendation i've used him for a number of years
- for our company website and he has been excellent extremely prompt and responsive so i'm very much in
- favor any public comment on that
- Seeing none, do we have council action? I'll make a motion to utilize Ben Crum for the website for the
- reorganization. I'll second that. And vote. I vote yes. Scott? Yes. Yes. William? Yes. Don? Yes. Mike?
- Now, this would be to Mike Farmer and probably Noel, with our next town council meeting, should we all,
- because we're going to have to pay for it, should we make, since this town is paying for this portion
- of it, that the council needs to approve that too, correct?
- is I would wait until the council gave me permission to pay that. I mean, that's how the claims work.
- I'm not understanding the question. I guess the question is the council's gonna have to vote to actually
- pay for the website, correct? Does it fall under the threshold? I don't think so. I mean, the board
- okayed with this process.
- It's not a pre-written claim so it has to go through the claims process right and so it'll have to go
- through the claims so they'll They'll okay it by virtue of a vote during the claims process correct
- if that's enough transparency Mike I'm sending that to you again, and I think I well may have sent something
- to me that is a contract or an important paper and
- The rule in Helensville is you send it to the clerk's office to make sure. I will do that right now.
- Let's see. And I'll send it to the rest of those on our committee. But does that answer your question
- on how it gets paid? Yes. I just want to make sure that what we don't want is one council saying, well,
- this council's not us.
- and we don't wanna pay it, because it's not for us, so. I think it's appropriate to say we're going
- to be using lit ED money, which is local income tax economic development money to pay most of these
- claims. Okay. You good with that, Noel? The council hasn't done any additional appropriations yet, but
- that is the intent to move forward.
- and temporarily we'll pay through our services. Miscellaneous professional services, currently we have
- a healthy appropriation in there to carry us through 2026. So it is a budget item already, right? Not
- this contract and incentive, but for the contract, so it is a budget item. No, we have funds available.
- to use to pay for this invoice if it were to come in tomorrow. And then they would have to go through
- the claim cycle. But as we go through the process, it becomes more elaborate and then we have bills
- that exceed what we thought in a budget year we was going to use, we're gonna have to appropriate from
- local income tax economic development funds and we'll have to appropriate them. It'll go through the board to
- Yes or no, but I assume it'll be a yes. That was the plan all along. So there's funds in the future
- because some of the bills will be. I've sent that to you in the well. And I'll leave it at that. Council
- members, sorry about that. I didn't realize that. All right. You know, this might be a good time to
- stay. There's a lot going on here.
- We've never been here before. We are under some time constraints. I think passing information back and
- forth and sending it to everyone is fine. But at the end of the day, I think there'll be some times
- when people need to feel comfortable calling into the town now, allowing me to
- get information directly to people that have specific questions, whether it be a subcommittee or the
- committee, and that everybody needs to be real comfortable about, I don't want to say demanding, but
- demanding information so they can make good decisions. And I think one of the important things everyone
- needs to know is,
- A lot of what we do as a reorganized town, in my mind, is going to be from the template of how we run
- this town now. I mean, we don't have time to reinvent the wheel until minutiae will slow us down, maybe
- even make us fail. So to understand how things are working now and the interactions between all the
- departments, the makeup of them, and their objectives now might be helpful
- when they go about creating this new reorganized town plan. So does that make any sense? Hopefully,
- but anyway, we are open to the demand and the need for information from the committee. So everybody
- needs to feel real comfortable about saying, hey, I need you to come here. Can we meet? Can you call
- me on the phone? I mean, Mr. Perry wants us to send information by
- you know, digitally, and that's fine, and we can give it to him. It'll be so much, he'll probably spend
- all his time trying to find what he's looking for, so he's also gonna get the condensed version that
- we got so we could get to this point from our financial experts that took all the information and indeed
- told us how things were gonna be in the future and why we were even considering this, so anyway.
- I just wanted to kind of throw that out there so everybody, especially on the committees, can be real
- comfortable cracking away up and asking for information from us and our department heads and everybody.
- We know that needs to happen and it's work we want to do, but you guys need to feel comfortable about
- just really saying we're on a time crunch. Give me the information. Okay, that's all I'll say. I appreciate
- that because obviously from the perspective of people who are living in the township,
- they never imagined that they would ever have to know anything about how Ellisville works. Right. Right.
- And so it's going to be important for them to reach out and get the information so that, again, they
- don't reinvent the wheel, you know, from a utopian perspective, for example. So thank you. Yes. And
- I will say that last night I said at
- the end of the town board meeting that groups of people, a committee or just one person, anybody that
- wants information, I know I need to be available so I'll go meet anybody where they want to be. This
- is probably what I'm going to be doing for the most part for the next four or five months.
- You know, I really hope every time people really want to know some things and demand information, it
- actually makes me feel a little lighter because I know people are really trying to figure this out.
- It's when nobody calls me that I get real nervous. Okay. I know we needed to get the website quickly,
- so this, I hope that was okay that I, you know,
- Obviously nothing was approved until we did this, and he knew that. He was hoping to have a mock-up
- today, but we didn't have anything to send him, because that I did want a group decision to, but I just
- don't want, I guess I didn't mean to get ahead of myself, and I hadn't realized, I hadn't sent out the
- contract to everybody, and I apologize for that. Luckily, it's not one of those, this is what's the
- thing about the finance for this, some's gonna come from the town, I mean, some may come from the township,
- We've got no budget. So it's kind of where, and for the town expenditures, Mike Farmer has had approval
- from the council for years now, under a certain amount, he can just pull the trigger. Which I'm uncomfortable
- with, but I do it all the time. Right, so, but, cause some things have to be quick, but they still go
- back to the council so we know about them and they're still on the receipt. So it's not like they're
- just approved and go into the ether.
- Any questions on that? No. Okay. All right. Now the next one, discussion of postcards and mailers to
- be sent to Richland Township and Town of Ellisville residents. I do have a couple of thoughts on the
- mockup, if now's the right time to share those. Absolutely. One of them is kind of a knit and
- I'm gonna expose my potential. I might be exposing my ignorance here. You know, anytime you sort of
- talk about grammar, right, you just open it up to somebody who knows more about it to correct you. But
- on the back where, you know, what's happening now, a reorganization committee, and then you've got the,
- you know, the clause separated, supported by resident-led subcommittees. I believe it should be is preparing,
- because it's a reorganization committee is preparing. That is correct. Okay.
- My other comment is on the other side and it's more conceptual So give me a second to explain where
- I'm coming from on this. So it says on the right-hand side Why explore reorganization? and it that little
- paragraph ends with the proposed reorganization allows Richland Township in Ellisville to
- and list those things. And maybe this is just my background as a lawyer myself. I think too much about
- language. But I kind of wonder if that sentence is presupposing what we hope to do. In other words,
- we're going to prepare this plan. And as we go about it, I believe our aspirations are to do these things.
- But ultimately, it's going to be the town council and the township board and then the voters who will
- then decide whether or not we've done those things. So I think I just kind of wonder if it makes more,
- and I think if we heard some comment even in our first meeting from some members of the public who expressed
- some skepticism, and I sometimes know if I have skepticism about something, I don't want somebody to
- tell me that I don't
- have reason to be skeptical that it's actually all taken care of for me. So I just wonder if in order
- to be sort of capture those concepts, whether it makes sense just to change that allows to, may allow
- or could allow one of those two things, just so again, we're making it clear that we're finding facts
- and we're putting together, you know, hopefully what we think would be the best possible outcome, but
- that we're not telling anybody that they can't decide for themselves.
- rather say the proposed reorganization has the following goals rather than say, it may allow it. Right,
- I would say goals. I was gonna suggest putting goals in there. Sam again. The proposed reorganization
- of Richland Township in Ellisville has the following goals, and then let's protect central services,
- et cetera. Would that, I mean, look, I want your lawyer skepticism in this because there's,
- If you go on Facebook, everyone's an attorney, and they know. So we, certainly. It's a good point, and
- so we got to this point. This is something to throw darts at. Right. And up to the vote to do this,
- and then having a committee, we did kind of have to presuppose what to say. And this is the third party,
- and so they, you know,
- It's good to point that out, yeah. Darla, do we need formal motions on these changes? I think you're
- fine, you've got a consensus. Okay. Did you have? Well, there was some talk about our meetings being
- more frequent, and if we're going to do that, we need to do that before, decide on that before we do
- this so that they can. That is correct.
- Just the thought, if we, may I ask Denise a question? Denise, can you come up there? I wanna put you
- on the spot for a second. If you do, if we change this to every week at Wednesday, I know that will
- conflict with some BZA meetings.
- would they be able to be held at either utilities or the fire station which often if cats tv can go
- to d p w i can do it there and recorded that doesn't have to be live we'll have to work it out with
- them that we definitely need to because of what we're doing we probably need to
- figure out how to get BZA and put them probably up in DPW building. Because of some holidays that I
- did have to move my BZA meetings around because I had to move planning commission. So there's like two
- or three months, maybe March, April, May. Well, you'll probably be finished June or so. So there's a
- couple of months you'll coincide. So you're okay with us?
- If we went to, I'm just, this is just talking, I'm not asking them to make an official motion. I just
- wanna make sure we have logistics here. Would you be okay then if we, would it cause too much problems
- for you if we went weekly? No, I just haven't had enough time to amend my public meeting notice. We'd
- decide tonight, I think. So you'll have plenty of time. Yeah, okay. Okay. So you're gonna decide your
- dates tonight? Yes. Okay. I would think. All right. And I understand four of us make a quorum,
- if we can't make every meeting. Well, that was one concern was that the more frequent the meetings,
- the more we might have to be accepting of the fact that, you know, it will be difficult for everybody
- to attend every week. I also wonder whether, you know, whether we would even need to, you know, say
- specify here every other Wednesday or every Wednesday. In other words, we could
- provide a way or a means for people to find the current schedule on the postcard as opposed to holding
- ourselves to one rhythm for the rest of the time. Logistically speaking, though I wonder, there had
- been some discussion about one of us each being on the subcommittees. And so if we were to go with that, then
- we would be committing ourselves to both weekly meetings and potentially the subcommittee meetings.
- And it's not that it's not doable, but I don't, I mean, we have to not burn ourselves out too. And we
- have two people not here tonight. You know, we're not, we're not wanting to say we can assign Jerry
- and Kevin to every subcommittee. That's say my thoughts. I like having,
- rough schedule on the postcard. I do too. And then we can you know there. It could also we could also
- just have a little blurb on here about you know there may more meetings may be added. Please see our
- Web site for that because as we know from public comment that Facebook is not the best way. But since
- there's no newspaper anymore that's kind of hard to
- this as a minimum regular schedule. I like it as long as there is a way for people to see a clear and
- timely update. So you wanna say a minimum of every two weeks or minimum of every week? I do not want
- a minimum of every week. Right, I was gonna say, cause that would be... Every other Wednesday, what
- we have here, if we say we will meet certainly not less frequently than this. As a board, I feel that
- this meeting schedule as printed
- Anything less than that would definitely be insufficient to do our work. But if we just say meetings
- are held every other Wednesday at 6 p.m. Through May, additional meetings may be announced as needed.
- Yeah, please or please check, you know, the website for committed to this. I don't know if I've said
- this committee. I can be here at certain times. The public wants to come in just to voice
- opinions and give quite so we have different times. Some people said like can't get off work or work
- nights. I don't want to you know rule them out. We I'm willing to meet anywhere if you want to have
- coffee or someplace and we can discuss this just like Mike has said and I'm sure a lot of our committee
- members here from what we know right now we don't have a you know a lot of the questions asked we don't
- have firm answers for we're still working on that but we want the concerns addressed
- So we can address them. But. And we won't have effective answers for months. Right. You know, it's kind
- of hard to make a statement on something. We have an opinion, but that's going to be maybe going off
- kilter, what we're trying to receive information so we can process it and then let the voters decide.
- Right. Well, let's talk about how much time we have. I think that's important. How much time do you
- think we have?
- to finish this. I think there's, you have limited amount of time. And so I would propose that you talk
- about it in length about how much time you think you have and that really to work with our accountants
- and putting together the public meetings, April 1st is
- You know, so it's only a couple months as opposed to several months. So I just want to point it out.
- I get paid to be blunt about it, and so I'm telling you, you don't have a lot of time. So every chance
- you get to meet, you should. Every chance we get to go out and talk to groups, we should, either as
- a committee or as a committee person or an individual. There'll be times.
- when you may have to answer, and this is just my opinion, so take it for what it's worth, but I think
- there's times when I think it's appropriate that you express your personal views as a committee person
- on how you think that this is going to work. The 30,000 foot view of how this is gonna work probably
- was not gonna change. There'll be details about it.
- just like the boundaries and how many board members are going to be, all those things haven't been worked
- out. But the 30,000 view of if this should work and how it's probably going to work based on the wheel
- already being invented, I think that everybody should think about going out on a limb and saying we're
- going to do this sooner than later and we need to be adamant about what we all think as individuals
- and but yet,
- and yet have the thoughts of the collective when they go out and talk to people or when you guys congregate
- and try to figure something out. I mean, communications is going to be very important and it shouldn't
- wait. I mean, I know haste makes waste, but in this matter, we have some dictates from the state of
- saying when we need to be finished.
- I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, but we do have those dates, and we've had our financial people
- express that we should be done sooner than later, just so you know.
- you, the reorganization board, time to look that over, maybe tinker with it, send it back to Baker-Tilley.
- And it also gives the town board and the Richland Township, the Township Board for Richland Township
- time to tinker with it. Because when you pass, if you pass the plan, you have to pass it by substantially
- identical resolution. So if somebody, one board wants to make changes, you still need time to go back
- and forth.
- So I guess I'm saying give yourself some wiggle room at the end to do that negotiating among yourselves
- and between the two boards to get that final product that you're happy voting on into May 1st to June,
- that time period. Okay. Thoughts on that? I personally believe April 1st is very reasonable, especially
- with us meeting as needed and at the subcommittees
- with the communication I've had with them and I think all of you, they're very adamant about wanting
- to get information and get this done. So the subcommittee should be done by what day or what time or?
- Six thirty-seven p.m. And the question on the actual draft, who writes that? That's another question.
- Who wrote the one from Sheridan Adams?
- Okay. Did you just volunteer? So is that something you would be willing and able to do or do we need
- to look at somebody else? I'm happy to assist and I'm sure Mr. Cook will help me. I'm glad that we asked
- that question because the subcommittees are going to ask what do they need to provide back?
- talk about things and talk to other people, but you know, they're gonna wanna know how fleshed out is
- the material that they provide to us, you know, or is it just an outline that we take? Here's our staggered
- post-it notes. Right. Oh no. Yeah, so I think that when we're ready to submit, when we get
- all the information or as we get it,
- something that's decided on by us, and Dawn, are you okay working as liaison with the township board?
- We could get that, we're sure about this part, and get to Darla, would that help? Instead of throwing
- it all at once that way. I think from a process perspective, maybe it's worth talking about how we see
- that interaction between us and the subcommittees going. In other words, if you've got a,
- finance subcommittee, they come back to us with results and we don't agree with 100% of what's been
- provided. Does that open up a conversation? In other words, do we send back our thoughts to the subcommittee
- and they bring it back to us or do we simply take what they give us under advisement and then we are
- the ones who ultimately as the main committee
- recommendation and agree upon the language that goes into the plan. It goes to each of the boards. So
- we could do it however we want, but ultimately we're not bound by what the subcommittees bring to us.
- There are some things that you don't have a lot of room on according to the statutes, but there's some
- things you certainly have some room to negotiate and think about. I think this is just important in
- terms of the timing, right? Because if we were,
- It's not to say that we wouldn't, we would just say thank you, subcommittee, and then put that over
- here, but it's more of a question of if we've got April 1st, which is 10 weeks away, and we were bound
- by what they provided us, then that could really extend out the process. So knowing that we're not,
- I think, is key. I would encourage all of the subcommittee individuals who have graciously volunteered
- or have been volunteered to serve to
- go to, just Google, Sheridan Adams Township Reconsolidation, or consolidation, and they have what I
- think is a very nice plan, and I think that will give people some ideas of what this final plan is supposed
- to look like. So you're not operating in the dark. So you could add that to their email. Yes. Well,
- that's just, I can't add, the plan is too big for that. No, I mean, you could add
- We recommend you go to this website. Is that on our website? Is it a possibility to put on our website?
- Do you know? Because our email won't take the, I can send it through my AOL, it's fine, but the town
- one, it will not. Our recommendation would be to put it on the reorganization website because we want
- everyone going to that for information. That would be my recommendation. Right, but they're not hosting it.
- They're not having storage. Okay. So the realization website is just going to have links. I want stop
- shop. We can do it. Yeah. Okay. I wasn't clear on that. No problem. I apologize. As you know, I probably
- haven't been clear of the last couple of weeks. I've been baby. I'm no longer a grandparent with three
- grandkids and
- I realized I'm no longer a parent. I'm too old for this. I will say, in my truck right now, I have several
- hard copies, too. And I'd be glad to have them run them to anywhere they need to go. I'm dedicated to
- getting everybody information. So I have a ton of hard copies, actually. But Noel or Denise, if you
- need me to. There is a cab. And so we'll just put it in under here.
- Fantastic, okay, just text me. Let me know when it is and I'll get it to the website Did we decide on
- our meeting schedule I Thought the consensus was that we're gonna say a minimum of every Wednesday because
- there may be a situational we have no new information come in and
- I mean, it would be good for the public to be able to come in and express concerns, but right now I
- think from what we're hearing from the public, they're not quite sure what to express concerns over.
- Is that kind of what you're hearing too? It's also easier for the public to attend every two weeks than
- it is to not know which of the weekly meetings is really important for them to come to. Exactly.
- So yeah, I would like to keep the text exactly as written here. Meetings are held every other Wednesday
- at 6 p.m. through May and then add something like,
- Additional meetings may be scheduled as needed check Ellisville Richland info org for updates, okay?
- But you in touch with people that put this together so you can talk to him directly about the changes
- As far as my initial comment to be can have a consensus that we were going to say and it was your suggestion that
- The goals of the proposed reorganization. Let me write this down. Andrew, are you going to email that?
- Because it was your suggestion. Are you taking care of that with? I thought Mike wrote it down. Did
- you write it down? What's that? The goals. I'm going to say the goals. Yeah, instead of the proposed
- reorganization allows Richland Township in Elitsville to, I think, what were you? Yeah. The goals of
- the proposed reorganization. Yes.
- Okay, say it one more time, I'm slow. Talk to me slow. The goals of the proposed reorganization. Oh,
- boy, I don't. Will allow Richland Township and Ellisville to, shouldn't that be better? Sure,
- go for it. Okay. Yes or no? I'm running through my head both ways.
- In my mind, I mean, I don't want to get hung up on this, but in my mind, I was thinking the goals of
- the proposed reorganization are to allow Richland Township in Ellisville to. Yeah. Hard to then. Yeah.
- Or to allow to, I'm sorry. Oh man. Apparently I need dinner or to allow Richland Township in Ellisville
- to. Yeah. Okay. End of that.
- Do we have any public comment on what they would like information, but pretty much just the information
- on here has a 50,000 foot view why we want to do it, when the meetings will be and website on the back
- and ways to email both the township and the town. So I guess if any public comment on anything we've
- missed on this,
- that you haven't heard discussed? Okay, seeing none. Is there council action? Well, actually, we don't
- need to have council action. Darla said consensus. Anybody object to what was said? Okay. All right,
- the cost, 7,200 cards. Now, does this $1,000.54 include the mailing too?
- I wouldn't think so. No, they say the unit cost is either .14641. Yeah, I see post is not included.
- It's got to spread. So based on 7200, I think, I can't remember, I'd have to look it up. So we just
- have 7200 households? That's correct. It's 7200 registered voters, right? That's correct. Okay.
- Instead of, and when we just sorted the list, instead of sending a postcard to each individual at the
- household, I just thought that would just be redundant. I mean, it's the blank household.
- Any other comments on this? I'm happy to delegate that to any single member of the committee. I thought
- with this change as that would be, but Scott, would you like to be that person? Sure. Okay. Thank you, Scott.
- I have to say, I'm very impressed by this board. All of us are, there's not one person like pulling,
- everybody's pulling on weight. And the public's been doing a great job of input in various places too.
- So very excited about the way this process is coming together. All right, so any other discussion on
- the postcard? All right, so Mike, so Andrew, you're gonna contact Fields & Company with the changes
- or is Mike?
- I'll talk to you and Victoria at the same time. And then we can set up a phone conversation. I'll be
- in on it just in case you need me to do something or you have a question. I'll just text you tomorrow
- and figure out what your schedule's like. Sure. And that would be just to make those little tweaks to
- the copy on the postcard. And then it'll go to World Arts for print. Final art proof. Scott will be
- our double check to make sure everything is kosher. And then it will be sent off to print. Great.
- if any subcommittee members, I think public comment would be a great time or have a subcommittee report
- time on the agendas. So if any subcommittee members want to say, here's where we're at with the process,
- we need some guidance with this, and they can email any of us, but at the same time, it'd be better
- to present us as a board. Do anybody have objections to that? I mean. Yeah, if they choose, I mean,
- cause. If they're not here, then we move on.
- If they are, since we're meeting on a more regular basis, I'd be able as a committee to have it available.
- Yep. No problem with that? No problem with that. All right. So final thing on the agenda is public comment.
- Do we need to actually vote on approving this postcard charge? Darla said you really thought the consensus
- was fine on the postcard? I think that's fine.
- And then before public comment, I had a question. It was not on the agenda, but we have hard copy of
- the previous two meetings worth of minutes. Yes, forgot the minutes. And what is your approval process
- for those? Somebody needs to make a motion to approve the minutes and second, and whether we approve
- or deny them. So I will make a motion to approve the last two committees' minutes. So those will be
- the meeting minutes for December 22nd and January 7th? Yes. And those are as drafted and sent out to
- you guys for review?
- seconds I vote yes Scott yes William yes Dawn yes Mike yes thank you there next time I want to comment
- the YouTube channel was mentioned earlier and I have discovered that I don't know how we want to go
- forward with this I actually have to have the file to upload
- to YouTube. The only, if I want to put in links, they have to go in the comments. So I don't know how
- useful the YouTube channel is actually going to be. Well, with CATS, this is on their YouTube. So maybe
- we should just link to specific meetings for their YouTube. Should we do that? But I don't know about
- the ones that are recorded. Well, the ones recorded on Zoom, we can upload because you'll get a file.
- If Katz isn't, but I believe Katz is gonna be at all of them. Right, Noel from what? And thank you Noel
- for putting up with me the last couple weeks and all the questions. And Mike and Darla. I'm not understanding
- the YouTube question. Help me understand how we're gonna utilize YouTube. We were going to, that was
- gonna be our one stop shop for everybody.
- from the public to be able to just click on our YouTube channel. They won't have to sort through all
- the CATS to look for reorganization meetings. It was just gonna make it easier for the public. CATS
- actually showed up tonight, surprisingly, yay. But we can talk with them after the meeting to see, because
- typically anytime I have questions on any of that, they are very gracious to give me all the help that
- I need. Okay, that'd be great. And another possibility with the website,
- and talking to him, he had said that he can embed the links. So I believe, and we'll double check with
- Katz, every one of our meetings is eventually put on their YouTube. So he can embed those YouTube links
- on the website. So it'll still be one. Not only would it have the links, it would have the minutes for
- those. So that may be a possibility too. I'm sorry to have you guys do extra work, but we don't know
- what we don't know. That's right. We're all learning. All right.
- on the YouTube channel you discussed and see about having those actually just either embedded or linked
- from the RE-ORG website. I'm good with that, yeah. Is everybody good with that? Yes. All right, any
- other pleasure of the board? All right, public comment on anything.
- It is pretty tight timeline that you're expecting from the committees and we've not seen the objectives.
- So I, how are the committees going to meet? How often are they going to meet? Where are they going to
- meet? How often do we need to report back to you? Those are terrific questions. I think that, I mean,
- what we've discussed, they, however often it needs to meet to get the objectives done in time. Wouldn't
- you think that would be, Darla?
- that needs to happen is somebody needs to put together a comprehensive list of all of the subcommittee
- members with their contact information. So what we had talked about was having town supervisors and
- or individuals from the township trustee also join the board so that they can be helpful in explaining
- what the government does, and I think we leave it to each, this isn't just my opinion, leave it to each
- individual subcommittee to decide how often you meet. And I think, I talked to Noelle this afternoon
- about coming up with a list of meeting rooms. The committees can meet in the conference room here, at
- the utilities building, at the new heritage building, at my office,
- Maybe the township office would have a conference room. The fire department training room. And so we'll
- send around a list of meeting rooms and contact information so that the committees can individually
- contact, make sure the fire department training room's available, make sure this room's available. And
- we're going to kind of, I suggest, leave it to the subcommittees to decide how often to meet. And I'm
- happy to help.
- But this sounds wonderful. And I think we're all going to understand it more when we get a copy of the
- objectives. And Mike, I would very much love a copy of the Sheridan plan. So if you've got them in your
- truck, I'd like it before I go home tonight. Yours is one of the, because I found in my drafts, yours
- is one that failed for the server limit because I tried emailing you about the attachment of it. OK.
- Let's see, there was one other thing I wanted to ask. How was your meeting at Sheridan? Did you learn
- a lot? Oh, yeah. Do you want to? We did. I feel like it was very productive. There were some things
- that, a lot of good information, a little bit of surprise information on roads, I feel like. First of all,
- They wish they'd have done it three years prior. They're very happy with it. The similarities were numerous
- between our situation and their situation. They got a lot of pushback from other government entities
- and it sounded like
- without knowing the end already you would assume they're going to tell you that they failed but they
- had some what seemed like some insurmountable things to handle and they prevailed and i think they had
- like almost seventy percent approval during the voting after the fact they're even happier than they
- were before the time
- Township, was she the trustee, Dawn? Yeah, the township trustee was there, and she now works with the
- new Sheridan government. And then we had the town board president, and we also had the person that kind
- of was the consultant. So anyway, yeah, I mean, I feel like we're on the right road. I left there feeling
- very good about
- our situation because it was so similar to their situation, and they were on a pretty tight schedule
- as well. I was unfortunately not able to be there, but I think it was Don's notes that you sent around
- were very helpful. There were some distinctions based on the notes, so please correct me if I'm wrong
- because I wasn't there, but I think it's important that the subcommittee members also look at the ways
- that they were different so that they don't
- Immediately just think well what worked there will automatically work here One of them was if I correct
- me if I'm wrong, but Sheridan was bigger than the township in terms of population According to the notes.
- I believe Sheridan. Yeah, where I think Sheridan had like 3,500 people the township had maybe 2,500
- right Here obviously it's a you know, the it's with the reverse and even maybe more so right and so I think
- I think it'll be important for the subcommittees to really be thinking about if they look at that as
- the example plan, what are the things that the township residents might be concerned about that would
- need more of a hearing in this case than they needed to up there. The other instance that was
- very interesting in the notes was that it seemed as though their county was actually the opposite of
- the county that we're in. In other words, they were trying to encourage development
- Yes. That would affect Sheridan. They were trying to, yes, and not give them an option that they were,
- yes. And not the development that they wanted. Right. Yeah, they want to, Sheridan and Adams Township
- people wanted a say in what happened in their area and the county wasn't wanting to give that to them.
- land use policy that was a big bug there. And they did theirs before SB1 was enacted, so it was not
- a motive. I think land use is going to be a big question here, too, but I was
- another meeting last night unrelated, but there was a lot of concern about the information. We talked
- about it at the meeting and it was the first time a lot of people had heard about it. So the postcards
- are gonna be helpful, the website is gonna be helpful. Scott, I thank you for saying to be transparent.
- If you want functional committees, you've got to keep us as informed as you can be. So if you'd share
- your shared notes with all of us, that would be fantastic. I would like you to do a group email of all
- those committee members
- and send everything to us directly that you can, because the more we are informed, the better job we'll
- do for you. And thank you. Oh, I've got a side note. I saw John Sieber, who used to work for Baker-Tilley
- at Buffalo Louise last week, and I told him that Ellisville was gonna do this. We had a nice little
- chat, and he lives in Zionsville, and he said they had already done it successfully, so that's another
- little positive.
- You haven't cornered me yet so For information we have maps and everything that you can add corner you
- since you said I can call you I will be thank you Some of the same things that stood out to Scott stood
- out to me as well that the overall number of people in the considered area was dramatically smaller
- the ratio of town to township was reversed and particularly one of the methods that the reorganization
- committee there used was a
- essentially fireside chats. They offered to residents, if you want to host a get together at a private
- home or anywhere, one of us or two of us will come and answer or take any questions we have. Because
- of the overall smaller size, I believe they did not use a range of subcommittees. Much more of it was
- handled by the committee of the whole at that main committee level. They also felt that not
- having subcommittees was to expedite the situation.
- And that may very well be the case, but I think that having the subcommittees is our only way to involve
- more of the public, since we have so much more public. And given the size of the people in the considerate
- area, I definitely want subcommittees with as much public participation as possible. They were very
- adamant about it. The outreach was, they think, what made it succeed.
- And I did have an idea that I spoke to Mike about on the way back from that. We were just trying to
- brainstorm ways to get this in front of people. And I had the idea of maybe yard signs. I had forgotten.
- The yard signs we talked about. Maybe having, you know, that we could just put out. I'll find out how
- much it costs to get those.
- Pardon? Depending on how many you can get about 100 for, they break down to $6 to $7 each with the stakes.
- Depending if you want poly bags, that may be $4 to $5 each. But if you want the corrugated kind of foam,
- that'd be a little more expensive, but they weather better. Well, personally, I'd rather use cardboard
- than foam, so, but that's up to it.
- You can get a kind of cardboard overlay with it. They don't hold up as well, though. Where do you go
- to buy things like that? I've never had a yard sign. I've got about a list of about five or six places
- I always get them to put them on each other. Okay, well, I'll talk to you about it. Here's an order
- file over it. Yeah, honestly, yes. Any other public comments?
- No other public comment? Seeing none, call this meeting adjourned.