WEBVTT 00:00:00.514 --> 00:00:08.791 - We call this March 4th, 2025, the organization committee to order. Six o'clock, will everybody stand 00:00:08.791 --> 00:00:17.151 - and we'll pray and we'll do the Pledge of Allegiance. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you 00:00:17.151 --> 00:00:25.756 - even for the rain, where it says make the rain fall on the just and the unjust. Just take it for granted 00:00:25.756 --> 00:00:29.854 - it's gonna happen and you know what you're doing. 00:00:30.786 --> 00:00:39.667 - We ask that you'd be here with us as lead guiding directors. We try to get through this and decide what, 00:00:39.667 --> 00:00:48.632 - let the citizenry decide what's best. And we ask all this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance 00:00:48.632 --> 00:00:57.260 - to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under 00:00:57.260 --> 00:00:58.782 - God, indivisible, 00:00:58.882 --> 00:01:09.201 - With liberty and justice for all. All right, roll call. Andrew Henry, present. William Ellis, present. 00:01:09.201 --> 00:01:19.521 - Kevin Ferris, present. Don Durnall, present. Jerry Sanders is absent. And we have an electronic policy 00:01:19.521 --> 00:01:28.638 - for members who may be zooming in, correct? Will we vote on that after roll call? Yes. OK. 00:01:28.802 --> 00:01:37.973 - With that, actually, I just got an email that Scott Reynolds is in the UK and not able to log in to 00:01:37.973 --> 00:01:47.235 - Zoom. Do you know if it's region restricted? Or is there a different link than last week? Every link 00:01:47.235 --> 00:01:56.222 - is going to be different. No problem. So I'll send him the new link. I haven't restricted it. OK. 00:01:59.266 --> 00:02:12.226 - Where's the, where could I find that link? Okay. I'll work on that and start. Okay. The startup meeting 00:02:12.226 --> 00:02:24.812 - with, has anybody got anything they'd wish to say or contribute? If not, we're gonna ask the subject 00:02:24.812 --> 00:02:27.678 - committees to present. 00:02:29.538 --> 00:02:43.442 - We have we have meeting minutes to approve and Approval of the minutes February 18th, 2026 realization 00:02:43.442 --> 00:02:57.886 - committee meeting So moved Look, why don't we do it this way anybody opposed to raise your hand? Everybody 00:02:58.402 --> 00:03:06.204 - Not opposed, raise your hand. Okay. So passes. Now public comment. Where's the electronic? Want to do 00:03:06.204 --> 00:03:13.852 - that first? Yes, please. Electronic meeting policy? So I drafted a policy and sent it out, I think, 00:03:13.852 --> 00:03:21.501 - on Monday. And this mirrors what the Planning Commission and the town council have in place, but it 00:03:21.501 --> 00:03:27.390 - allows board members to participate electronically under certain conditions. 00:03:28.034 --> 00:03:39.301 - and participate. Yes. So anybody want to make a motion to accept that policy? I will second that motion. 00:03:39.301 --> 00:03:50.245 - All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed? So passes. Passes unanimous. Now public comment. Anybody 00:03:50.245 --> 00:03:52.606 - want to say anything? 00:03:58.018 --> 00:04:26.878 - if you'd just write your name and state it. Thanks for... my name's Phil Shanoff, 00:04:27.138 --> 00:04:35.524 - We live over on Limestone Drive, my wife and I, Terry. We were here at the February 4th meeting, 00:04:35.524 --> 00:04:44.343 - and it was, by the time everybody had spoken, it was pretty informative. We didn't make the last one, 00:04:44.343 --> 00:04:52.988 - which was the 18th, I think. And yeah, February 4th, that's right. But since that time, we've had a 00:04:52.988 --> 00:04:55.582 - chance to digest some of what 00:04:56.834 --> 00:05:05.408 - we've heard and learned and spoke with folks. I'm going to kind of read this just because I'm not very 00:05:05.408 --> 00:05:13.900 - good at this, but after listening to the presentation and the panel, actually the committee, it seems 00:05:13.900 --> 00:05:22.391 - like most of this got started. If I'm saying things you already know, if you just be patient with me, 00:05:22.391 --> 00:05:23.806 - it'll take long. 00:05:24.098 --> 00:05:30.882 - It seems like the thing kind of got started when Ellisville's long-standing fire protection arrangement, 00:05:30.882 --> 00:05:37.472 - where the fire department, Ellisville Fire Department, historically provided fire protection for both 00:05:37.472 --> 00:05:43.997 - Richland and Bean Blossom townships, and Ellisville town, of course. And what it sounded, though, is 00:05:43.997 --> 00:05:50.910 - that the Ellisville Fire Department made large capital investment in a new fire truck, among other things. 00:05:51.106 --> 00:05:59.771 - based on the fire territory as they knew it at the time. And additionally, for whatever reason, Monroe 00:05:59.771 --> 00:06:08.688 - County commissioners in Ellsfield Town are not continuing this fire protection agreement, as I understand 00:06:08.688 --> 00:06:17.522 - it. I'm not intimate with it, but I do live here and try to pay attention to what's going on. Basically, 00:06:17.522 --> 00:06:20.382 - leaving Ellsfield Town with debt. 00:06:20.802 --> 00:06:30.475 - I guess a question is, if or can Ellsville town government and Monroe County government get together 00:06:30.475 --> 00:06:40.819 - and agree upon a fire protection territory that satisfies Ellsville's fire department debt while continuing 00:06:40.819 --> 00:06:50.014 - to provide fire protection services for both townships, Bean Blossom and Richland and the town, 00:06:50.530 --> 00:06:59.798 - And, you know, if there's any intention of a working agreement, you know, perhaps a third-party arbitrator 00:06:59.798 --> 00:07:08.546 - might be useful. I say that. Again, I'm not privileged to all of what you already know, so I have to 00:07:08.546 --> 00:07:17.208 - just extract this from what I know. The other problem that we see that I saw or we saw, my wife and 00:07:17.208 --> 00:07:19.806 - I, with the RE-ORG committee, 00:07:20.546 --> 00:07:28.869 - It indicates there's a problem with the county planning and zoning. As I take it, the reordered panel 00:07:28.869 --> 00:07:37.355 - thinks that Monroe County planning and zoning is just a little too slow for their purposes because they 00:07:37.355 --> 00:07:46.494 - just can't get things done in a timely manner as they see it, they being Richmond Township and Ellisville Town. 00:07:47.970 --> 00:07:55.316 - You know, currently the county has multiple in-place services for both Richland and Bean Blossom townships. 00:07:55.316 --> 00:08:02.390 - The county I'm talking about, county government included planning and zoning along with the master plan 00:08:02.390 --> 00:08:09.192 - for the entire county. You know, our concern is other than the planning and zoning, there are other 00:08:09.192 --> 00:08:16.062 - important county services already in place and operating and paid for under current county taxation. 00:08:16.514 --> 00:08:23.606 - I guess the question is, what happens to the sheriff protection that we have, road maintenance and repair, 00:08:23.606 --> 00:08:30.366 - snow removal, waste recycling, stormwater management, and that includes culverts and bridges, if this 00:08:30.366 --> 00:08:37.060 - reorganization occurs? I mean, Monroe County, I know ostensibly it might not seem like they do much, 00:08:37.060 --> 00:08:43.754 - but if you don't have them, you might look a little different. So I just ask that you consider this. 00:08:43.754 --> 00:08:46.206 - Will it become the responsibility of 00:08:46.818 --> 00:08:57.146 - Ellitsville or Richland, the new governmental entity, I guess you'd call it. Ellitsville, I was looking 00:08:57.146 --> 00:09:07.275 - at the maps and consists of about 20% of Richland Township, roughly 3,800 acres, round numbers, while 00:09:07.275 --> 00:09:13.630 - the remaining of Richland Township consists of 30 square miles, 00:09:14.658 --> 00:09:22.535 - which is about 19,000 acres. It's a lot of land, which is currently being served by the county. I guess 00:09:22.535 --> 00:09:30.261 - the problems that we see, you know, if the merger occurs, will the Ellsfield town have to provide all 00:09:30.261 --> 00:09:38.518 - the services already provided by Monroe County as currently taxed and paid for by the county? Now, Ellsfield 00:09:38.518 --> 00:09:44.350 - could always, or Ritson Township, whatever this entity is newly referred to, 00:09:44.994 --> 00:09:53.700 - hires more people and buys more equipment to provide duplicate services no longer available by the county. 00:09:53.700 --> 00:10:02.162 - Ellesville and Richland Township residents and business taxes will go up. And certainly a lot more than 00:10:02.162 --> 00:10:10.379 - 8 cents per hundred. Because it's new debt. We're not opposed to incremental growth. I don't want to 00:10:10.379 --> 00:10:14.366 - be misunderstood here. And I understand what the 00:10:14.850 --> 00:10:22.136 - committee's trying to do, and I'm open. But, you know, we're not opposed to incremental growth that 00:10:22.136 --> 00:10:29.786 - consists of impartial planning and zoning. And I kind of mean that, impartial planning and zoning, which 00:10:29.786 --> 00:10:37.144 - means you're looking at the whole picture. And for example, you know, well, you know, this keeps the 00:10:37.144 --> 00:10:43.774 - special interest in the side deals from occurring and protecting residents and businesses. 00:10:44.034 --> 00:10:51.462 - I mean, you buy a piece of land as a resident, you're there. I mean, and if you buy a piece of land 00:10:51.462 --> 00:10:58.963 - as a business, you may or may not be there, but you got to live with it as a resident. So I'm really 00:10:58.963 --> 00:11:06.539 - thinking more of a resident. Again, we're not opposed to uncontrolled. We are opposed to uncontrolled 00:11:06.539 --> 00:11:13.150 - growth. There's only one example I can cite off the top here. My wife and I were driving 00:11:13.730 --> 00:11:21.946 - eastbound towards Bloomington. And if I'm wrong about this, please someone correct me. But across from 00:11:21.946 --> 00:11:30.481 - Arby's on northeast side of State Road 46, there's an area that was cleared and denuded of all vegetation. 00:11:30.481 --> 00:11:38.538 - Also, we noted a new high rise building that was going up on a joining property just on the opposite 00:11:38.538 --> 00:11:42.526 - side of that to the north and east of that again. 00:11:43.394 --> 00:11:50.668 - And this consisted primarily of single-family dwelling units. So here, you got a single-family dwelling 00:11:50.668 --> 00:11:57.872 - units, and you got high-rises going up right next to it. And we didn't see any green space in between. 00:11:57.872 --> 00:12:04.936 - Now, I didn't investigate it close, but I didn't see really any drainage control. But I'm sure there 00:12:04.936 --> 00:12:12.350 - was probably some there. So these are the things that we observed. I guess, in final, I'd like to just... 00:12:12.994 --> 00:12:20.564 - I think the county probably does more than anybody really knows, but, and I'm not saying that they're 00:12:20.564 --> 00:12:28.135 - not, can be a pain sometimes, but they do, you know, we gotta be part of some county. And this is our 00:12:28.135 --> 00:12:35.557 - county. So I think if there's a way that to work together and get what you need out of it, and even 00:12:35.557 --> 00:12:42.014 - the flexibility that folks want around here, I think it'd be useful. That's all I got. 00:12:45.154 --> 00:12:53.307 - Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah sure with the fire Situation. Yeah, that actually came up after we started this 00:12:53.307 --> 00:13:01.459 - the reason we decided to pursue reorganization was the state has talked about streamlining government 00:13:01.459 --> 00:13:07.614 - duplication of services and there was some from the township in the town and 00:13:07.778 --> 00:13:15.050 - Richland Township and Ellisville has a 79-year history with fire protection. So that was a good blueprint 00:13:15.050 --> 00:13:21.980 - for us. We were already kind of married, you know, there. And the county decided, while we're in the 00:13:21.980 --> 00:13:28.909 - middle of pursuing this process, to take that away from us. They gave the intention that they wanted 00:13:28.909 --> 00:13:35.838 - to do a fire district, which is different than a fire territory. Right now, we just have a contract. 00:13:36.002 --> 00:13:43.221 - and what that would do when you're worried about increased taxes, with this plan, your taxes, it would 00:13:43.221 --> 00:13:50.651 - increase taxes a lot more than what it would for, yeah, than reorganization, if they did a fire district, 00:13:50.651 --> 00:13:57.870 - because they'd have to build a station, they would have to buy equipment, because right now Ellisville 00:13:57.870 --> 00:14:05.019 - owns that. Same thing with the other services. Well, yes, and yes, and roads, I mean. Well, yeah, and 00:14:05.019 --> 00:14:05.790 - all of us, 00:14:06.274 --> 00:14:12.945 - we have these subcommittees, because they're addressing those particular things. The nice thing with 00:14:12.945 --> 00:14:19.682 - roads, as an example, a lot of the road funding will just shift from the county to go to the town. So 00:14:19.682 --> 00:14:26.420 - it's not like we're gonna have to spend a bunch more. But they have the equipment, the county has the 00:14:26.420 --> 00:14:31.902 - equipment already in place. So I mean, I'm not being argumentative, but what I am, 00:14:32.226 --> 00:14:39.710 - No, you're not. Not at all. No. And no, I get that. But an example during this winter. 00:14:39.810 --> 00:14:45.315 - there is, I can't remember the name of the cul-de-sac. The county decided since the road was built 20 00:14:45.315 --> 00:14:50.821 - years ago, not to their standards, and the developer who is either out of business or not responsive, 00:14:50.821 --> 00:14:56.218 - they're no longer gonna plow that neighborhood. It's little things like that that we wanna get away 00:14:56.218 --> 00:15:01.238 - from. Had Ellsville been plowing up until that time? No, no, no, this is the county, no, no, 00:15:01.238 --> 00:15:06.689 - I'm not talking, the county, this is in Richland Township. No one's been plowing it, that's just it. 00:15:06.689 --> 00:15:09.118 - We're not gonna let technicalities like that 00:15:09.506 --> 00:15:14.990 - hurt our residents just because the developer. That's something that should have been addressed with 00:15:14.990 --> 00:15:20.528 - the developer bond. But I'm talking about the mentality like that. When you come to planning. No, no, 00:15:20.528 --> 00:15:26.067 - they, they had said that the road wasn't met to spec. So they're not doing anything with it. And that 00:15:26.067 --> 00:15:31.551 - was a developer issue. But from what I understand, and all the investigation as a 20 year ago issue, 00:15:31.551 --> 00:15:37.143 - they've been fighting. That's why you have developer bonds, you go in there, take the bond and fix it, 00:15:37.143 --> 00:15:38.718 - you don't make the residents 00:15:39.234 --> 00:15:46.240 - pay for those mistakes. When it comes to planning and zoning, it's not so much that their lacks are 00:15:46.240 --> 00:15:53.457 - too strict. That's part of it, because it's like if you had 100 acres and you wanted to subdivide that 00:15:53.457 --> 00:16:00.603 - three ways to your family, you could not, or you'd have to wait, is it 25 or 50 years to subdivide it 00:16:00.603 --> 00:16:08.030 - again, something like that? I'm not- If you've got an existing track, you could subdivide it once. Right. 00:16:08.290 --> 00:16:14.538 - Go ahead. Yeah, once. It's your land. And then there is a time, but I don't know what that time is. 00:16:14.538 --> 00:16:21.037 - Yeah, exactly. It's either 25 or 50 years. So things like that, there's no rationale behind doing that. 00:16:21.037 --> 00:16:27.660 - Well, there is to some extent. Right. But just because I don't really understand it at this point doesn't 00:16:27.660 --> 00:16:33.909 - mean that we as a collective buy should understand it. No, but I can tell you who should understand 00:16:33.909 --> 00:16:36.158 - it, and that's the property owners. 00:16:36.258 --> 00:16:42.700 - When the people want to sell their property or do something with it, they should be ultimately the ones 00:16:42.700 --> 00:16:48.833 - that make the decisions, not some government body that tells them what to do with their resources. 00:16:48.833 --> 00:16:55.151 - To a point. Because that's why you have planning and zoning. Because you've got 13,000 people in this 00:16:55.151 --> 00:17:01.593 - township. And that's about two people per acre. And you have a lot of people living next to each other. 00:17:01.593 --> 00:17:05.310 - And I have no control over what a business does next to me. 00:17:05.442 --> 00:17:11.578 - Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-business, but it has to be considered what they're gonna be doing and 00:17:11.578 --> 00:17:17.714 - what that's gonna do to that. Yes, and it absolutely, in our current UDO, it absolutely is. And in the 00:17:17.714 --> 00:17:23.790 - plan that we're talking about, if it's currently agricultural, unless that person wants to rezone it, 00:17:23.790 --> 00:17:30.164 - I don't know the particulars, but we're gonna have two different, a rural and, we'll hear the presentation 00:17:30.164 --> 00:17:34.334 - or talk about it tonight, a rural and an urban area. So those things, 00:17:34.626 --> 00:17:41.934 - Are you going to honor the existing county? I mean, some parts of the existing county zoning and planning. 00:17:41.934 --> 00:17:49.038 - That's my question. Oh, I'm sure we would, because some of it doesn't really conflict with what we got. 00:17:49.038 --> 00:17:55.868 - Yeah. The western part of the township is the best land in the county, without a doubt. And I don't 00:17:55.868 --> 00:18:03.518 - know, we moved here 47 years ago. And, you know, part of the reason we moved here was because we like the area. 00:18:03.618 --> 00:18:13.177 - And I was commuting the whole time. And the thing is is that we just liked the area. And people lived 00:18:13.177 --> 00:18:22.642 - here and worked here. Bloomington, Crane, and all that. So it was a choice. So I would hate for that 00:18:22.642 --> 00:18:31.358 - choice to be. There's other people that I know feel similar to me. Again, I don't want to... 00:18:31.842 --> 00:18:38.095 - step on what you're trying to do. But I just want to thought out. No, these are real concerns and this 00:18:38.095 --> 00:18:44.287 - process is that we're doing this is to think up. So we make sure those things are addressed. And it's 00:18:44.287 --> 00:18:50.782 - not that this happens and then we say, what do we do? We don't want that to happen. The county does a ton. 00:18:50.850 --> 00:18:56.670 - And we, like on the parks, we're still gonna work with the county on that. I forgot about the parks, 00:18:56.670 --> 00:19:02.547 - but you're right. I mean, that's a fine park over there. Yeah, the county is still gonna handle those 00:19:02.547 --> 00:19:08.539 - parks. We're working that out. We've met with county streets to see what we can do. Sheriff protection, 00:19:08.539 --> 00:19:14.359 - since the sheriff is, they're still gonna respond to calls when it comes to Richland because they're 00:19:14.359 --> 00:19:16.030 - still part of Monroe County. 00:19:17.218 --> 00:19:22.688 - But this plan will get three months. I mean, that's that's part of the point, but I don't know how, 00:19:22.688 --> 00:19:28.377 - you know, I guess what I hate to see is I hate to see that an adversary relationship between Ellisville 00:19:28.377 --> 00:19:33.901 - or Richmond government and the county government. That's that's something you don't want to have. We 00:19:33.901 --> 00:19:39.480 - hate to see it too. And it comes and goes because people get elected. Right. And what we want to make 00:19:39.480 --> 00:19:45.005 - sure is we're protecting Richland Township residents and town of Ellisville residents under this new 00:19:45.005 --> 00:19:46.974 - thing from those frictions, because 00:19:47.170 --> 00:19:54.891 - You know, government bodies are going to have disagreements, but you should not get caught in the crossfire. 00:19:54.891 --> 00:20:02.116 - And we're trying to make sure that does not happen. And Ellisville has been when you come to when you 00:20:02.116 --> 00:20:06.366 - talk about the growth and that we have had a record number. 00:20:06.498 --> 00:20:13.229 - say in the last five to 10 years of voluntary annexations where people say, I want to come into Ellisville 00:20:13.229 --> 00:20:19.583 - because we want to get away from taking two years to go through the planning commission. And there's 00:20:19.583 --> 00:20:26.377 - no shortage of growth that I can see from no, but there is no, there is in Richland Township in Ellisville. 00:20:26.377 --> 00:20:32.730 - No, it's like a tale of two cities. A matter of fact, the growth in Monroe County has been driven by 00:20:32.730 --> 00:20:34.366 - the growth in Ellisville. 00:20:35.042 --> 00:20:41.668 - So the southeast part of the county mainly towards with the old GE because that's part of the township, 00:20:41.668 --> 00:20:48.038 - right? Yes. I mean, look how long that's taken to get going. I mean, I mean, that was just, I mean, 00:20:48.038 --> 00:20:54.791 - that's a big job. It is. But I always use this as an example. Harmon farms from the moment it got annexed 00:20:54.791 --> 00:21:01.162 - into, uh, they're going to have a house available this April. And the developer said that would not 00:21:01.162 --> 00:21:03.774 - happen under the county. There's no way. 00:21:05.474 --> 00:21:11.246 - Yeah, for sale, but I'm talking about as they can move in in April. Because what we understand is that 00:21:11.246 --> 00:21:16.962 - there's a housing shortage in Monroe County, in the country. And part of that housing shortage is not 00:21:16.962 --> 00:21:22.566 - telling people you can't sell your land and build homes. Part of that housing shortage alleviation, 00:21:22.566 --> 00:21:28.282 - especially for jobs. If we want people to have high paying jobs here, we have to have housing for it. 00:21:28.282 --> 00:21:33.662 - Doesn't mean you're gonna see a ton of apartments or anything like that. It's gonna be planned. 00:21:33.826 --> 00:21:40.260 - It's going to be the benefit of the community. It's not just going to be a bunch of sprawl. I don't 00:21:40.260 --> 00:21:46.759 - think any of us envision that. But it comes to a point in time where there are some issues that have 00:21:46.759 --> 00:21:53.193 - to be addressed in Monroe County. I think what I'd hate to see is along those lines is that just as 00:21:53.193 --> 00:21:59.692 - they drive up Ronald Reagan and look at all the distribution houses or units, those things are huge. 00:21:59.692 --> 00:22:03.166 - It's just like Keagy only bigger and there's probably 00:22:04.674 --> 00:22:16.340 - From that stretch from Interstate 70 all the way up to the 600 Road, which is right up before you get 00:22:16.340 --> 00:22:28.006 - to Brownsburg, there must be 25 of them, and they're just huge. And they just take over the area. And 00:22:28.006 --> 00:22:29.950 - that's business, 00:22:30.402 --> 00:22:35.432 - You know, there's been an awful lot of building with that stuff, and I'm not sure how sustained that's 00:22:35.432 --> 00:22:40.511 - gonna be either. There's limits to talking. And ultimately, at the end of the day, if you hear the plan 00:22:40.511 --> 00:22:45.444 - and don't like the plan, the nice thing about this is it won't be forced on you. You can always vote 00:22:45.444 --> 00:22:50.474 - no, so. Yeah, well, I've rambled enough. That's okay, thank you so much. Thanks. Thanks for your time. 00:22:50.474 --> 00:22:55.114 - If I may, I can ask you a couple of questions. Oh yeah, Jeff, sorry. Okay, well, first of all, 00:22:55.114 --> 00:22:57.214 - I said Jeff, I meant Mike. I'll take this. 00:22:57.826 --> 00:23:05.435 - So we have talked to the county highway. And so we went through the process of what we're trying to 00:23:05.435 --> 00:23:13.044 - do. And so it's a bit complex because one thing leads to another and there are several other things 00:23:13.044 --> 00:23:20.806 - related that you take into account. So when it comes to the roads though, it's pretty simple. We will 00:23:20.806 --> 00:23:27.806 - take on another 80 or 90 miles of road, it's true. And when we talk to the county about it, 00:23:28.098 --> 00:23:35.597 - They weren't exactly happy that we might be doing this, but at the end of the day, they said, well, 00:23:35.597 --> 00:23:43.320 - because we talked about maybe even allowing the revenue to stream to them sometime into the future and 00:23:43.320 --> 00:23:51.119 - work out a detail where as they, through attrition, grow down a little, we could grow up and maybe work 00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:57.118 - together. I mean, their contribution to the maintenance and repair? Yeah, yeah. 00:23:57.250 --> 00:24:04.924 - But at the end of the day, they said, we have 788 miles of road after that. And they had plenty to do. 00:24:04.924 --> 00:24:12.449 - And they're always needing more help. And they thought the best way to go about it is to just let it 00:24:12.449 --> 00:24:20.421 - switch and let the revenue follow whoever is going to take care of it. And so we went through the process. 00:24:20.421 --> 00:24:23.550 - We constantly are working with the county 00:24:23.842 --> 00:24:31.471 - as roads change who owns them or who's responsible for them, we work out details so that we're efficient 00:24:31.471 --> 00:24:39.028 - about who's plowing the road. And so I live in a county too, so. You're up in Bean Blossom, aren't you? 00:24:39.028 --> 00:24:46.657 - Yeah, I'm in Bean Blossom, but you're right, the county does a really good job, and we acknowledge that. 00:24:46.657 --> 00:24:52.542 - But we have talked to them, we've talked to the sheriff about police protection, 00:24:52.930 --> 00:25:00.793 - And we're assured that, you know, the Ellisville is in the county and as they go about their business 00:25:00.793 --> 00:25:08.732 - now, protecting us all, that's not going to change. And so some of these things have been talked about 00:25:08.732 --> 00:25:16.826 - and worked out. And to William's point, the town is growing and it's annexing all around where you live. 00:25:16.826 --> 00:25:19.678 - And as it grows, decisions are made. 00:25:19.970 --> 00:25:26.721 - And as a person that is adjacent to that growth, you have no say what goes on in Ellisville. 00:25:26.721 --> 00:25:33.981 - And one of the, I think, positives about this, we all know the town's going to keep growing. People 00:25:33.981 --> 00:25:41.386 - that want to do things with their land and be able to do it and make money on it and not have to wait 00:25:41.386 --> 00:25:48.791 - to develop it or whatever they want to do with it, divide it up amongst their family, they annex into 00:25:48.791 --> 00:25:49.662 - Ellisville. 00:25:49.858 --> 00:25:57.641 - The growth is going to be there. One of the things for you is if you are part of the reorganization, 00:25:57.641 --> 00:26:05.809 - you will have representation in the future. There's so many people that don't even realize they're either 00:26:05.809 --> 00:26:14.131 - in or outside the town, especially as close proximity as you are where you live. And so as we move forward, 00:26:14.131 --> 00:26:19.294 - if you want a positive, the positive would be you would have a say 00:26:19.522 --> 00:26:27.614 - in how things go in the future. So some of those concerns you have as a Richland Township person, now 00:26:27.614 --> 00:26:36.261 - you just have to watch the growth around you and have no say voting-wise. I mean, we take into consideration 00:26:36.261 --> 00:26:44.273 - neighbors even if they're not in Elso, but that's one of the main components of this that has what I 00:26:44.273 --> 00:26:48.478 - think is a positive. So anyway. That's a good point. 00:26:49.218 --> 00:26:55.152 - The one thing I heard, I'm glad you spoke with the Rhodes people, because it's a big item. I mean, I 00:26:55.152 --> 00:27:01.262 - didn't realize. We talked to parks, we talked to everybody, and so we have reached out. Yeah, I'm happy 00:27:01.262 --> 00:27:07.138 - with Monroe County roads. I mean, it's not perfect, but nothing is. It should be. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:27:07.138 --> 00:27:13.248 - For this meeting, we have a whole bunch of subcommittee reports, and these are all available, unedited, 00:27:13.248 --> 00:27:19.006 - straight from the subcommittees, all on our website. You can see exactly what they've written up. 00:27:19.170 --> 00:27:24.002 - about parks, rec, roads, everything, because we want to talk to every agency, every department we're 00:27:24.002 --> 00:27:28.786 - going to be working with and get the real detailed information of exactly what reorganization would 00:27:28.786 --> 00:27:33.570 - mean. And that's a lot of what tonight's meeting is going to be about is about the details in those 00:27:33.570 --> 00:27:38.401 - plans. So a lot of your questions are going to be addressed directly. I think I've used enough time. 00:27:38.401 --> 00:27:43.233 - Thank you, Phil. Unless somebody else has got something else. No problem. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, 00:27:43.233 --> 00:27:44.190 - Phil. Anybody else? 00:27:47.842 --> 00:27:57.191 - Okay, then let's move on and let's start the subcommittee reports. Would anybody like to volunteer, 00:27:57.191 --> 00:28:06.914 - be number one? Sandy Hash, step on up. Yeah, and I wanted to start off for the people here to tell them 00:28:06.914 --> 00:28:14.206 - that if you go to the Ellisville website and just type in the search reports, 00:28:14.658 --> 00:28:25.223 - All of our reports are right there together, all the subcommittee reports, you just click on them and 00:28:25.223 --> 00:28:35.684 - you can see them. Well, I couldn't remember that. No, I'm just saying, so we've got them both, so no 00:28:35.684 --> 00:28:43.038 - matter which way they go. Okay. Now, you have our subcommittee report. 00:28:44.034 --> 00:28:49.880 - and I hope you've all had time to review it. And I don't know how much you want me to say or if you 00:28:49.880 --> 00:28:55.725 - want me to field questions. Why don't you give us a general overview of it for everybody that's not 00:28:55.725 --> 00:29:01.630 - seen it and for everybody that's gonna be watching this tomorrow or the day after on Cats or they're 00:29:01.630 --> 00:29:07.592 - looking at it. You don't have to read the whole thing, per se, but give a general overview. Okay. And 00:29:07.592 --> 00:29:13.438 - what you think are the high points. Well, I might read the paragraph on the findings. There you go. 00:29:13.570 --> 00:29:20.828 - And I might shake a little, because I'm a little nervous. So if my voice shakes it, just bear with me. 00:29:20.828 --> 00:29:28.297 - This plan anticipates that the property tax rates for the police, cumulative fire building and equipment, 00:29:28.297 --> 00:29:35.908 - cumulative capital development, and the existing debt service will be applied exclusively to the properties 00:29:35.908 --> 00:29:43.518 - within the current boundaries of the town of Ellitsville. Conversely, tax rates for the town administration 00:29:43.650 --> 00:29:51.483 - park recreation and fire will be levied across all properties in the consolidated area. The township 00:29:51.483 --> 00:29:59.937 - assistance tax rate will apply to the properties situated in Richland, in Ellisville, Richland and Richland. 00:29:59.937 --> 00:30:08.313 - Taxing districts will, no, rate is allocated to those properties. Funding for other services will primarily 00:30:08.313 --> 00:30:12.734 - derive from local income tax, service charges, wheel tax 00:30:13.122 --> 00:30:23.541 - gas revenues. Okay, now I'm gonna try to do my chart. I am so shaken, I can't believe it. Okay, on the 00:30:23.541 --> 00:30:34.567 - page two, at the top of the page, it just reiterates what I just read, that the police, fire cum, cumulative 00:30:34.567 --> 00:30:42.558 - capital, and the debt service will all remain in the urban town, current town, 00:30:43.202 --> 00:30:52.292 - And the general fund administration planning, fire, park and rec, street maintenance and town, but not 00:30:52.292 --> 00:31:01.559 - street maintenance, township assistance will all be in the whole consolidated area. So we have a section 00:31:01.559 --> 00:31:10.385 - there that tells the increases from the 26th budget at the bottom of the page and the additions for 00:31:10.385 --> 00:31:12.062 - the new budget and 00:31:12.290 --> 00:31:28.984 - It is an increase, but the total budget for 26 is $8,433,232, and that includes the township's budget. 00:31:28.984 --> 00:31:41.950 - And it'll go up to $11,326,182. Then on page three, we talk about the tax rates 00:31:42.530 --> 00:31:52.808 - how they'll be increased and there's actually dollar amounts assigned to it, maybe. So, but when you 00:31:52.808 --> 00:32:04.001 - compare between the 26 certified property tax levies and rates with the projections after the reorganization, 00:32:04.001 --> 00:32:09.598 - the impact on the property tax bills is expected to be 00:32:10.146 --> 00:32:19.888 - 6.9% for Richland Township, 4.1% for Ellisville, Richland, 3.4% for Ellisville, Bean Blossom. And I 00:32:19.888 --> 00:32:29.824 - think the difference in that is they have their own township tax so that we aren't involved with them 00:32:29.824 --> 00:32:36.254 - on the township part in Bean Blossom. A $300,000 home in Richland 00:32:36.514 --> 00:32:43.886 - Township is expected to see a hundred and seventy three dollar tax increase while the same value home 00:32:43.886 --> 00:32:51.475 - in Ellisville will not really have any change because in Ellisville the tax rate is Substantially higher 00:32:51.475 --> 00:32:58.847 - than the tax rate in the county. So the people in Ellisville will hit the circuit breakers At 300,000 00:32:58.847 --> 00:33:04.990 - so they won't see any increase in taxes. It'll be dispersed among the properties and 00:33:05.250 --> 00:33:17.536 - that don't hit the circuit breaker, and if you hit the circuit breaker, that revenue's just lost. There's 00:33:17.536 --> 00:33:29.359 - no way to make it up later. Okay, so the tax rate currently for the town proper is .6160, and it will 00:33:29.359 --> 00:33:35.038 - increase to .7023, which is about .054, I think, 00:33:35.650 --> 00:33:47.573 - difference and then the The property tax for the township is currently point one six four four and It'll 00:33:47.573 --> 00:33:59.042 - increase to point two seven eight. Oh And I also asked Baker Tilly to oh I guess I should talk about 00:33:59.042 --> 00:34:01.086 - the conclusion. I 00:34:03.938 --> 00:34:11.154 - Reorganization gives the town several cost control tools such as structured service expansion, a broader 00:34:11.154 --> 00:34:18.577 - tax base, coordinated planning for land use and economic growth, community cohesion, protection of township 00:34:18.577 --> 00:34:25.725 - fire services from county takeover and a differential to annexation by other municipalities. The single 00:34:25.725 --> 00:34:32.254 - budget process also simplifies and makes financial matters more transparent for the taxpayers. 00:34:32.770 --> 00:34:41.059 - The finance subcommittee has determined that the proposed merger presents long-term financial advantages 00:34:41.059 --> 00:34:49.112 - contingent upon a carefully managed and transparent transition process. We advise proceeding with the 00:34:49.112 --> 00:34:57.007 - merger in accordance with the specified financial plan and ongoing oversight mechanisms. So I asked 00:34:57.007 --> 00:34:59.454 - Baker-Tilley to make a comment 00:35:01.730 --> 00:35:09.970 - a comparison chart because the three things that are on the line is the possibility that the township 00:35:09.970 --> 00:35:18.048 - could be taken by the county and put in the fire district. It's a possibility. So we wanted to look 00:35:18.048 --> 00:35:26.288 - at how that would affect the tax base. Did you guys get this little comparison chart? It just came to 00:35:26.288 --> 00:35:27.742 - us yesterday, so. 00:35:34.274 --> 00:35:41.584 - Well, could we please make at least them a copy and a few extras maybe. So maybe we should talk questions 00:35:41.584 --> 00:35:48.480 - while she's making copies. It would be easier for you if you have a copy of this. Does anybody have 00:35:48.480 --> 00:35:55.169 - any comments on the board? Well, if you want to read through that chart just to tell the people, 00:35:55.169 --> 00:36:02.203 - like what, a $200,000, a $300,000 home? On this chart? I want to go back to our report too. I omitted 00:36:02.203 --> 00:36:03.582 - the police, I mean, 00:36:04.130 --> 00:36:13.496 - street department in the in the relocate re merger what it reorganized plan. I know mergers not the 00:36:13.496 --> 00:36:23.048 - n word. The street department would be fully funded with wheel wheel tax and the MVH revenues and you 00:36:23.048 --> 00:36:32.414 - know gas tax and all that. So there will be no tax rate for the street department so they can serve 00:36:32.546 --> 00:36:39.903 - Ellitsville and the outskirt area and with that additional road mileage, then we'll collect more money 00:36:39.903 --> 00:36:47.261 - and it'll cover the expense of the street department. So that's good to know. That's a neutral effect. 00:36:47.261 --> 00:36:54.547 - Okay, now William, what did you want me to do? Let the public know kind of different scenarios on the 00:36:54.547 --> 00:37:00.190 - chart, like a tax in the Richland Township, what a $200,000 homestead property 00:37:00.610 --> 00:37:10.465 - Approximately their taxes from one year to the next would increase We have both yeah, so just just read 00:37:10.465 --> 00:37:19.277 - to the just the dollars just the dollars Yeah, the difference from one year to the next with 00:37:19.277 --> 00:37:27.710 - the reorganization fire territory and fire district, okay so with the reorganization the 00:37:30.754 --> 00:37:39.061 - It's not on the screen. Yeah, that's... We just got it. This is what she didn't have loaded. This is 00:37:39.061 --> 00:37:47.450 - my little summary short sheet, and we just got it yesterday finalized. She went to make a few copies. 00:37:47.450 --> 00:37:56.087 - And hot off the press for everybody. Okay, so our three choices are the reorganization. Let's just start 00:37:56.087 --> 00:37:59.870 - there. Well, I want to say the three choices. 00:37:59.970 --> 00:38:10.887 - and the fire territory and then Monroe District fire. So if the district would take us over for fire 00:38:10.887 --> 00:38:21.804 - protection, it won't affect the town of Ellisville's rate because it would just be the township. And 00:38:21.804 --> 00:38:28.830 - let's see. The cost for a $200,000 property in Richland Township 00:38:35.970 --> 00:38:47.081 - They didn't give us a dollar rate for the district, did they? Yeah, it's the very last column, change 00:38:47.081 --> 00:38:58.300 - from baseline. Okay. Do you see it? We used to have that old projector here that you could lay a paper 00:38:58.300 --> 00:39:05.054 - down and everybody could see it. Sandy, did you find it? Yes. 00:39:05.698 --> 00:39:22.473 - Okay, so with the reorganization, a $200,000 house in Richland Township would increase by $105 a year. 00:39:22.473 --> 00:39:30.942 - And a $300,000 house would increase by $173 a year. 00:39:34.466 --> 00:39:45.063 - Then with the fire territory, a $200,000 house would go up by 120, and a 300 would go by 198, 00:39:45.063 --> 00:39:56.787 - increase by 198. And then with the fire district, which is our most expensive choice, and we don't know 00:39:56.787 --> 00:40:03.326 - exactly what it would cost for Richland, so we used what, 00:40:03.618 --> 00:40:12.842 - the rate they gave for being blossom. And that would increase a $200,000 home in Richland Township by 00:40:12.842 --> 00:40:21.884 - $332 and a $300,000 home by $494. So why I asked for this chart, I wanted an easy reference for you 00:40:21.884 --> 00:40:31.289 - to see the difference of the three plans. So you can see the reorganization is by far the cheapest plan 00:40:31.289 --> 00:40:33.278 - in Richland Township. 00:40:33.922 --> 00:40:40.215 - for the town of Ellisville. Sandy, could you hold on one second? Yes, sir. It's people, people, it's 00:40:40.215 --> 00:40:46.446 - super distracting, especially up here for everybody that's talking in the public. Everybody's gonna 00:40:46.446 --> 00:40:53.175 - have their chance to talk, but for the sake of everybody on the board and the other people in the audience, 00:40:53.175 --> 00:40:59.468 - and especially whoever's at the podium speaking, if you wanna talk, that's fine. Could you go to the 00:40:59.468 --> 00:41:03.518 - back and talk, okay? Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. 00:41:05.474 --> 00:41:16.578 - So in town, for the reorganization, a $200,000 home would increase by $72, and for a $300,000, it would 00:41:16.578 --> 00:41:27.255 - hit the circuit breaker, so there'd be no increase. On the fire territory, for a $200,000, it would 00:41:27.255 --> 00:41:33.982 - be a $72 increase, and for a $300,000, zero. For the district, 00:41:35.106 --> 00:41:42.818 - In town, it would be a $72 increase for the $200,000 home, and again, a zero increase for the $300,000 00:41:42.818 --> 00:41:49.781 - home. Is that right, because the district is so involved? Sorry, yeah, I think you're right. 00:41:49.781 --> 00:41:57.492 - That's a mistake. Yeah, I think it's zero. Okay, you're right. That should be zero. The district can't 00:41:57.492 --> 00:42:05.054 - take the town. I'm sorry about that. That was on the chart, and I just read it. Oh, hey, no problem. 00:42:05.186 --> 00:42:12.509 - Thank you. On your point that Richland's township residents are exposed to roughly triple the amount 00:42:12.509 --> 00:42:19.905 - of tax increase if a fire district is enacted versus reorganization, was the point of the chart? Yes. 00:42:19.905 --> 00:42:27.373 - Okay, thank you. Does anybody in the public have anything they'd like to ask Sandy while she's up here 00:42:27.373 --> 00:42:33.246 - to clarify anything? Is it pretty clear to everybody? Go ahead. Do you stand by? 00:42:33.954 --> 00:42:42.135 - Oh, don't make it. Okay, go ahead. You don't need to stand up. It's okay, you don't have to stand, 00:42:42.135 --> 00:42:50.481 - they say. Yeah, my question relates to the sort of the structure of the tax, taxation, because after 00:42:50.481 --> 00:42:58.909 - 2027, is it, or beginning in 2028, there's the prospect of an income tax that can be added, or that's 00:42:58.909 --> 00:43:03.454 - an alternative. You're talking about local income tax? 00:43:04.642 --> 00:43:12.707 - I'm talking about SB1, yes. Yeah, and most likely, it'll be in 2029, and the local income tax is to 00:43:12.707 --> 00:43:21.175 - replace revenue from property tax. Right, yeah. So, but I would personally like to see some comparisons, 00:43:21.175 --> 00:43:29.563 - particularly in terms of projected financial implications that involve more than simply a property tax, 00:43:29.563 --> 00:43:31.902 - because we're not only on... 00:43:33.282 --> 00:43:40.602 - built only on property tax under SB 1, and we don't have the choice to change that, I presume. I don't 00:43:40.602 --> 00:43:47.780 - think those numbers are even available yet, are they? This takes into account, you know, Secretary's 00:43:47.780 --> 00:43:55.029 - report takes into account the other revenues that the town gets. I mean, we get the local income tax, 00:43:55.029 --> 00:43:57.374 - and we currently get excise tax, 00:43:57.762 --> 00:44:07.046 - cigarette tax and gas Yeah, right, but I as I understand it and again, my name is Jim Perry The question 00:44:07.046 --> 00:44:15.888 - is the sort of the taxes the tax will fall on people according To the tax structure and under which 00:44:15.888 --> 00:44:24.730 - though for which they're responsible whatever that is and and if it's if there's a service shift to 00:44:24.730 --> 00:44:27.294 - a partial income tax and our 00:44:27.522 --> 00:44:33.876 - A city clerk will or town clerk will clarify that for us. The simplest way to answer this is Senate 00:44:33.876 --> 00:44:40.356 - Enrolled Act 1 did change how local income tax is going to be structured. They did have an amendment, 00:44:40.356 --> 00:44:47.028 - so it will not happen for us. We'll have to adopt. The town council will be the ones that actually adopt 00:44:47.028 --> 00:44:50.014 - it if the reorganization passes, right? Right. 00:44:50.242 --> 00:44:56.420 - The estimates that we used used the least amount of revenue that we would anticipate to receive based 00:44:56.420 --> 00:45:02.659 - off of Senate Enrolled Act 1's current low. Now, the percentages have changed, and I haven't been able 00:45:02.659 --> 00:45:08.838 - to finalize the bill or look through it. We're having our legislative update in a few weeks. But that 00:45:08.838 --> 00:45:15.077 - is something we did estimate in there. We estimated very conservatively because we can't tell what the 00:45:15.077 --> 00:45:16.894 - new town council is gonna do. 00:45:17.506 --> 00:45:25.214 - My point is that we ought to be sort of structuring the sort of that the tax project or the projections 00:45:25.214 --> 00:45:32.699 - of income according to the new structure which includes the local income tax and We also had sort of 00:45:32.699 --> 00:45:39.518 - the concern about raises for city staff or town staff, right? What do you mean by concerns? 00:45:39.682 --> 00:45:46.765 - Well, we're did we have raises for town staff this lot past year? Yes, we included a 4% raise based 00:45:46.765 --> 00:45:54.061 - on we've went with it will go without raises for two years prior. So a lot of your questions are going 00:45:54.061 --> 00:46:01.356 - to be answered on the financial impact study that's going to come. This is not financial impact. Well, 00:46:01.356 --> 00:46:02.206 - so once the 00:46:02.466 --> 00:46:08.637 - plan and correct me if I'm wrong on this but once the plan is composed right there has to be a financial 00:46:08.637 --> 00:46:14.573 - impact study done and that is a huge report that is going to be compiled based off of all the things 00:46:14.573 --> 00:46:20.567 - down in the report and I think what you're asking for is going to have to be in that report okay okay 00:46:20.567 --> 00:46:26.562 - and that was that was my only point is this sort of available there's a lot of projections that won't 00:46:26.562 --> 00:46:27.326 - be available 00:46:28.642 --> 00:46:36.388 - We don't know what the state's gonna do in 2029, especially. But we do know, we do have some understanding 00:46:36.388 --> 00:46:43.917 - of what the expectations are for sort of revenues needed by the town and township. Correct, and as Noel 00:46:43.917 --> 00:46:51.301 - said, that's already paid. And then on that, we need to sort of adjust our sort of taxing authorities 00:46:51.301 --> 00:46:57.310 - and taxing structure and the property tax rate and the income tax rate, et cetera. 00:46:57.890 --> 00:47:07.301 - Right. Subcommittee came to this. These numbers. We took the budgets from the township from every department 00:47:07.301 --> 00:47:16.021 - in the town with increases in capital needs and personnel needs. And these numbers reflect that. But 00:47:16.021 --> 00:47:22.238 - my point is that if we sort of shift from from the property tax to some 00:47:22.466 --> 00:47:30.799 - combination of property and income tax That will sort of change the numbers Won't change the tax rates? 00:47:30.799 --> 00:47:39.293 - Won't change the property tax rates? No, these numbers include all of the revenues that the town receives 00:47:39.293 --> 00:47:47.947 - and will receive But I'm not talking about revenues. I'm talking about tax rates that generate the revenues 00:47:47.947 --> 00:47:49.950 - That is still to be seen 00:47:50.306 --> 00:48:00.152 - The numbers in this report are for the 2027 budget Yeah, I would like to see us look a little bit further 00:48:00.152 --> 00:48:09.441 - ahead in terms of sort of informing the public about the decisions that have to be made in terms of 00:48:09.441 --> 00:48:12.414 - sort of approval of a merger or 00:48:12.546 --> 00:48:19.191 - Reorganization at this time Jim that's too far in the future and relies on too many other factors that 00:48:19.191 --> 00:48:25.707 - we have no control over our insight But if you can bring that to the table bring that to the okay If 00:48:25.707 --> 00:48:32.222 - this is reorganized if this passes that Though though that question about I think you're asking what 00:48:32.222 --> 00:48:36.222 - will be the income tax impact to is that what you're right? I 00:48:36.354 --> 00:48:43.053 - Well, I mean, part of the sort of the revenue stream is a function of the property tax plus the income 00:48:43.053 --> 00:48:49.557 - tax. As I've said, that's already factored in. But those budgets, when they're made for those years 00:48:49.557 --> 00:48:56.581 - that you're talking about, you will have a council representing the entire, you know, town, former township 00:48:56.581 --> 00:49:03.149 - in town, be able to address and make sure those concerns are addressed. Because we can't make policy 00:49:03.149 --> 00:49:06.206 - or even suggestions for a council in 28 or 29. 00:49:06.818 --> 00:49:13.099 - Also, so I mean but you will have that representation. You've got William. You've got an opinion on 00:49:13.099 --> 00:49:19.442 - that though. Don't you what's that about? What what your preference would be in in what way? Well, I 00:49:19.442 --> 00:49:25.534 - mean look at the the township the town's tax rates over the last ten years. I never look at rate 00:49:25.698 --> 00:49:32.205 - I look at what the increase is in actual dollars, because I've said somebody, people have heard it, 00:49:32.205 --> 00:49:38.712 - when you go pay your mortgage or pay a bill, you don't pay by rate, you pay by dollars. So I try to 00:49:38.712 --> 00:49:45.414 - focus on a budget that has the least impact from what you pay this year to what you pay next year. And 00:49:45.414 --> 00:49:52.116 - that's not gonna change if I'm still on the council. So I guess what I'm saying is that the income tax 00:49:52.116 --> 00:49:54.654 - information that we have, I mean, yes, 00:49:55.202 --> 00:50:01.304 - it's gonna supplement some of the property taxes, but that's already factored into this. And if you're 00:50:01.304 --> 00:50:07.346 - wondering how much your income tax is gonna increase, the whole system's being- I'm not worried about 00:50:07.346 --> 00:50:13.092 - my income tax increase. Okay, then if you're worried about the property taxes, that if anything, 00:50:13.092 --> 00:50:19.135 - I can't see, there would be no, since they took the most conservative value that's out there, there's 00:50:19.135 --> 00:50:25.118 - nowhere to go but down. I mean, am I kind of a safe to assume that Sandy and Noel? Yeah, as we grow. 00:50:25.442 --> 00:50:33.596 - Because it's not uncommon, for instance, for projections, for predictions on sort of future allocations 00:50:33.596 --> 00:50:42.220 - to have sort of a best-case scenario and a worst-case scenario. We actually have that if we don't reorganize. 00:50:42.220 --> 00:50:50.531 - That's the one constant. So we have those projections of what are going to happen if we don't reorganize. 00:50:50.531 --> 00:50:53.118 - With the income tax and how that 00:50:53.890 --> 00:51:03.185 - I mean, well, that's I I think we did because if we if we if we run the status quo The projection was 00:51:03.185 --> 00:51:12.571 - that we would Run into the red and and there'd be reduction in service. Yeah, but that's not what he's 00:51:12.571 --> 00:51:22.686 - asking Well, one thing has to do with yeah. Well, yes, but I guess what I'm saying is that we this is from our 00:51:23.074 --> 00:51:30.693 - what I've understood from what the subcommittees presented, the worst case scenario for income 00:51:30.693 --> 00:51:38.712 - tax collection, right? This is if we adopt the lowest that we allow, so. This is our third revision 00:51:38.712 --> 00:51:47.454 - on our report. The police were all in town and the police were spread out everywhere. They had no cume fire. 00:51:52.962 --> 00:52:00.960 - Right. And as far as the state, the after the tax rates established and if the organization takes place, 00:52:00.960 --> 00:52:08.653 - then we're locked into the state growth backport. So we can't grade. According for the property tax. 00:52:08.653 --> 00:52:16.422 - For the property tax. Not the income tax. Not the income tax. Okay, I think that I sort of, the point 00:52:16.422 --> 00:52:21.982 - I wanted to raise was sort of whether we can sort of factor in both the, 00:52:22.562 --> 00:52:30.972 - both the property tax Provisions of SP one as well as the income tax provisions and you're saying no 00:52:30.972 --> 00:52:39.465 - No, they have factored that in Right Sandy and Noel that has been factored in Set for 2027 because we 00:52:39.465 --> 00:52:48.958 - know that right or the local income tax is a revenue that was included to get so that's in the projections For 27 00:52:49.250 --> 00:53:05.021 - That's we're only doing for 2027 for the the year that so that clarifies But for someone who doesn't 00:53:05.021 --> 00:53:17.982 - pay a lot of attention to the numbers that's me I Think this is a very clear chart 00:53:18.338 --> 00:53:28.444 - And when I read the report, I thought it was really, I understood it. My question is, whenever we talk 00:53:28.444 --> 00:53:38.745 - about something, can we clarify what's in our jurisdiction and what is left to the netherworld of higher 00:53:38.745 --> 00:53:46.398 - government to do? Because some, like state income tax, that's not ever, ever, 00:53:46.914 --> 00:53:55.116 - going to be a total in our purview, that kind of a thing. And I think sometimes we get caught up in, 00:53:55.116 --> 00:54:03.399 - well, what's this going to be like if we do it? I think we also need to look at not only what it will 00:54:03.399 --> 00:54:11.925 - look like if we don't do it, but what's out of our control no matter which way we go? And I think that's 00:54:11.925 --> 00:54:15.742 - something maybe I'd like to focus on a little. 00:54:15.906 --> 00:54:23.641 - I think it's wonderful that we know that there are so many questions that we don't have answers to yet. 00:54:23.641 --> 00:54:31.375 - People tell me that it's because it doesn't look like you know what you're doing. I keep trying to tell 00:54:31.375 --> 00:54:39.036 - them it's because those answers aren't available yet. And it has nothing to do with competency or lack 00:54:39.036 --> 00:54:43.870 - of information. It has to do with lack of information available. 00:54:45.922 --> 00:54:55.309 - And on the flip side, if we had all those answers, then the same people would be saying, we already 00:54:55.309 --> 00:55:04.040 - made the decision, and we're not taking public input, so. Yes. I was trying not to say that. 00:55:04.040 --> 00:55:13.615 - I'll say it. Better you. Anybody else have anything? Scott, he had some questions, I thought, that he 00:55:13.615 --> 00:55:15.774 - emailed us. I'm sorry. 00:55:17.218 --> 00:55:23.646 - It actually is an issue that was just mentioned, actually, the question about... 00:56:03.970 --> 00:56:11.800 - on budgets numerous times and we just got those totals directly from the supervisors. So I can't answer, 00:56:11.800 --> 00:56:19.482 - maybe public safety or the individual supervisors could be better at answering your questions. I don't 00:56:19.482 --> 00:56:27.014 - know about staffing, the increases on staffing and that type of thing, but maybe that will be in the 00:56:27.014 --> 00:56:33.278 - public assistance report. Public, pardon? And the police is only, I think you asked 00:56:33.570 --> 00:56:46.044 - You understood that the police is only in the urban area, but your question to me was, will they still 00:56:46.044 --> 00:56:58.760 - go out and cover the township? Is that what I heard? Well, the tax levies and the rates kind of dictated 00:56:58.760 --> 00:57:01.182 - some of this to us. 00:57:02.850 --> 00:57:11.820 - and it was much more cost efficient for Ellisville to continue paying for the police 100%. Noel. 00:57:11.820 --> 00:57:21.715 - If I may, the intent to get the tax levy where it was manageable to meet all of the needs dictated putting 00:57:21.715 --> 00:57:31.148 - the police only in the urban area. Obviously, as we grow, the tax districts can change. We can expand 00:57:31.148 --> 00:57:32.350 - it out more. 00:57:32.610 --> 00:57:39.751 - where it's at some point in 20, maybe however long, it's all one district and it's not just urban and 00:57:39.751 --> 00:57:46.962 - rural. But in order for the numbers to work with the budget to keep the tax rate as low as we possibly 00:57:46.962 --> 00:57:54.033 - could, that was the best option. And to be clear, we're just talking about who's paying for it. They 00:57:54.033 --> 00:58:00.894 - would still be controlled. The whole township will be police. Yes, because that's what we do now. 00:58:01.826 --> 00:58:11.457 - but they'll just be dispatched closer. That makes sense to everybody. Scott, does that answer your question? 00:58:11.457 --> 00:58:20.646 - Yes, I appreciate that information. Sorry, I didn't have the right answer. Anything else on the Finance 00:58:20.646 --> 00:58:30.366 - Committee? No, thank you very much. Great job, Sandy. Well, I also, the township did not have a subcommittee. 00:58:31.522 --> 00:58:41.215 - So one of the township workers, Bobbi, was on our finance committee, and she worked really closely with 00:58:41.215 --> 00:58:50.721 - us to help cover a budget for the township. And on our report, it says that on page two, the township 00:58:50.721 --> 00:59:00.414 - will have $530,000. So in your information, there's a breakdown on the budget that covers the $530,000. 00:59:01.090 --> 00:59:09.380 - I don't know, I mean, I've got a long sheet here that I really don't wanna read. So hopefully you guys 00:59:09.380 --> 00:59:17.509 - have looked it over and I wanna answer questions, but I wanna say the township trustee will become a 00:59:17.509 --> 00:59:25.800 - department head over public assistance. Public assistance will still be housed in the township office. 00:59:25.800 --> 00:59:29.502 - That supervisor will be with their employees. 00:59:30.498 --> 00:59:37.395 - so they can take care of everything that department needs. And they have a food pantry and they do a 00:59:37.395 --> 00:59:44.223 - lot of, public assistance helps people in need when they hit a crisis. So do you have any questions 00:59:44.223 --> 00:59:51.051 - about public assistance? Because I can get my cohort up here to answer questions if you do. I don't 00:59:51.051 --> 00:59:58.357 - believe so. I didn't have any questions, but it's obvious that public assistance is a critically important 00:59:58.357 --> 00:59:59.518 - part of the work 00:59:59.682 --> 01:00:06.594 - of the township and making sure that that's maintained properly, staffed properly, funded and clearly 01:00:06.594 --> 01:00:13.778 - available to all the residents of Christian Township is very important. So I appreciated the thoroughness 01:00:13.778 --> 01:00:20.894 - of that additional report on the township. Thank you, Bobby, for that. And that does cover, like I said, 01:00:20.894 --> 01:00:26.654 - the supervisor and the office manager, the caseworker and a part-time pantry person. 01:00:27.746 --> 01:00:35.361 - So the caseworker is the investigator? Yeah. Okay. And it moves one of the account and deputy trustee 01:00:35.361 --> 01:00:42.975 - role, which are two part-time positions into one, into the clerk treasurer's office, because it deals 01:00:42.975 --> 01:00:50.590 - with budget. And that's on the final recommendation that I have on the screen. Okay. Again, good job. 01:00:54.082 --> 01:01:00.618 - I want to remind everyone that all these subcommittee reports in full detail are available for download. 01:01:00.618 --> 01:01:06.968 - You can get them at ellitsvillerichlandinfo.org or off the town website. Ellitsville Richland is just 01:01:06.968 --> 01:01:12.820 - linking to the town website. So if you want to read all the detail of every single thing that 01:01:12.820 --> 01:01:19.543 - the subcommittees have submitted and have as much time as you want to pour over it and formulate questions, 01:01:19.543 --> 01:01:23.838 - it's all there. Please do check it out. Okay, the next subcommittee. 01:01:50.882 --> 01:01:57.706 - All right, good evening everyone. I'm Anne McComb and I'm gonna be reviewing the planning and zoning 01:01:57.706 --> 01:02:05.138 - subcommittee report. So overview of the administration and planning and zoning functions. So the subcommittee 01:02:05.138 --> 01:02:11.894 - recommends that all of the planning and land use functions that typically happen are gonna continue 01:02:11.894 --> 01:02:16.894 - to be administered under the current leadership of the planning director. 01:02:17.250 --> 01:02:24.424 - And then we also are recommending hiring of at least one additional professional to support Denise in 01:02:24.424 --> 01:02:31.598 - her office and all the activities that she's gonna have to do as a result of Additional work with the 01:02:31.598 --> 01:02:38.984 - reorganized town Then under plan Commission and board of zoning appeals. So the subcommittee understands 01:02:38.984 --> 01:02:42.430 - that the state of Indiana is gonna set the final 01:02:43.074 --> 01:02:49.778 - legislative voting districts and that they will also have requirements in terms of additional Additional 01:02:49.778 --> 01:02:56.227 - seats that could be added but if possible the subcommittee recommends adding two additional seats to 01:02:56.227 --> 01:03:02.675 - the Plan Commission and two additional seats to the Board of Zoning Appeals And then again under the 01:03:02.675 --> 01:03:09.060 - state law, they're going to determine how those voting districts are reorganized and if possible as 01:03:09.060 --> 01:03:11.486 - much geographic representation across 01:03:11.746 --> 01:03:17.406 - The newly reorganized jurisdiction is what we're recommending for those two additional seats that are 01:03:17.406 --> 01:03:23.177 - gonna go on the Plan Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals. We want that to reflect the geographic 01:03:23.177 --> 01:03:28.727 - diversity of the newly reorganized town and make sure that it has representation from both the town 01:03:28.727 --> 01:03:30.558 - district and the rural district. 01:03:31.394 --> 01:03:37.463 - So that brings us then to the town and rural district So the subcommittee is recommending the establishment 01:03:37.463 --> 01:03:43.194 - of two districts within the reorganized town. So a town district in a rural district All the property 01:03:43.194 --> 01:03:48.982 - currently within the corporate boundaries of the town of Ellisville On the date that this is effective 01:03:48.982 --> 01:03:54.713 - that will all be classified as part of the town district And then any property that's located outside 01:03:54.713 --> 01:04:00.894 - of the town boundaries but within Richland Township that will be classified as part of the rural district and 01:04:01.346 --> 01:04:12.209 - And right now we are not making any recommendations to reclassify property currently within the town 01:04:12.209 --> 01:04:23.073 - boundaries as part of the rural district then For the the UDO and transition of current developments 01:04:23.073 --> 01:04:26.622 - so for any developments that are 01:04:26.978 --> 01:04:33.567 - actively being worked on that have been approved under the Monroe County Unified Development Ordinance. 01:04:33.567 --> 01:04:39.966 - Our recommendation is that that proceeds as is right now under the approvals and standards that were 01:04:39.966 --> 01:04:46.365 - in place at the time that that all got started. If any of those in progress developments need to see 01:04:46.365 --> 01:04:52.574 - material modifications, at that point then everything would come under the newly reorganized UDO. 01:04:52.866 --> 01:04:59.071 - And then any new development applications that are submitted after the effective date of the 01:04:59.071 --> 01:05:05.743 - newly reorganized town Then that would all be governed by the town of Ellisville UDO. So that's how 01:05:05.743 --> 01:05:12.949 - we're recommending Handling transitioning existing developments from Monroe County to the newly reorganized 01:05:12.949 --> 01:05:13.950 - town All right 01:05:14.434 --> 01:05:23.392 - And then we also provide in our subcommittee report recommendations in terms of when a property would 01:05:23.392 --> 01:05:32.174 - move from the rural district into the town district. So there's a list there of about six different 01:05:32.174 --> 01:05:41.131 - items that might trigger that movement from rural to town. But that should be adopted by an ordinance 01:05:41.131 --> 01:05:43.678 - and formal review process as 01:05:43.778 --> 01:05:51.575 - things already established now with the current town and annexations. Then for the comprehensive plan 01:05:51.575 --> 01:05:59.448 - update. So this was a bigger section for us. This is where we felt like we had a lot of input from the 01:05:59.448 --> 01:06:07.550 - public and individuals who are in the development community in Monroe County. So we are recommending that 01:06:07.650 --> 01:06:14.668 - The town undertake a comprehensive review an amendment of the comprehensive plan and then the UDO So 01:06:14.668 --> 01:06:21.616 - that way everything is clear consistent and aligned with Should the reorganization get approved? So 01:06:21.616 --> 01:06:28.982 - we're recommending that some of these updates and Denise has already Got this on her radar. She's already 01:06:28.982 --> 01:06:32.734 - planning on this a lot of these updates to the UDO be 01:06:33.154 --> 01:06:40.471 - The work start now, it get ready so that way if reorganization is approved in November, all of the updates 01:06:40.471 --> 01:06:47.515 - to the UDO are ready to go on the effective date as well so that we're not behind, lagging behind, and 01:06:47.515 --> 01:06:53.054 - trying to catch up on that. One specific thing that our subcommittee report does 01:06:53.218 --> 01:07:00.333 - that's a lot more specific than the rest of the report is recommendations about updates to the UDO regarding 01:07:00.333 --> 01:07:06.926 - wastewater service, the wastewater service requirements. So this is something that we heard from the 01:07:06.926 --> 01:07:13.714 - public and as subcommittee members in our various professional roles during the day that we hear a lot. 01:07:13.714 --> 01:07:20.372 - So we wanted to be sure that there was a lot of, that the updates happened to the current UDO to make 01:07:20.372 --> 01:07:22.526 - that extra clear and specific to 01:07:22.658 --> 01:07:29.018 - provide everyone that's in the development community consistency and an understanding of what 01:07:29.018 --> 01:07:35.852 - the expectations will be moving forward. So that kind of is a big broad overview of the planning and 01:07:35.852 --> 01:07:42.754 - zoning subcommittee report. We obviously are recommending reorganization because we feel like it will 01:07:42.754 --> 01:07:49.182 - help unify the planning and land use authority. And we also feel that it is going to help with 01:07:50.210 --> 01:07:56.256 - Ensuring development decisions that affect residents of Elksville and the town and the township are 01:07:56.256 --> 01:08:02.483 - going to be overseen by a single local authority And that that local authority is going to be directly 01:08:02.483 --> 01:08:08.529 - Accountable to the voters of the reorganized town And we also think that this is going to provide a 01:08:08.529 --> 01:08:14.998 - lot of administrative efficiency Eliminate some duplication and provide greater clarity and predictability 01:08:14.998 --> 01:08:18.686 - for not only residents but also developers moving forward so 01:08:18.914 --> 01:08:30.144 - Any questions for me? Great job. Thank you. Anybody got any questions? Planning and zoning. It's everyone's 01:08:30.144 --> 01:08:40.855 - favorite topic. Everyone loves planning and zoning. Scott? It's my favorite. Scott, did you? Go ahead. 01:08:40.855 --> 01:08:46.366 - Oh, did you want me to ask a couple questions? Yeah. 01:10:30.178 --> 01:10:37.299 - I understand your question. Is that what you addressed already? I believe so, but we can go ahead. Reiterate. 01:10:37.299 --> 01:10:43.838 - Yeah, we can. We can reiterate it. Yeah, so we are recommending that within the the expansion of the 01:10:43.838 --> 01:10:49.406 - two additional seats for the Plan Commission in the boarding Board of Zoning Appeals. 01:10:49.666 --> 01:10:55.388 - So from what we understand as we've discussed this with Denise and then the lawyers, and she's discussed 01:10:55.388 --> 01:11:00.837 - some of this with the lawyers as well. From what we understand, the state of Indiana determines the 01:11:00.837 --> 01:11:06.504 - final legislative voting districts. And so our recommendation is that the state of Indiana takes a look 01:11:06.504 --> 01:11:12.334 - at, and I believe they will even restrict how many people can be on the Board of Zoning Appeals. I believe 01:11:12.334 --> 01:11:16.094 - it's possible that we might not be able to add any additional seats. 01:11:16.802 --> 01:11:24.056 - So we're deferring to whatever the state of Indiana says is required by law for the number of seats 01:11:24.056 --> 01:11:31.383 - and then we're also deferring to the state of Indiana based off of the legislative voting districts, 01:11:31.383 --> 01:11:38.782 - but our recommendation is that Both of those commissions under the newly reorganized town be reworked 01:11:39.138 --> 01:11:45.755 - through a process, it's not gonna happen overnight, be reworked so that way there's a geographical 01:11:45.755 --> 01:11:53.040 - representation and also a district representation so that there's a town district, individuals who represent 01:11:53.040 --> 01:11:59.857 - the town district and then individuals who represent the rural district as well. Based on population. 01:11:59.857 --> 01:12:01.662 - Yeah, based on population. 01:12:09.346 --> 01:12:18.036 - Scott it was my understanding you were wondering your concern was if there is an expansion how that 01:12:18.036 --> 01:12:26.725 - expansion is chosen because the expansion could be chosen from current town residents as opposed to 01:12:26.725 --> 01:12:31.070 - township residents was that more who would decide 01:12:47.810 --> 01:12:59.402 - Yeah, I think from our understanding a lot of that's gonna depend on the state To what extent we can 01:12:59.402 --> 01:13:11.338 - it's obviously written into the subcommittee report and we hope that that will roll up into the broader 01:13:11.338 --> 01:13:16.158 - reorganization report for that body to be 01:13:16.482 --> 01:13:22.866 - To have specific seats or specific representation based off of town district rural district and then 01:13:22.866 --> 01:13:29.376 - you know Geograph geography as a whole. Yeah, you know I was talking I'm gonna make the first comment. 01:13:29.376 --> 01:13:35.949 - Okay, I Was talking with some folks this this afternoon and this is gonna happen more and more and more 01:13:35.949 --> 01:13:42.459 - and more and more Everybody's gonna be coming to everybody that sits up here and also the subcommittee 01:13:42.459 --> 01:13:44.798 - members and even you folks that have 01:13:45.186 --> 01:13:51.871 - showing your face now. And people are gonna be coming and asking you questions, and some people are 01:13:51.871 --> 01:13:58.555 - gonna try to make it about taxes. Some people are gonna try to make it about land use. Some people, 01:13:58.555 --> 01:14:05.507 - whatever. We don't want Alexville to change. We don't want the township to change. However, governance, 01:14:05.507 --> 01:14:12.526 - okay, how we're governed. And as I'm talking with these folks and telling them my ideas and my thoughts, 01:14:12.526 --> 01:14:14.398 - she kept coming to my mind. 01:14:14.594 --> 01:14:21.210 - Okay, that is the future of Ellisville right there. It's her generation. She's got a five-year-old in 01:14:21.210 --> 01:14:28.346 - school. She's unbelievably intelligent. I had a chance to work with her on the Planning and Zoning Committee. 01:14:28.346 --> 01:14:34.962 - In my opinion, it's not about taxes, although if you look at it from a tax viewpoint, I think this is 01:14:34.962 --> 01:14:41.514 - the better solution. It's not about land use, although if you look at it, and nobody's got more skin 01:14:41.514 --> 01:14:43.006 - in the game than I do, 01:14:43.170 --> 01:14:50.664 - Okay, when it comes to the land use, I've got a lot of land in the township. It's not about that. It's 01:14:50.664 --> 01:14:58.376 - about what does the future, when we sit down and we give up the ghost, what does the future of Ellisville 01:14:58.376 --> 01:15:05.652 - look like for the next generation coming behind us? And if you look at the census, do you know what 01:15:05.652 --> 01:15:08.926 - the average age is of the folks in the area? 01:15:09.282 --> 01:15:15.676 - It's 35 years old. Now, you're not 35 years old, but the, and I'm not gonna ask you. She's got a five 01:15:15.676 --> 01:15:22.132 - year, let's just put it that, she's got a five year old. We'd have to shut down the meeting if you did 01:15:22.132 --> 01:15:28.401 - that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She could tell me, but then she'd have to kill me. But it's the 01:15:28.401 --> 01:15:34.857 - truth. That's the future of Ellitsville. And then her son coming through the school system, that's the 01:15:34.857 --> 01:15:38.430 - future of Ellitsville. If you wanna know the best reason 01:15:38.850 --> 01:15:46.729 - For reorganization, you're looking at it right there. She's the poster person. She should be on that 01:15:46.729 --> 01:15:49.694 - poster that we put in people's yards. 01:15:50.018 --> 01:15:56.184 - I don't think anybody wants my face. No, no. I'm super, super impressed with you. I know the job you 01:15:56.184 --> 01:16:02.472 - did. I know how much work you put into this. You've got a full-time job on top of everything else that 01:16:02.472 --> 01:16:08.576 - you do, as does everybody on all the subcommittees. We're impressed with all of you. So much talent 01:16:08.576 --> 01:16:14.681 - in a little bitty, tiny pool. But that's the reason we want to see reorganization done, is for that 01:16:14.681 --> 01:16:19.870 - generation and then the generation she's bringing up and then her grandkids, not us. 01:16:20.354 --> 01:16:29.810 - We're old folks, we're dying out. Well said, Kevin, but Darla, Eric, it's a great question. There is 01:16:29.810 --> 01:16:39.265 - a process to ensure that representation is spread out geographically and by population that says the 01:16:39.265 --> 01:16:49.470 - town as it is now will not control the new town as it's going to be. And correct me if I'm wrong, they take, 01:16:49.666 --> 01:16:56.730 - They take the boards apart and put them back together again. Is that correct? Well, um, first governance 01:16:56.730 --> 01:17:03.458 - because I want to ask a question about a hot topic right now. I just finished this. So, um, first I 01:17:03.458 --> 01:17:10.388 - want to say, I think everybody did a marvelous job on their reports and I liked everything about them. 01:17:10.388 --> 01:17:13.214 - The graphics, the charts, everything. Um, 01:17:14.786 --> 01:17:20.512 - I don't know that Mr. Cook and I have really had a chance to digest them. We will go through 01:17:20.512 --> 01:17:26.977 - them cross-reference with the Indiana code to see what can and can't be done. But to answer the question 01:17:26.977 --> 01:17:33.380 - about representation, I think as part of your reorganization plan, you can make an effort or state that 01:17:33.380 --> 01:17:35.166 - when it comes to the boards, 01:17:36.450 --> 01:17:42.203 - composition of both the Board of Zoning Appeals and the Planning Commission, you can make an effort 01:17:42.203 --> 01:17:47.956 - to pull people from different parts of the counties. So that it's not just the way it has been with 01:17:47.956 --> 01:17:54.054 - everybody being appointed from Ellitsville. You don't want that, obviously, if you have a reorganization. 01:17:54.054 --> 01:17:59.979 - So you can make a requirement that the people on the boards come from different corners of the county. 01:17:59.979 --> 01:18:05.214 - So. Corners of the township. Yeah, that's what I meant, sorry. So that's how you get your, 01:18:05.378 --> 01:18:12.465 - representation from, that's how the township gives their voice. So that everybody gets represented. 01:18:12.465 --> 01:18:19.693 - Yes. Yeah. So town representation, theoretically, it's almost 50-50. There's a little bit more people 01:18:19.693 --> 01:18:26.779 - in the township. So the representation should, half of it be represented by the town and half of it 01:18:26.779 --> 01:18:30.110 - be represented by the township, theoretically. 01:18:30.978 --> 01:18:36.217 - And what Anne said is we don't know for sure based on the state review whether we have the ability to 01:18:36.217 --> 01:18:41.507 - add seats to balance that quickly and immediately. It may take a little bit of time to get it balanced 01:18:41.507 --> 01:18:47.157 - the way we want, but certainly I'm in favor of there being as equal representation as possible geographically 01:18:47.157 --> 01:18:52.294 - and demographically because the people who will make the best decisions about the usage of the land 01:18:52.294 --> 01:18:57.738 - are the people who care about it most, who are closest do it physically. Yeah, and you know, the planning 01:18:57.738 --> 01:18:59.998 - and zoning's already in place for the town. 01:19:00.194 --> 01:19:06.406 - and that works really well, okay? But it's outside the town in the township that the dissatisfaction 01:19:06.406 --> 01:19:12.742 - lies with how we're governed, okay, in the township. So that's what we would like to see changed. Does 01:19:12.742 --> 01:19:19.077 - that make sense? Anybody else got anything they wanna say? Great job, great job. Thank you. Thank you. 01:19:19.077 --> 01:19:25.720 - The South Committee would just also like to thank Denise for all of her help and expertise. Oh, absolutely. 01:19:25.720 --> 01:19:27.934 - Fantastic to work with. Absolutely. 01:19:29.890 --> 01:19:59.774 - Next. Somebody. Parkes, yes. I'm Jim Perry, and I'm with the Parks Recreation, and as I like to point out, 01:19:59.938 --> 01:20:11.440 - cemeteries. Green spaces, all green spaces. All together, green. We hope green spaces. Until recently, 01:20:11.440 --> 01:20:22.719 - they were white. Our committee is pretty simple. Yeah, I got too close. First of all, we don't spend 01:20:22.719 --> 01:20:28.638 - a lot of money on parks, recreation, and cemeteries. 01:20:29.602 --> 01:20:37.706 - Township has some responsibility, and I think I don't have the numbers in front of me. I think it was 01:20:37.706 --> 01:20:45.174 - $10,900 for two cemeteries that have been abandoned in the township. And at least our expert, 01:20:45.174 --> 01:20:53.198 - Valerie Dewar, tells me that the responsibility for cemeteries becomes a public responsibility. One, 01:20:53.198 --> 01:20:57.886 - if the cemetery's abandoned, and two, it's on public land. 01:20:58.626 --> 01:21:06.165 - and I assume that that probably requires the cemetery to deed the land to the Township or the other 01:21:06.165 --> 01:21:14.459 - entity now the one uncertainty we have that that I have is whether That there's a prospect of that Responsive 01:21:14.459 --> 01:21:21.998 - might fall to the town If there were an abandoned cemetery in the town, but there are I think there 01:21:21.998 --> 01:21:26.974 - are only two cemeteries in the town and they're both Connected to 01:21:27.586 --> 01:21:38.488 - churches or religious institutions. They have private boards, okay. So we have the numbers in the report 01:21:38.488 --> 01:21:49.182 - for both what we spend on parks and recreation in the town as well as in the township. They're nominal 01:21:49.182 --> 01:21:54.270 - numbers. The reality is that we're moving slowly 01:21:54.658 --> 01:22:07.103 - to elevate the activity of parks and recreation. And there has been some... excuse me, I got something 01:22:07.103 --> 01:22:19.790 - stuck in my throat and I don't have any water here. Thanks. Yeah, okay, good, thank you. Seldom happens, 01:22:19.790 --> 01:22:22.206 - but it did tonight. 01:22:24.258 --> 01:22:32.975 - for a recreation director or somebody part-time to play that role, but they're really relatively little. 01:22:32.975 --> 01:22:41.526 - There's little staffing, so there's very little dollar outlays. Now, in the report, we talk about sort 01:22:41.526 --> 01:22:50.160 - of the range of park spaces, and they belong not only to the town and the township, but also the county 01:22:50.160 --> 01:22:52.734 - and other entities like the... 01:22:53.794 --> 01:23:06.311 - I'm trying to think of the The trail system yes the trails and some of that is county some of it's also 01:23:06.311 --> 01:23:18.588 - related to And I have my report on the phone here, so that's slowing me down a little bit Be great to 01:23:18.588 --> 01:23:22.078 - have a hard copy This is the 01:23:22.274 --> 01:23:33.702 - limitations of not having a good printer at home. My wife manages the printing, and I don't have access. 01:23:33.702 --> 01:23:44.586 - It's not working at the moment. So we try to inventory in the report, in the subcommittee to report 01:23:44.586 --> 01:23:48.286 - parks, recreation assets, events, 01:23:48.450 --> 01:23:56.088 - And there are a variety of events that might be considered parks recreation, like the Monroe County 01:23:56.088 --> 01:24:03.878 - Fall Festival in September, Alexville Summer Concert Series, the Indiana Limestone Symposium. We even 01:24:03.878 --> 01:24:11.821 - included the Hilly 100 in there, although I don't know who manages the Hilly 100. I think it's probably 01:24:11.821 --> 01:24:14.494 - a non-profit that is more, or that 01:24:14.882 --> 01:24:24.422 - is more inclusive than the town and township territories. Now, we were given five questions from the 01:24:24.422 --> 01:24:34.056 - committee to answer, and we tried to answer those five questions in a relatively short text. Will the 01:24:34.056 --> 01:24:38.590 - Parks Board continue to oversee these services? 01:24:39.202 --> 01:24:47.306 - The answer is I think yes, although we suggest an error and I was not aware that we were reorganized 01:24:47.306 --> 01:24:55.571 - or that the last subcommittee reports indicated a sort of a restructuring of the fiscal responsibility 01:24:55.571 --> 01:25:04.798 - for parks recreation between the town and township. But I think that's consistent with our recommendation and that 01:25:04.994 --> 01:25:13.676 - In our recommendation, we suggest that we maintain, since there is statutory authority in the state 01:25:13.676 --> 01:25:22.358 - of Indiana for parks boards, and the town has a park board, but there's not a similar entity in the 01:25:22.358 --> 01:25:31.213 - township, that if we were to reorganize, that we would sort of redefine that entity to cover both the 01:25:31.213 --> 01:25:34.078 - town and the township territory. 01:25:34.274 --> 01:25:41.024 - There are presently five members on the Parks Board, and in our report, we say we recommend maintenance 01:25:41.024 --> 01:25:47.579 - of the same number of members and criteria for the membership, two of whom would be sponsored by the 01:25:47.579 --> 01:25:54.199 - town executive, two by the township executive, and the fifth appointed from the Richland Bean Blossom 01:25:54.199 --> 01:26:00.755 - School Corporation Board of Directors, and that's now Jimmy Durnell. Jimmy is the chair of the Parks 01:26:00.755 --> 01:26:03.870 - Board. Do I have that right, Jimmy? Yeah, okay. 01:26:04.642 --> 01:26:11.640 - So we're conceiving of the same structure, but the territories would have to shift. Another question 01:26:11.640 --> 01:26:17.945 - that we were given is, how will the budget change, if at all, for parks and recreation? We 01:26:17.945 --> 01:26:24.458 - say the subcommittee does not envision any immediate budget changes. Now, one of our members, 01:26:24.458 --> 01:26:31.733 - Paula Anderson, Paula's not here, though. I think Paula's gonna be watching us on CATS, on the Community 01:26:31.733 --> 01:26:33.950 - Action or Community Television. 01:26:36.258 --> 01:26:44.249 - The Paula has some expertise in this area, and she suggested we develop a master plan somewhere five 01:26:44.249 --> 01:26:52.714 - years down the pike, and that is another... but we also suggest that the budgets for the two jurisdictions 01:26:52.714 --> 01:27:00.705 - now total $126,000, which is sort of a minimal fiscal impact, and that we could sort of easily carry 01:27:00.705 --> 01:27:03.870 - over, and I think the last subcommittee 01:27:04.258 --> 01:27:11.141 - address the financing of that budgetary outlay. How many cemeteries are in Richland Township? 01:27:11.141 --> 01:27:18.464 - We say 17, but nine of these cemeteries are abandoned, and seven of the abandoned cemeteries are on 01:27:18.464 --> 01:27:26.080 - private land, which shields the township from any responsibility for them. But there is some obligation 01:27:26.080 --> 01:27:32.670 - or some responsibility for the maintenance of the two that are on public land in Houston. 01:27:33.282 --> 01:27:41.410 - Houston Town Cemetery and the Vernal Mayfield Cemetery, of which I know their names on the report here, 01:27:41.410 --> 01:27:49.772 - but I know nothing about them. I couldn't tell you where they were, but they're somewhere in the township, 01:27:49.772 --> 01:27:57.118 - and Dawn, you probably know where that is, I suspect. I actually do not. Oh, you don't? Okay. 01:27:57.474 --> 01:28:04.267 - What are the costs for cemetery maintenance? 10,900 cemetery maintenance, and we have that number in 01:28:04.267 --> 01:28:11.127 - there. And then, we also suggest some future ideas for parks and recreation in the town and township, 01:28:11.127 --> 01:28:17.988 - in part because it's an underdeveloped area activity. And we suggest better promotion of programs and 01:28:17.988 --> 01:28:25.050 - assets. You know, one of the things as we came together, we realized there are lots of assets, and there 01:28:25.050 --> 01:28:26.462 - are lots of programs 01:28:26.658 --> 01:28:34.626 - but people may not sort of connect with them. And to be honest, they don't necessarily attach themselves 01:28:34.626 --> 01:28:42.443 - to the town or township, but they may be county, they may be a different jurisdiction. And so, I think 01:28:42.443 --> 01:28:50.942 - we sort of need some entity, though, that provides better promotion of the programs and assets. We also have... 01:28:51.138 --> 01:28:58.880 - a second-point emphasis on cooperation, cooperative activity, and collaboration, in part because I think 01:28:58.880 --> 01:29:06.696 - the township, for instance, now has the ball fields, but the ball fields are leased or, you know, they're 01:29:06.696 --> 01:29:14.365 - shared. And so, who the... and the town and the ball fields are located in Alexville, but they're owned 01:29:14.365 --> 01:29:20.190 - by the township, and there's some responsibility for the town and the township 01:29:20.610 --> 01:29:28.023 - between the two, between the ball fields and the facilities of the ball fields. So I think that's sort 01:29:28.023 --> 01:29:35.364 - of an indication, again, of the collaborative activity that is ongoing that we need to be mindful of, 01:29:35.364 --> 01:29:42.777 - particularly in an area where, historically, there's been a sort of a significant role for nonprofits, 01:29:42.777 --> 01:29:49.182 - and we do suggest also that there be the development of a sort of a nonprofit foundation 01:29:49.762 --> 01:29:57.810 - To provide funding and some of the some of these activities have been funded by Nonprofits in the in 01:29:57.810 --> 01:30:05.937 - the vicinity, but we've not sort of emphasized that or the funding sources significantly And then the 01:30:05.937 --> 01:30:14.782 - third general point was expansion. Well, that's I already said that expansion of involvement of nonprofits and 01:30:16.226 --> 01:30:23.620 - Paula has some other ideas in that area, but we have both the sort of the core report, which is about 01:30:23.620 --> 01:30:30.942 - four or five pages, and then we've got a lot of other additional materials that sort of are intended 01:30:30.942 --> 01:30:38.191 - to elaborate if somebody wants to look for further elaboration, and we may in the next iteration of 01:30:38.191 --> 01:30:41.598 - this, depending on the committee's preference, 01:30:41.826 --> 01:30:47.244 - try to sort of develop a closer correspondence between the two by one, citing the other one, but not 01:30:47.244 --> 01:30:52.769 - necessarily incorporating it so that somebody who wants to go to the subcommittee report can read four 01:30:52.769 --> 01:30:58.241 - pages and come away with sort of our general set of recommendations. That's it. Thank you, Jim. After 01:30:58.241 --> 01:31:03.605 - reading the report, especially the addendum at the end, I learned a whole bunch about the parks and 01:31:03.605 --> 01:31:08.862 - organizations in our area that I had not known. And I have kids, we go to parks. I hadn't either. 01:31:11.330 --> 01:31:22.122 - Any questions for Jim? Thanks for the water. You're very welcome. Thank you for the report. Yeah, you 01:31:22.122 --> 01:31:32.808 - did a great job. We definitely want to thank everybody that participated in the subcommittees. Yeah, 01:31:32.808 --> 01:31:40.638 - a lot of work. Yes. In a short period of time. I particularly appreciated 01:31:40.802 --> 01:31:46.369 - how much effort was clearly given to making the reports intelligible, making them not just technical, 01:31:46.369 --> 01:31:51.882 - not just a bunch of data, but actually interpreting it, framing the main questions, and giving clear 01:31:51.882 --> 01:31:57.395 - recommendations. And in other cases saying, there are two possible options here or there, and we are 01:31:57.395 --> 01:32:03.289 - not going to make a recommendation about this, but this is what you need to know to understand the options. 01:32:03.289 --> 01:32:08.802 - So I found them overall very intelligible. I was concerned that I was going to slog through a lot of 01:32:08.802 --> 01:32:10.494 - just technical data, and I was 01:32:10.658 --> 01:32:21.588 - very pleased to read much clearer subcommittee reports than I expected even. Simplified. Scott, do you 01:32:21.588 --> 01:32:32.837 - have any questions for Jim? No. No. Okay. Okay. The next subcommittee. I'm going to start picking people. 01:32:32.837 --> 01:32:34.110 - I know you. 01:32:46.114 --> 01:32:52.175 - Zach Michael with the Public Safety Subcommittee. I'll let Calvin introduce himself when he's ready. 01:32:52.175 --> 01:32:58.296 - Two presenters on this, neither one of us wanted to pretend we knew what we needed to know to present 01:32:58.296 --> 01:33:04.536 - for the other person. So I hope that's okay with you guys. On the police side, we started off just kind 01:33:04.536 --> 01:33:11.017 - of comparing the area we're responsible for now and what that will look like if the reorganization happens. 01:33:11.017 --> 01:33:15.998 - And I'm not gonna go through the entire report. You have it if you have questions. 01:33:16.866 --> 01:33:24.467 - certainly let me know, but I just wanted to point out a few things. Quick comparison between the two 01:33:24.467 --> 01:33:32.294 - entities. There's 35.4 square miles in Richland Township, 7.33 in town of Ellitsville. So that's pretty 01:33:32.294 --> 01:33:40.045 - big difference for us. That's about a 382% increase in the area that we'll be responsible for in terms 01:33:40.045 --> 01:33:44.862 - of patrol. Population wise, fortunately a much smaller increase 01:33:45.186 --> 01:33:53.261 - So we're going from almost 7,000 residents to a little over 15. And this is all according to the 2024 01:33:53.261 --> 01:34:01.337 - American Community Survey. So that increase is about 126% for us. So just to give you an idea of what 01:34:01.337 --> 01:34:09.570 - our increases will look like. And to answer the question that I'm hearing a lot, and I'm not sure where 01:34:09.570 --> 01:34:14.558 - the confusion comes from, so you'll hear it here first, folks. 01:34:15.330 --> 01:34:21.871 - ellisville police department if if reorganization happens will be responsible for policing the entire 01:34:21.871 --> 01:34:28.413 - township the town of ellisville and the township so that that's that that is a definite we had a very 01:34:28.413 --> 01:34:35.339 - the top three at our department the top three at the sheriff's office we had a very productive conversation 01:34:35.339 --> 01:34:41.816 - about a month ago chief i think it was and and they will continue the sheriff's office will continue 01:34:41.816 --> 01:34:44.766 - to back us up just as they do now it's a very 01:34:44.994 --> 01:34:51.628 - a good relationship we have with them. So we see no changes in that whatsoever. And I think there's 01:34:51.628 --> 01:34:58.528 - very intelligent individual that has been in my ear. And I think he definitely hit the nail on the head 01:34:58.528 --> 01:35:05.162 - when he said overall in this county, staffing is not gonna change. Sheriff's office isn't gonna lay 01:35:05.162 --> 01:35:11.929 - anybody off. Bloomington PD is not gonna lay anybody off. If this happens for us, we're not gonna lay 01:35:11.929 --> 01:35:14.782 - anybody off. In fact, we're adding people. 01:35:15.042 --> 01:35:21.710 - So everybody works really well together in the law enforcement community, that will continue. So if 01:35:21.710 --> 01:35:28.445 - something major happens here and we need help, we know we're gonna get it. And rest assured that the 01:35:28.445 --> 01:35:35.514 - township, the population of the township will be well protected. We are immediately calling for or asking 01:35:35.514 --> 01:35:41.182 - for, I guess, the recommendation is an additional three officers for the department. 01:35:41.506 --> 01:35:48.944 - And we're basing this all on averages. So unlike the fire department and the fire service in general, 01:35:48.944 --> 01:35:56.236 - we don't have a known standard. There's not a developed standard in this country, right? So we work 01:35:56.236 --> 01:36:03.527 - off of averages and the average currently in the United States is 2.4 officers per 1,000 residents. 01:36:03.527 --> 01:36:11.038 - In the Midwest, it's a little bit lower because obviously in different regions of the country you have 01:36:11.170 --> 01:36:20.508 - differences, so it's a lot lower out west, but in the Midwest it's 2.2. Currently, the town of Ellisville, 01:36:20.508 --> 01:36:29.584 - we sit at 2.5, which is really great. Now, if reorganization happens, that obviously is going to lower, 01:36:29.584 --> 01:36:38.485 - but I did want to point out that currently the county, the sheriff's office, they sit at .81 officers 01:36:38.485 --> 01:36:40.318 - per 1,000 residents. 01:36:40.514 --> 01:36:47.953 - So with the three additional officers that, if reorganization happens, that we would gain would put 01:36:47.953 --> 01:36:55.392 - us at, I think it's 1.13 per 1,000 residents. So it's going up, the average is going up, which is a 01:36:55.392 --> 01:37:02.980 - good thing. So that's the immediate recommendation. We put in there some five to seven year planning. 01:37:02.980 --> 01:37:10.494 - As we know, the township, the reorganized town, if this happens, will continue to grow economically. 01:37:10.594 --> 01:37:18.079 - and population will probably grow with housing and such. So we put some long-term recommendations in 01:37:18.079 --> 01:37:25.490 - there. You can see those, I'm happy to talk about those, but I think the focus is right now, how do 01:37:25.490 --> 01:37:33.049 - we make this happen and what do we need for 2027? So three is what we're recommending. We are looking 01:37:33.049 --> 01:37:39.422 - forward to this, should it be, or I guess I should say when it is hopefully approved. 01:37:39.842 --> 01:37:46.463 - And yeah, we look forward to it. So happy to answer questions on the police side. If you don't have 01:37:46.463 --> 01:37:53.084 - any, then I'll turn it over to Calvin. Does anybody in the public have anything they'd like to ask? 01:37:53.084 --> 01:37:59.705 - I think Sandy addressed a lot of it as far as the funding for the three additional officers. That's 01:37:59.705 --> 01:38:03.678 - all in place. Nobody? Yeah, pointing out to the public that 01:38:04.034 --> 01:38:10.410 - this reorganization isn't going to dramatically change the rate of calls for service in any meaningful 01:38:10.410 --> 01:38:16.663 - way likely because it's the same people in the same area with the same basic needs, the same traffic 01:38:16.663 --> 01:38:23.040 - patterns, the same everything on January 1, it's not going to suddenly be an entirely different thing. 01:38:23.040 --> 01:38:29.230 - And it's not just Ellisville and it's not just the county, the police in the township. I mean, I've 01:38:29.230 --> 01:38:33.502 - rode along at least twice with, uh, Bloomington's police department. 01:38:34.690 --> 01:38:41.313 - in the township, where they've helped cover it, three times, three times where they've helped cover 01:38:41.313 --> 01:38:48.332 - the township. So like you say, everybody works real close together, great police departments, everybody's 01:38:48.332 --> 01:38:55.087 - serviced. Bloomington does have a section in the township, which I know that's been discussed before, 01:38:55.087 --> 01:39:01.710 - and that was not included in anything we did on the public safety side. But yeah, I mean, obviously 01:39:01.710 --> 01:39:04.094 - there are some very big overlaps in 01:39:04.354 --> 01:39:10.336 - how they get from point A to point B puts them in the township. So they're patrolling in the township. 01:39:10.336 --> 01:39:16.260 - So all that's gonna continue. None of that will change. And then even when, if we really, really need 01:39:16.260 --> 01:39:22.068 - it, state police has responded to this. And I'm glad you guys have a very good working relationship 01:39:22.068 --> 01:39:28.050 - with that, because this would not work without it. Matter of fact, I don't think policing or even fire 01:39:28.050 --> 01:39:31.070 - protection would work if there weren't cooperation. 01:39:33.026 --> 01:39:42.028 - Thanks, Zach. Yeah, I'll turn it over to Calvin. Hello, I'm Calvin Poole and with the subcommittee and 01:39:42.028 --> 01:39:50.943 - I worked on the fireside of the committee report. And essentially for the Ellisville Fire Department, 01:39:50.943 --> 01:40:00.382 - we are currently the provider of fire rescue and first responder, first medical first response services for 01:40:00.610 --> 01:40:08.294 - town of Ellisville as well as Richmond Township. So we're currently providing that service and we have 01:40:08.294 --> 01:40:15.978 - since about 1947. So we're we're operating out of two stations one in the township one in the town and 01:40:15.978 --> 01:40:23.736 - so you know the the quick summary of the thing is that if this consolidation was to go through tomorrow 01:40:23.736 --> 01:40:29.630 - we would be able to continue with services as we are currently providing them. 01:40:30.594 --> 01:40:40.763 - The biggest part of the report is to just make the committee and any future governing entity aware of 01:40:40.763 --> 01:40:50.933 - some of the future challenges and some of the future issues that we are looking at that would require 01:40:50.933 --> 01:40:59.806 - some growth of the fire department. I'll skip through some of the history stuff on here, 01:41:01.154 --> 01:41:09.996 - For instance, we are seeing continued growth in demand for calls for service in our response area. And 01:41:09.996 --> 01:41:19.440 - as the chart showing there that's up on your screen now is in the last five years, we have seen approximately 01:41:19.440 --> 01:41:28.282 - about a 102% increase in calls for service. So just increased requests for medical services, increased 01:41:28.282 --> 01:41:30.686 - responses across the board. 01:41:31.618 --> 01:41:39.172 - we don't really predict that to go in a downward direction. The other piece of the puzzle is that we 01:41:39.172 --> 01:41:46.652 - do have two stations, two crews that respond to calls, and that on occasion that we do have what we 01:41:46.652 --> 01:41:54.132 - classify as overlapping calls, where there's more than one call occurring in our response area that 01:41:54.132 --> 01:41:59.966 - requires both stations to be out and addressing calls. And in tracking those, 01:42:00.546 --> 01:42:10.591 - In 2024, we showed that we had 530 occasions where we had both stations committed on calls. And in 2025, 01:42:10.591 --> 01:42:20.350 - that number was 546. So just a point to be aware of on that. Additionally, as far as overall activity 01:42:20.350 --> 01:42:29.534 - in the Ellisville and Richland Township area, we are one of the busier areas. Our two stations, 01:42:29.986 --> 01:42:38.616 - are the number two and number three responding companies when you look at the county as a whole, including 01:42:38.616 --> 01:42:47.004 - Bloomington City, as that chart shows. So we do have a lot of call volume and we do, as I said earlier, 01:42:47.004 --> 01:42:55.795 - we are expecting those numbers to not go in a downward direction, but only increase as development continues 01:42:55.795 --> 01:42:59.102 - and we gain more population in our area. 01:43:01.442 --> 01:43:12.522 - The current operating budget for 2026 is about $3.4 million. I believe the current proposal for 2027 01:43:12.522 --> 01:43:23.491 - is around 3.8. The biggest increases in that are regarding some obligations, some legal obligations 01:43:23.491 --> 01:43:29.086 - for increased contributions to retirement funding. 01:43:29.698 --> 01:43:40.052 - some natural increases in expenditures, and also a request for three additional personnel. And that 01:43:40.052 --> 01:43:50.717 - kind of gets us into our future challenges. If the budget for 2027 is approved, we would go from where 01:43:50.717 --> 01:43:59.518 - we currently are in staffing of having a total of six personnel on duty at one time, 01:43:59.650 --> 01:44:07.544 - three at our station 71 in Ellisville and three at our station 81 in the township. And an additional 01:44:07.544 --> 01:44:15.594 - three personnel, if approved in 27, would bring that up to having four at one station and three at the 01:44:15.594 --> 01:44:24.034 - other. What we're trying to do is work toward getting back up to the national minimum standard for staffing 01:44:24.034 --> 01:44:28.958 - of an engine company. And that is four on each engine company. 01:44:30.018 --> 01:44:39.421 - So like I said, granted, if we do get that increase in 27, the next immediate need is additional three 01:44:39.421 --> 01:44:48.915 - personnel at some point down the road to try to get us to that staffing level of four personnel at each 01:44:48.915 --> 01:44:58.044 - station for a response. Another staffing need that's been identified is an eventual need for adding 01:44:58.044 --> 01:44:59.870 - a shift supervisor. 01:45:00.226 --> 01:45:08.573 - and that would be one additional person on each shift that would be able to oversee major incidents 01:45:08.573 --> 01:45:17.255 - and take on many of the administrative functions of supervising the on duty shift personnel and freeing 01:45:17.255 --> 01:45:25.602 - those tasks up from the administrative staff where they can focus on other projects. The other item 01:45:25.602 --> 01:45:28.190 - as far as future challenges is 01:45:28.866 --> 01:45:38.486 - The maintenance of fleet, obviously fire trucks are not small vehicles and they don't come with a small 01:45:38.486 --> 01:45:47.736 - price tag either. So we currently have one new pumper that's currently ordered and we have a ladder 01:45:47.736 --> 01:45:57.541 - truck that has also been ordered. One of them should be due at some point this year and the ladder truck, 01:45:57.541 --> 01:45:58.558 - I believe, 01:45:58.882 --> 01:46:08.295 - We're looking at 2027 for that one. But in addition to that, the entire fleet eventually goes through 01:46:08.295 --> 01:46:17.524 - a replacement schedule. And we are fortunate enough that we do have some national standards on that 01:46:17.524 --> 01:46:26.753 - that recommend what that replacement schedule should look like in some general terms. Ideally, your 01:46:26.753 --> 01:46:28.414 - frontline life of 01:46:28.514 --> 01:46:36.312 - your primary trucks like the engines should be about a 15-year lifespan. Then they spend some time as 01:46:36.312 --> 01:46:44.186 - a reserve truck where they can be stood up and used as needed, like if the primary truck goes down for 01:46:44.186 --> 01:46:52.136 - maintenance. And then around the 20-year mark, that's when we're looking at trying to replace apparatus 01:46:52.136 --> 01:46:55.806 - and retire those older trucks out of the fleet. 01:46:56.738 --> 01:47:03.564 - The chart that's on there, it shows what the current age of the fleet and how those dates are kind of 01:47:03.564 --> 01:47:10.458 - staggered currently from when they were acquired originally. And we would just encourage that the need 01:47:10.458 --> 01:47:17.217 - for fleet replacement continue to be addressed so that we don't end up with a backlog where you have 01:47:17.217 --> 01:47:23.910 - multiple apparatus that are in need of replacement at one time and we can continue to kind of stair 01:47:23.910 --> 01:47:26.654 - step our way through them one at a time. 01:47:28.034 --> 01:47:37.633 - Last item that we wanted to make sure that the the group was aware of as far as future needs is the 01:47:37.633 --> 01:47:47.423 - possibility of having a third station brought online at some point down the road now the Harmon farm, 01:47:47.423 --> 01:47:57.406 - I'm sorry. I jumped ahead a little bit there's two items as far as talking about stations currently the 01:47:58.722 --> 01:48:06.620 - the current township station, we performed a study back in 2024 about the possibility of replacing that 01:48:06.620 --> 01:48:14.442 - station and changing its location. And through that study in conjunction with the township, a location 01:48:14.442 --> 01:48:22.340 - was determined off of Vernal Pike and Harkstray. We were able to actually acquire land there at no cost 01:48:22.340 --> 01:48:24.542 - to the town or the township. 01:48:25.218 --> 01:48:32.725 - and we do have a plan for a new station that can go in that space. That location would better locate 01:48:32.725 --> 01:48:40.677 - the township station to have better coverage of the township instead of being kind of in the far southeast 01:48:40.677 --> 01:48:47.515 - corner of the township right now. It would be a little more centrally located and give us a 01:48:47.515 --> 01:48:51.454 - better overlapping coverage. The plans for that are, 01:48:52.834 --> 01:49:01.171 - currently on hold because of all the different variables involved in this process. I believe the township 01:49:01.171 --> 01:49:09.037 - had identified funds that they could move forward with that if all things being equal, but with the 01:49:09.037 --> 01:49:17.060 - current discussions over what the future governance of the area is gonna look like, that's kind of on 01:49:17.060 --> 01:49:19.262 - pause right now. The, as I, 01:49:20.066 --> 01:49:27.175 - prematurely mentioned, a third station is kind of on the radar for future. Harmon Farms development 01:49:27.175 --> 01:49:34.284 - out here on the west side of town, as a part of their development, they set aside land for a future 01:49:34.284 --> 01:49:41.678 - fire station. This isn't something that's gonna happen tomorrow. As all of you know, funding for public 01:49:41.678 --> 01:49:48.574 - safety is kind of on the backend. You get the development, you start getting the tax revenue in, 01:49:49.090 --> 01:49:56.992 - And then once you have those funds built up, then you start bringing up your resources to cover those 01:49:56.992 --> 01:50:04.738 - areas. And we understand that. But with development on the west side of town and with the potential 01:50:04.738 --> 01:50:12.485 - for other future developments throughout the town and township, we do expect demand for services to 01:50:12.485 --> 01:50:14.654 - increase. We do expect that 01:50:15.010 --> 01:50:22.517 - the instances of overlapping calls will probably increase as well and that we will eventually have a 01:50:22.517 --> 01:50:30.023 - need for a third station to maintain good coverage and consistent coverage. The location and kind of 01:50:30.023 --> 01:50:37.678 - being up in the northwest portion of the response area would also kind of give us a good coverage that 01:50:37.678 --> 01:50:43.550 - would kind of seal up some of the gaps that are left between the two stations. 01:50:44.930 --> 01:50:52.605 - And I believe there are some figures, there are some illustrations a little bit further in the document 01:50:52.605 --> 01:51:00.059 - that kind of go through that. And specifically the last one kind of puts together all three of those 01:51:00.059 --> 01:51:07.438 - where the blue area is showing the relocated township station and what its coverage area would look 01:51:07.438 --> 01:51:09.726 - like. And you have kind of the 01:51:11.010 --> 01:51:19.007 - brown area there, that's the current town station, station 71, and then the future site up in the northwest 01:51:19.007 --> 01:51:26.782 - corner that would kind of fill in some of the gaps that we have in that far western side. And that would 01:51:26.782 --> 01:51:34.186 - give us a good footprint of coverage and response to the entire area. And like I said, this is kind 01:51:34.186 --> 01:51:40.702 - of a roadmap discussion, not necessarily immediate needs. Like I said at the beginning, 01:51:41.090 --> 01:51:51.847 - We have been the provider of services for the town and township for many, many years and we are taking 01:51:51.847 --> 01:52:02.604 - care of that community now and can continue through whatever becomes of this if we are, we end up with 01:52:02.604 --> 01:52:10.750 - a governance that keeps us in that area. Any questions for me? Any questions? 01:52:11.426 --> 01:52:19.672 - in the southeast part of the township, is that? What about? There's a station down in the south, there's 01:52:19.672 --> 01:52:27.604 - a township there that's stationed in the southeast part of the township there. What's planned on the 01:52:27.604 --> 01:52:35.614 - other? That's the station that we're currently looking to relocate and place at the Varla and Harstow 01:52:35.614 --> 01:52:36.478 - locations. 01:52:37.314 --> 01:52:46.064 - And like I said, a couple of reasons for that. The station you're referring to was built in 1971. It 01:52:46.064 --> 01:52:54.814 - was originally designed for one person to be in there. And we're trying to staff four people now. So 01:52:54.814 --> 01:53:01.918 - it's a little tight. And as far as response for the entire township, its position 01:53:02.146 --> 01:53:10.844 - kind of puts us on some long runs getting across to more western and central areas of the township. 01:53:10.844 --> 01:53:20.238 - So the idea would be that we would no longer be in that station, but relocate to the new location. Anything 01:53:20.238 --> 01:53:29.197 - else? Anyone else? Just to be clear, these needs that you outlined, whether this happens or what, they 01:53:29.197 --> 01:53:31.198 - still need to be done. 01:53:31.554 --> 01:53:38.686 - Yes, and like I said, yeah, what I was hoping that we would all understand from this is that, yeah, 01:53:38.686 --> 01:53:45.818 - these are kind of just roadmap issues that we're projecting for the fire department as a whole, not 01:53:45.818 --> 01:53:53.235 - consolidation issues. Like I said, if we consolidated tomorrow, we could continue to provide protection 01:53:53.235 --> 01:53:59.582 - at the same level we are right now to the community the next day under a new governance. 01:54:00.002 --> 01:54:08.223 - These are all things that regardless of the future governance picture of this area would need to be 01:54:08.223 --> 01:54:16.772 - addressed for fire service protection. Do you want to comment on anything about fire territory? I don't 01:54:16.772 --> 01:54:25.404 - think that would, for this committee. Thank you. All right. Do you want to talk about the planning part? 01:54:25.404 --> 01:54:28.446 - If you want to, I can at the minute. 01:54:29.090 --> 01:54:37.206 - We were tasked with coordinating a little bit with the planning department. So I believe the planning 01:54:37.206 --> 01:54:45.163 - department kind of got split between two subcommittees a little bit because public safety planning, 01:54:45.163 --> 01:54:53.359 - there's an aspect of planning like through inspection services that does fall under public safety. And 01:54:53.359 --> 01:54:56.542 - essentially what we were looking at was 01:54:56.706 --> 01:55:04.095 - with input from the planning department was that obviously there'll be an expectation that there's gonna 01:55:04.095 --> 01:55:11.274 - be more plan reviews, more inspections to do over a much larger territory and a much larger space and 01:55:11.274 --> 01:55:18.452 - with growing development that increases that volume as well so that they were gonna be looking for an 01:55:18.452 --> 01:55:25.771 - additional employee to help with that workload. And that's, you got anything to add to that? And that's 01:55:25.771 --> 01:55:26.686 - what we got. 01:55:27.042 --> 01:55:33.404 - Good job. Mr. Patton. Kevin Patton, fire chief with the town of Ellsville. Not gonna take up any time 01:55:33.404 --> 01:55:39.953 - here, but I know there's a lot of questions with the fire district, the fire territory, where it stands, 01:55:39.953 --> 01:55:46.315 - all this, the pros and cons. I'm gonna be back over there, so when the meeting's finished, if anybody 01:55:46.315 --> 01:55:52.802 - has any questions, I'm happy to hang around and answer them. That way I don't take up any of your time. 01:55:52.802 --> 01:55:54.174 - Thank you, thank you. 01:55:55.746 --> 01:56:03.460 - So I think we've got finance left. Local governance. I'm elected by virtue of no one else being able 01:56:03.460 --> 01:56:11.098 - to be here. So I will be very quick though, because luckily for us, we have very limited options on 01:56:11.098 --> 01:56:18.430 - what we're allowed to do. So let me pull up the report really quick so everyone online can see. 01:56:27.170 --> 01:56:32.809 - I apologize. I need to sit here so that I can read off my papers and move the screen at the same time 01:56:32.809 --> 01:56:38.448 - So really quick the I'm just gonna read the executive summary We reviewed current governing structure 01:56:38.448 --> 01:56:44.474 - of the town of Ellisville and Richland Township and the transition needs that would result if reorganization 01:56:44.474 --> 01:56:50.057 - takes effect we find that the reorganization between the town of Ellisville and Richland Township is 01:56:50.057 --> 01:56:50.942 - recommended and 01:56:51.298 --> 01:56:59.149 - And this report will present two governance options for the reorganization board's review and determination. 01:56:59.149 --> 01:57:06.352 - We wanted to present multiple options to ensure that the representation for Richland's township was 01:57:06.352 --> 01:57:13.843 - considered. That was one of the main things when we were having our discussions, that we wanted to make 01:57:13.843 --> 01:57:21.118 - sure that Richland township having a greater population than the town of Ellisville was able to have 01:57:21.826 --> 01:57:31.584 - maximum representation on the transition board. With that being said, we will go to a side by side comparison 01:57:31.584 --> 01:57:40.454 - of the board's considerations. So option one has it at seven members with five districts and two at 01:57:40.454 --> 01:57:49.680 - large. And for the board's knowledge, we currently call them wards. The recommendation is to transition 01:57:49.680 --> 01:57:51.454 - wards to districts. 01:57:51.650 --> 01:58:00.547 - since that's what the county uses for everything else in the city. It just makes it a little bit easier 01:58:00.547 --> 01:58:09.359 - for the public to know where to go for districts. The at-large seats, we are recommending that we take 01:58:09.359 --> 01:58:18.085 - two from the Township Trustee Board that will be elected this year to take office January 1st of 2027 01:58:18.085 --> 01:58:19.454 - for option one. 01:58:20.738 --> 01:58:29.028 - And so then those at large seats will serve their full four year cycle. So the term will end December 01:58:29.028 --> 01:58:37.317 - 31st of 2030. We don't have any temporary transitional seats in option one. You'll see that in option 01:58:37.317 --> 01:58:45.444 - two. And so the board size beginning in 2028 for the transition year will be seven members. And the 01:58:45.444 --> 01:58:48.126 - offices that are elected in 2026 01:58:48.354 --> 01:58:57.160 - for wards four and five that will become districts four and five, stay their entire four year term. 01:58:57.160 --> 01:59:06.231 - So for the 2027 ballot, you'll have districts one, two, three, and the clerk treasurer. So you'll have 01:59:06.231 --> 01:59:16.446 - those members that will stay on during the transition year to be reelected or to be elected new positions for 2028. 01:59:17.058 --> 01:59:25.745 - So the next at-large election will be in 2030, and the first full election realignment, where the potential 01:59:25.745 --> 01:59:34.111 - for every new person to be on the board will be in the 2031 cycle. So that's option one. So option two, 01:59:34.111 --> 01:59:42.155 - and to be fair, we kind of asked the legal team pretty late in the game, because we were still kind 01:59:42.155 --> 01:59:45.694 - of trying to figure out what would maximize 01:59:46.018 --> 01:59:53.417 - the Richland Township representation to make sure that they had a good representation on the board. 01:59:53.417 --> 02:00:00.816 - So we're not 100% sure how a nine member board would work because the knowns would be that we could 02:00:00.816 --> 02:00:08.511 - take at least three members from the Township Trustee Board because we know that those will be elected. 02:00:08.511 --> 02:00:13.246 - The unknown would be because the intent of the Township Trustee 02:00:13.442 --> 02:00:20.792 - um, subcommittee was to take the elected township trustee person who would be in office January 1st 02:00:20.792 --> 02:00:28.288 - of 27 and transition them to the director of public assistance. So the laws have changed somewhat. We 02:00:28.288 --> 02:00:35.784 - were told with special elections, so we were not 100% sure. So I hope with board discussion and legal 02:00:35.784 --> 02:00:43.134 - that that could be figured out if that's the option that the reorganization board chooses to go in. 02:00:44.162 --> 02:00:52.076 - And that's pretty much it. The only difference between option one and option two is that instead of 02:00:52.076 --> 02:00:59.990 - a transition year of seven members, it's nine members. And then on option two, if that's the option 02:00:59.990 --> 02:01:08.142 - chosen in 2028, it would go back to seven members for the full board. Correct. Because the maps, which 02:01:08.142 --> 02:01:11.070 - you'll be having a presentation next 02:01:11.650 --> 02:01:18.642 - I'm guessing for the maps. We'll need to discuss meeting weekly. You'll see the districts and he's got 02:01:18.642 --> 02:01:25.567 - several maps. I have a preview of them, but he's going to be doing a full presentation of that. Let's 02:01:25.567 --> 02:01:32.491 - not look at that now. So moving from the wards to the districts. Only the name changes. Only the name 02:01:32.491 --> 02:01:40.094 - changes, so the wards stay the same. So 46 corridor, that's still a district. Well, I think Mr. Sheldon's gonna 02:01:40.226 --> 02:01:46.361 - give a presentation next week on. So they'll have to expand based on population, but that's covered 02:01:46.361 --> 02:01:52.742 - in code. Like that's not something that is just arbitrarily decided upon, thankfully for us. So it goes 02:01:52.742 --> 02:01:59.062 - based, there's several factors, population, all sorts of things. But eventually all the districts will 02:01:59.062 --> 02:02:05.320 - change from what they are now. Yes, they will have to change to incorporate the newly available areas 02:02:05.320 --> 02:02:07.038 - for people to be on boards. 02:02:08.002 --> 02:02:14.880 - So those running in 2027 would run under the new districts. Correct, and the clip treasure, yes. So 02:02:14.880 --> 02:02:21.895 - anyone in the township for my position, for example, anyone in the township can run for that. So when 02:02:21.895 --> 02:02:28.911 - you say 2027, is that? To take office January 1st of 2028. 2028, so that's a November election. Well, 02:02:28.911 --> 02:02:35.582 - yes, mm-hmm, yeah. So you have the primary and the general, yeah. So everything pretty much runs 02:02:36.354 --> 02:02:43.477 - That is quote until 2027 reorganization takes place. Yes. So the two members that are currently up for 02:02:43.477 --> 02:02:50.600 - election this year in words, four and five would become district four and five and they would maintain 02:02:50.600 --> 02:02:57.515 - their four year term. And then the three positions in the clerk treasure next year, like I'm up for 02:02:57.515 --> 02:03:04.638 - election next year. So I have to run next year. So anybody in the township can run for clerk treasure. 02:03:05.570 --> 02:03:11.678 - So that's all under option number one. Yes, well it's option one and two because the voting area is 02:03:11.678 --> 02:03:17.909 - gonna be all one instead of Richland Township and the town of Ellsville. Okay. It'll be easier to see 02:03:17.909 --> 02:03:24.200 - when Mr. Shelton presents the maps. It'll be a lot easier to see because he'll have an overlay of what 02:03:24.200 --> 02:03:30.492 - the current districts are, or wards, and then what the new proposed ones, and you guys will have a lot 02:03:30.492 --> 02:03:35.134 - of discussion about that. And that criteria was determined by- State, code. 02:03:35.650 --> 02:03:44.836 - based on population. Yes, there's a lot of variables. I can't speak to everything, but luckily for us, 02:03:44.836 --> 02:03:54.380 - we didn't have to learn any of that, so I'm happy about that. On the districts, from what I've understood, 02:03:54.380 --> 02:03:58.750 - they're interchangeable. Wards is an older term. 02:03:58.946 --> 02:04:05.266 - would we be changing who's eligible to vote? In other words, would, so district one would still be at 02:04:05.266 --> 02:04:11.586 - large. I mean, you have to live in the area, but everybody in the township votes for it. So on option 02:04:11.586 --> 02:04:17.906 - one and option two, the permanent board would have two at large members and that it would be township 02:04:17.906 --> 02:04:23.358 - wide. And then you would have five people that have to live in their specific district. 02:04:23.458 --> 02:04:28.974 - but they're voted on by everyone in the township. It's the same as we do the current town council now 02:04:28.974 --> 02:04:34.597 - and the township trustee board. Yeah. And now you'd have to have a separate election for each district. 02:04:34.597 --> 02:04:40.113 - That would be expensive. That'd be expensive. Well, not really. I mean, cause it could cost the same, 02:04:40.113 --> 02:04:45.953 - but it would cause sense and putting everybody through all that. I just don't know if some of the districts 02:04:45.953 --> 02:04:48.062 - have enough registered voters. I mean, 02:04:49.090 --> 02:04:56.729 - to do that, I mean, but I will tell you the county does that effectively. So does the city of Bloomington. 02:04:56.729 --> 02:05:03.868 - So parity would be equal from district to district, correct? Population wise. Population wise, yes. 02:05:03.868 --> 02:05:11.365 - I think there's some very, what is the variance? Can't be more than 10% or something like that for state 02:05:11.365 --> 02:05:18.718 - code. That sounds right, William. Okay. And again, we did not feel comfortable making a recommendation 02:05:19.394 --> 02:05:27.518 - for the board to, we thought that these were the two best options to ensure that there was maximized 02:05:27.518 --> 02:05:35.723 - township representation. Any questions from the public? That's a biggie. I do have one more question. 02:05:35.723 --> 02:05:44.008 - Go ahead. What is your recommendation for township trustee? Would it still be an elected position, but 02:05:44.008 --> 02:05:48.030 - employed by the town? I mean, the recommendation, 02:05:48.194 --> 02:05:55.432 - And I can only speak for me personally, we did talk about if the option one was chosen, then both of 02:05:55.432 --> 02:06:02.813 - the other members of the subcommittee are very comfortable with that. It would be the township trustee 02:06:02.813 --> 02:06:09.979 - that is elected this year to take office of January 1st of 2027 would become the director of public 02:06:09.979 --> 02:06:14.494 - assistance. Because you would have two at large members or two 02:06:15.522 --> 02:06:21.331 - Yeah, two at-large members from the Township Trustee Board. And that to be determined, again, 02:06:21.331 --> 02:06:26.955 - by the board, if it's the two highest vote-getters, or if the Township Trustee Board makes 02:06:26.955 --> 02:06:33.506 - that recommendation. Right, but again, would that position be elected? The Director of Public Assistance? 02:06:33.506 --> 02:06:39.686 - Right. No, it would be a town employee. Because I know by code, with reorganization, you can still, 02:06:39.686 --> 02:06:45.310 - they can still elect a Township Trustee, they just work for the town, just like you would. 02:06:45.666 --> 02:06:52.542 - Theoretically, there's no township. Well, no, but. Making that person the director of public assistance, 02:06:52.542 --> 02:06:59.156 - I mean, it would just be. The director of public assistance would be appointed by the council under, 02:06:59.156 --> 02:07:05.770 - I mean, obviously we did not do enough research because we did not realize that the township trustee 02:07:05.770 --> 02:07:12.515 - could still be an elected position. We were working off the assumption that that position would become 02:07:12.515 --> 02:07:15.134 - then appointed by the new town council. 02:07:16.866 --> 02:07:25.385 - So we have some clarification still to pursue on this question. And the governance committee has no 02:07:25.385 --> 02:07:34.160 - issue as this committee makes that determination? We were just presenting options and the main purpose 02:07:34.160 --> 02:07:42.935 - for our scope was to ensure that the board had continuous service and that the representation from the 02:07:42.935 --> 02:07:45.406 - township was adequate. Okay. 02:07:46.338 --> 02:07:55.104 - For lack of a better word, the township trustees not sitting on council. No, okay. But you would have 02:07:55.104 --> 02:08:03.871 - two township board members from the township board sitting on council in both of these options. Well, 02:08:03.871 --> 02:08:12.551 - when you say two from the township. Because it would come from the board. The current, it would come 02:08:12.551 --> 02:08:14.270 - from for that first 02:08:14.626 --> 02:08:21.697 - The newly elected board. The newly elected board. Yes, yes, yes. Transitional. Transitional. The interim 02:08:21.697 --> 02:08:28.432 - government. Yeah, that's a better term. And the districts will change with the maps, and so that'll 02:08:28.432 --> 02:08:35.638 - open it up to more township residents also for one, two, and three that have to run in 2027. As it should, 02:08:35.638 --> 02:08:42.373 - because there's more people. And theoretically, we could end up running against each other, current 02:08:42.373 --> 02:08:43.518 - council members. 02:08:44.738 --> 02:08:56.089 - That'd be slick, I'd like to see that. Yeah. Yeah. Anybody else have any questions? Good job. 02:08:56.089 --> 02:09:08.406 - Thank you, thank you, thank you. I know that was a tough one. Mike, you want to do streets and sewers 02:09:08.406 --> 02:09:13.598 - and water? No, I don't. We really haven't. 02:09:14.274 --> 02:09:22.826 - had any direct contact as far as utilities. I think that's what you meant. And currently, the township's 02:09:22.826 --> 02:09:31.214 - served by four different water companies. And also, there's two different sewer organizations, Eastern 02:09:31.214 --> 02:09:39.358 - Richmond Sewer Corporation, which is a rural sewer system that feeds into the Ellesville system. We 02:09:39.358 --> 02:09:42.942 - do their billing, and we treat their sewer. 02:09:43.042 --> 02:09:51.479 - The wastewater, we have a relationship with Eastern Richland. We've been talking to them about all this. 02:09:51.479 --> 02:09:59.513 - Van Buren Water is one of the water companies that serves the southern portion of the township. And 02:09:59.513 --> 02:10:07.789 - so I'm gonna go to their meeting next Thursday and let them make sure they understand what's going on. 02:10:07.789 --> 02:10:11.646 - And Beanblast and Patrick Bird on the west side 02:10:11.810 --> 02:10:21.613 - They serve water into Ellisville, and as we grow, there'll be more of their system in our town. So there's 02:10:21.613 --> 02:10:30.683 - been a lot of questions. Will we change who provides our sewer or our water? No, it's not possible 02:10:30.683 --> 02:10:41.310 - economically, and it's not anything we need to concern ourselves with. We are all working together pretty good now. 02:10:41.506 --> 02:10:49.651 - mantra is we work together so we can be in line when there's economic opportunities to serve. And so 02:10:49.651 --> 02:10:57.635 - we don't care who serves just as long as it supports what we're trying to do in our community. So, 02:10:57.635 --> 02:11:05.780 - I mean, that's the long and the short of it, so. Darla and Eric, for the main report, do we need, we 02:11:05.780 --> 02:11:11.102 - need to include though what Mike just said or something, correct? 02:11:11.330 --> 02:11:20.486 - that has to be addressed. There will be some language in there about that. I guess one of the questions 02:11:20.486 --> 02:11:29.378 - that I'd have is if this happens, if reorganization happens, and development takes place outside, in 02:11:29.378 --> 02:11:37.918 - what's now the township, who determines who services what? Well, when it comes to water, I mean, 02:11:38.018 --> 02:11:46.860 - The water system is already in place. It's pretty much in place when it comes to wastewater. We're working 02:11:46.860 --> 02:11:55.455 - through a five, 10, and a 20-year plan currently about how we expand our sewer system. We are currently 02:11:55.455 --> 02:12:04.050 - working with the Aviation Board, Monroe County Aviation Board, to perhaps serve their area of the sewer 02:12:04.050 --> 02:12:06.942 - that had some difficulties getting 02:12:07.170 --> 02:12:15.257 - city of Bloomington to acknowledge that they need it and say they'd serve it so they're really looking 02:12:15.257 --> 02:12:23.657 - to us to work with them so we've already come up with a plan and we've already made an informal commitment 02:12:23.657 --> 02:12:31.744 - and it has to do with economic development on their properties at 400 acres they'd like to develop and 02:12:31.744 --> 02:12:36.926 - so we have the ability as you know we're a small community but we 02:12:37.122 --> 02:12:45.540 - We're not just a maintenance utility, we're a construction utility too. So we have the ability to act 02:12:45.540 --> 02:12:54.124 - fast and to expand our system as needed in a short amount of time. I mean, always finance has something 02:12:54.124 --> 02:13:02.377 - to do with it, but that always works itself out. So 2016, when we had to do another secondary water 02:13:02.377 --> 02:13:06.174 - line into Ellisville, the town of Ellisville, 02:13:06.434 --> 02:13:15.069 - did the work in-house, saved a lot of money and it went a lot quicker. There was no change orders and 02:13:15.069 --> 02:13:24.127 - a lot of hoops we didn't have to jump through because we did it ourselves. So we're in a position planning 02:13:24.127 --> 02:13:32.932 - wise and to be able to project, we're in a good position where we can react to current needs and future 02:13:32.932 --> 02:13:36.318 - needs. Feel real strong about that too. 02:13:37.858 --> 02:13:45.208 - Can we get some type of report though to put on the website for the public to look at? Because there's 02:13:45.208 --> 02:13:52.344 - an expectation of that. Same with roads and streets. I don't see Kip here. We'll throw one together 02:13:52.344 --> 02:13:59.838 - tomorrow. Well, I mean, yeah, I can put something together, but I'm not sure what you would want because 02:13:59.838 --> 02:14:06.046 - our reaction would be to where the need is. We don't have the ability to just populate 02:14:06.242 --> 02:14:14.076 - the whole township with sewer tomorrow. I guess that it would be, how do you address the growth? Like 02:14:14.076 --> 02:14:21.911 - Kevin said, who determines who gets it? If it's already kind of decided areas, put that in there. But 02:14:21.911 --> 02:14:29.591 - like stormwater fees, how are they collected? Well, the stormwater fees will change from the county 02:14:29.591 --> 02:14:32.126 - to the county. And just like we, 02:14:32.354 --> 02:14:39.038 - I had a question today, we annexed some new property and they said, well, will they have the Elixir 02:14:39.038 --> 02:14:45.722 - of stormwater fees? And the answer is yes. They're not gonna have wastewater because they wanna act 02:14:45.722 --> 02:14:52.607 - now. It's a small minor subdivision and they ask if they could use septic. So we're very adaptable and 02:14:52.607 --> 02:14:59.357 - we're flexible about how we go about our business. To put that into a plan would dictate that we say 02:14:59.357 --> 02:15:01.630 - things that would change tomorrow 02:15:01.858 --> 02:15:08.930 - depending on the circumstances. Well, I, good example though. Yeah. I know the funding switches from 02:15:08.930 --> 02:15:15.932 - the County to us, but collection, you know, what's our method for collection? The County's building 02:15:15.932 --> 02:15:23.005 - property taxes. And we'll be billing like it's our stormwater fees or our stormwater fees now are on 02:15:23.005 --> 02:15:27.486 - our water survey or on our water bill. Cause some people don't. 02:15:27.778 --> 02:15:38.547 - perhaps who are. But for those that don't have any. They'll just receive a bill. I mean, right now that's 02:15:38.547 --> 02:15:48.808 - our plan. Okay. But monthly, then just like. Yeah. Okay. Anybody else have any questions? I've got a 02:15:48.808 --> 02:15:57.342 - question that has to do with planning. Okay. The TIF district. How's that shakeout? 02:15:57.474 --> 02:16:04.333 - If reorganization takes place, that money's gonna be collected the same. That have just recently been 02:16:04.333 --> 02:16:11.124 - established by the town? No, I'm talking about the Westside TIF. I don't think that changes the TIF. 02:16:11.124 --> 02:16:18.185 - So the monies that come into that stays, of course, in that district, but that's, who would govern that? 02:16:18.185 --> 02:16:25.043 - Would that be the county still governing that, or would they? The county doesn't govern it now. Yeah, 02:16:25.043 --> 02:16:26.590 - they do. The Westside? 02:16:26.722 --> 02:16:33.044 - Yeah, the West Side TIF is county. Oh, I thought you were talking about the West Side. No, no, no, he's 02:16:33.044 --> 02:16:39.304 - not talking about R. Oh, okay. He's talking about... Yeah, where GE used to be and Cook and everybody. 02:16:39.304 --> 02:16:45.444 - Right, that's the counties. Nothing changes. Nothing changes, so that money still comes in the same, 02:16:45.444 --> 02:16:52.008 - still goes into the county coffers and for infrastructure in that TIF. It will change when the TIF expires, 02:16:52.008 --> 02:16:55.230 - though. Correct. And what about if the TIF expanded? 02:16:58.434 --> 02:17:06.124 - That's beyond what I could tell you right now at this meeting. My understanding from being on the RDC, 02:17:06.124 --> 02:17:13.589 - TIFFs can't really expand. They have to redo the TIFF to add up. No, that's correct. So if they did 02:17:13.589 --> 02:17:21.055 - that, I don't think they could. That would be us. Different organization passed. Yeah. I don't know 02:17:21.055 --> 02:17:27.774 - if there'd be any way to do that because they would be expanding to another municipality. 02:17:28.034 --> 02:17:35.065 - Probably true, but I'd want to look at the statute. Again, I'm not an attorney. I'm not trying to act 02:17:35.065 --> 02:17:42.027 - like one. This is just my thought process on it. Come on up, please. Hi. Kathy Weller. I live in the 02:17:42.027 --> 02:17:49.334 - township. First of all, I wanted to thank the committee and all the subcommittees for all the work you've 02:17:49.334 --> 02:17:56.365 - done. A lot of clarification is going on this evening. I see you put in a lot of maps and charts like 02:17:56.365 --> 02:17:57.950 - I asked for last time. 02:17:58.466 --> 02:18:06.379 - So that's very helpful. My question, maybe you were gonna address it at the end of the meeting, but 02:18:06.379 --> 02:18:14.450 - where do we go from here? What's the schedule of your consideration, public comments, the vote? Could 02:18:14.450 --> 02:18:22.521 - you go over that timeline for the process from this point on? We need to meet. So now the board takes 02:18:22.521 --> 02:18:27.902 - all the subcommittees recommendations. They put that in a form that 02:18:29.666 --> 02:18:35.783 - they can live with and then hand off to the lawyers. Yeah, but I think to address this real quick, 02:18:35.783 --> 02:18:41.963 - I'll say. It's too early for public comment because you haven't come up with a final draft yet. And 02:18:41.963 --> 02:18:48.265 - so what is the approximate timeline for that when it will be available for public comment? I think we 02:18:48.265 --> 02:18:54.630 - need to make a decision right now on whether we meet weekly. I keep bringing this up, so I think now's 02:18:54.630 --> 02:18:57.534 - the time that we need to start meeting weekly. 02:18:59.650 --> 02:19:06.271 - And I'll make that motion that we move to weekly meetings. Okay. I will second. Okay. And the purpose 02:19:06.271 --> 02:19:13.022 - of moving to weekly meetings would be because we now have to synthesize all this subcommittee material. 02:19:13.022 --> 02:19:19.837 - There are a number of additional questions that it raises because a lot of these things have overlapping 02:19:19.837 --> 02:19:24.446 - implications, but the subcommittee reports are not themselves binding. 02:19:24.930 --> 02:19:31.070 - We don't have to find a way to make every single puzzle piece fit. You have to take the recommendations 02:19:31.070 --> 02:19:37.152 - from each one and find a balance to craft a proposal that we as a board feel meets the goals and needs 02:19:37.152 --> 02:19:43.115 - of the community. Obviously, we're gonna try to have that draft done as soon as possible, as soon as 02:19:43.115 --> 02:19:49.374 - we can get remaining questions answered. Darla, I believe we had an April 1st deadline to submit a draft. 02:19:49.374 --> 02:19:52.798 - April 1st is when Baker-Tilley wants the draft, and then, 02:19:53.186 --> 02:20:00.560 - Hopefully the reorganization plan will be finalized within a month or so after that, and then the public 02:20:00.560 --> 02:20:07.302 - hearings will take place into May 1st of June. Okay, thank you. Noel, yes. On our website under 02:20:07.302 --> 02:20:14.816 - reorganization, there is a Baker-Tilley presentation on there called Proposed Governmental Reorganization, 02:20:14.816 --> 02:20:18.398 - and on page three, it has the reorganization rough 02:20:18.690 --> 02:20:25.804 - It doesn't have exact dates, but it lays everything out from start to January, start to finish, January 02:20:25.804 --> 02:20:32.713 - 1st of 2027. Awesome. Well, if you meet, I guess you're going to meet every week now, is that that's 02:20:32.713 --> 02:20:39.006 - going to be open to the public? We moved in Saturday. We're not going out yet. But yes. OK, 02:20:39.006 --> 02:20:46.120 - I'll go wait. So still stick with the Wednesdays, 6 o'clock? Yes. Yes. OK. For some meetings, that will 02:20:46.120 --> 02:20:48.446 - mean we have a hard stop at 6.50. 02:20:48.706 --> 02:20:55.483 - on certain dates. So it won't be necessarily as long an open-ended meeting as this. It will have to 02:20:55.483 --> 02:21:02.328 - be a little bit more concise, but. We just have two of those, just March 11th and March 25th. Great. 02:21:02.328 --> 02:21:09.173 - Donna, I know those dates by heart. And I don't think there'll be quorum the 18th to have a meeting. 02:21:09.173 --> 02:21:16.357 - Hopefully there will be, but we'll see. Okay. Darla, would there be any problem if we did not have quorum 02:21:16.357 --> 02:21:17.374 - of just having 02:21:17.570 --> 02:21:23.205 - a working session or some kind of public meeting on that date to receive questions and feedback from 02:21:23.205 --> 02:21:28.897 - the public rather than initially saying we're going to have a meeting this date and then yanking that 02:21:28.897 --> 02:21:34.532 - meeting. I think if it's advertised as a work session, that's okay, but you won't be able to vote or 02:21:34.532 --> 02:21:40.168 - make any decisions at that meeting. So I won't be able to make a motion and force that meeting every 02:21:40.168 --> 02:21:42.846 - other day. Daily meetings. Daily meetings, yes. 02:21:43.106 --> 02:21:50.957 - For the March 18th where we're concerned because right because of because of various travel plans enough 02:21:50.957 --> 02:21:58.659 - board members may be absent that we might not have a form but the motion is to move to weekly meetings 02:21:58.659 --> 02:22:06.285 - on Wednesdays at 6 p.m. Moved by William seconded by me. Are we ready to call the roll? Yep. Starting 02:22:06.285 --> 02:22:10.622 - next week. I vote yes. William. Yes. Yes. Yes. Dawn. Yes. 02:22:10.978 --> 02:22:20.570 - Thank you, motion passes. Well, I think Scott. Oh, Scott. Scott. We adopted an electronic policy, Scott. 02:22:20.570 --> 02:22:29.980 - Yes, great. Thank you very much. Scott, do you have any additional questions or anything? Nothing that 02:22:29.980 --> 02:22:38.750 - I need to ask right now. No, thank you for checking. Okay. And to address the broader question, 02:22:38.914 --> 02:22:46.363 - when's a good the public comment all of it all now and I mean so all the public input on this the draft 02:22:46.363 --> 02:22:53.598 - of most of these subcommittees are on the website if there's a concern don't hesitate bring it up to 02:22:53.598 --> 02:23:00.976 - us now yeah any questions you have Kathy the sooner we know them the more thought we can give them and 02:23:00.976 --> 02:23:04.414 - the more time we could spend tracking them down 02:23:07.746 --> 02:23:18.901 - Awesome and our email addresses are all on the website at what's over from info dot org I think I just 02:23:18.901 --> 02:23:29.731 - need a clarification more than anything, but you're talking about the stormwater Now we pay that on 02:23:29.731 --> 02:23:36.446 - it on our tax receipts property tax receipts twice a year and 02:23:37.666 --> 02:23:43.708 - We don't pay that again on our water bill, do we? No, if you're in a county... You know what I'm saying? 02:23:43.708 --> 02:23:49.808 - Yeah, if you're in a county, we're not billing you right now. Okay, okay. Yeah, I mean... Okay. I figured 02:23:49.808 --> 02:23:55.850 - so, but... We try to pay attention, but the individuals really pay attention so that if it ever happens, 02:23:55.850 --> 02:24:01.834 - we know about it immediately. But with reorganization, you have to pay the bill and not have it on your 02:24:01.834 --> 02:24:07.646 - property taxes. Right. That would be a change, yeah. You have to go and cycle it. Yeah, I was, yeah. 02:24:08.834 --> 02:24:15.203 - And the other thing, and you don't have to get into this, maybe I'll talk about this another time, but 02:24:15.203 --> 02:24:21.449 - just real quick while you're talking about that work with airport for sewage, what watercourse would 02:24:21.449 --> 02:24:27.385 - you discharge your fluid into down there? Oh, it'd be pumped back down at the wastewater plant. 02:24:27.385 --> 02:24:33.877 - You would? You'd pump it? Yes. Okay. You got that capacity? And I'll say this to you, but for everybody, 02:24:33.877 --> 02:24:38.206 - I was planning on calling you and saying I could go into length about 02:24:38.850 --> 02:24:46.626 - the overall plans as it relates to reorganization and at Elstil in general. And so it's worth, I think 02:24:46.626 --> 02:24:54.478 - it's worth the conversation to hear our plans for the future. So I'd be glad to come see you. I usually 02:24:54.478 --> 02:25:02.104 - bring this great big map that's getting pretty ratting out because I've opened it up so much. And it 02:25:02.104 --> 02:25:06.558 - gives you a real good 30,000 view of how all this relates. 02:25:06.882 --> 02:25:15.733 - So be glad to be glad to come see you. Thank you. Thank you. And especially if you can get some of your 02:25:15.733 --> 02:25:24.243 - neighbors at the same time. Well, it's always a struggle. But OK, you did answer my question as far 02:25:24.243 --> 02:25:32.754 - as as far as you know, the pumping. Yeah, as far as you know. No, I know it'll be. Yeah, we already 02:25:32.754 --> 02:25:36.158 - have a plan costs and route everything. 02:25:37.122 --> 02:25:44.685 - Good answer, thanks a lot. That's it. Anybody else from the public? Nope, anybody from the board? So 02:25:44.685 --> 02:25:52.472 - next Wednesday at six o'clock? Yes, and there's a hard stop at 6.50 because we have the third and final 02:25:52.472 --> 02:26:00.035 - public hearing on the fire protection territory. Okay, hard stop at 6.50. Ladies and gentlemen, that 02:26:00.035 --> 02:26:05.726 - adjourns the meeting. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you, everyone.