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.