- (gavel banging)
- Call to order the Monday, June 9th version
- of the Ellsville Town Council.
- Marsha, would you do the prayer?
- I have the father once again to come before you
- and we ask again for your blessing
- and we ask you to lead and guide us through these meetings
- and just be with us in all ways
- and the decisions we make for our glory.
- Rest you sing Jesus' name, amen.
- Amen. - Amen.
- I pledge allegiance to the flag
- of the United States of America
- and to the Republic for which it stands,
- one nation, under God, indivisible,
- with liberty and justice for all.
- Roll call whenever you're ready.
- Here.
- Approval of minutes for the regular meeting,
- May 27th, 2025.
- So moved.
- Second.
- Motion second.
- All those in favor say aye.
- Aye.
- Any opposed?
- Any abstaining?
- Action to pay accounts of payable vouchers
- and payable vouchers.
- So moved.
- I'll second that.
- Motion second.
- All those in favor say aye.
- Aye.
- Any opposed?
- Any abstaining?
- There are no resolutions this evening
- nor are there ordinances on first reading.
- The first ordinance on second reading this evening
- is amended Ordinance 2025-13
- to set fees for the rental of the Elstville Heritage Center.
- At the last town council meeting,
- the council members had some suggested changes
- that they asked me to make
- and hopefully I've now made all of those in the ordinance.
- It now reads that the fee is going to be $125 per day
- or part of the day for individuals who reside
- within the corporate limits of the town,
- 250 for those who reside without the corporate limits.
- The renters have the option of either
- paying a $500 damage deposit
- or offering a copy of your certificate of insurance
- for event coverage which would cover the town
- and fee waivers based on need
- shall be considered by the park board.
- Okay, questions, comments from council?
- Questions or comments from the public?
- I believe you said reside within the town.
- What if you have a business in the town
- but you don't reside within the town?
- Is that out?
- That's the way this reads, it would be,
- but if the council wants to change that, that's fine.
- Well, I'm just thinking there are a lot of businesses
- who probably have owners who don't live in the town
- that would like to be part of the community.
- It's a valid point.
- May I suggest the term resides
- or owns property within the town?
- I'm good with that for letting the parks
- or determine. - Yeah.
- Further questions from council?
- So is there a, are we changing it
- to just let the park board decide or?
- The problem with doing that, guys,
- without giving them guidance,
- they're gonna think we intend for them
- to stick with the original wording.
- Okay, the way we're changing it, I mean, so just--
- Yeah. - Just amend it.
- Just amend it as--
- Resides or owns property. - Owns property, yeah.
- You're good with that, Dan.
- Are we able to pass it as amended?
- Yes, because I would consider that a minor amendment.
- A vote on it, as amended, I should say.
- Is there any other public comment,
- either in council chambers or online?
- Seeing none, we're back to the council
- for either discussion or action.
- Make a motion to approve the amended ordinance 2025-13
- to set fees for the rental of the Eltsville Heritage Center.
- Second.
- Motion to second, roll call, please.
- Yes.
- Senator Seger?
- Yes.
- Pam Samples?
- Yes.
- Motion carries.
- Next ordinance this evening is 2025-14,
- recertifying the current legislative body districts
- of the town of Eltsville, Indiana.
- As we discussed at the last meeting,
- all towns have to have their districts
- either recertified or redrawn by the end of this month,
- and the statute allows for a recertification
- if as of the last census, the population did not change
- and therefore the ward lines or the district lines
- did not change, so I had prepared a certification
- for the council to approve,
- simply saying that the wards or the districts
- haven't changed and the town just wishes
- to recertify the current legislative body districts.
- Okay, questions, comments from council?
- Yeah, go ahead, go ahead.
- So we've had all these new additions,
- so it's not gonna affect it, like would we certify it?
- Does that include any of the,
- all these new houses built additions or whatever?
- No, 'cause when they come in,
- they're, it's made it clear what district
- and ward they're in, correct?
- You're basing it, yes,
- and you're basing it off the last census,
- so I suspect that when the next census comes around,
- the town will have to do some redrawing of the districts
- to account for population growth,
- but as I recall, as of the last census,
- the town's population did not increase that much, so.
- And the other question,
- I don't know if I brought it up last time,
- is we had to be in line with census blocks,
- and Denise, I found GIS, the county,
- did not have census blocks in there,
- but I did get them to upload them to the voter portal,
- and we can overlay the districts, the council districts.
- Would you have time between now
- and the next town council meeting just to confirm
- our current wards are all in the right census blocks?
- Yes, if I have access to your voting.
- You do, yeah, it's the public one.
- I can get you the link.
- Okay.
- So-- - If it helps,
- I have an email from the clerk's office
- stating that our ordinance as I prepared it was fine
- on their end, unless you just wanted to--
- If they say it's okay on their end,
- and that would prevent us from somebody saying you're not,
- I mean, I glanced at it and it looked like they were,
- to be honest with you, it looked like we were still fine,
- but I mean, I don't know.
- I got census blocks from a third party
- and they're all over the place,
- but then I had Monroe County do the certified census blocks
- and they look like they match.
- So, I mean, I'm okay passing it.
- If you got that from the clerk's office--
- I do.
- I'm okay, tonight.
- Maybe this is a question for you, William,
- but Darla, if you can answer, please.
- So what happens if we have an annexation
- that all of a sudden during the middle of the next five
- years makes us very lopsided?
- Can we redistrict on our own,
- petition the state to redistrict, or--
- I think you can redistrict any time you want to, actually.
- Okay, all right, that answers that question.
- You're just required to do it after every census.
- Sure. - All right.
- Any further questions from council or comments?
- Anything from the public, either online or in the gallery?
- Seeing none, we're back to the council.
- Do we want to table it so Denise can have time
- to double check, or do you guys think the clerk's letter
- is good enough to--
- I would think the clerk's letter
- since it's not a certifying authority.
- I will still get you that link, Denise,
- so for future reference,
- 'cause they hadn't uploaded them before,
- so it makes it a lot easier for anybody.
- Yeah, I appreciate it.
- Is there a motion concerning this ordinance?
- I move approval of ordinance 2025-14,
- recertifying the current legislative body,
- district of the town of Ellsville.
- Second.
- Motion is second.
- Whenever you're ready for roll call.
- Scott Oldham?
- Yes.
- Dennis Swafford?
- Yes.
- William Ellis?
- Yes.
- Trevor Sager?
- Yes.
- Pam Samples?
- Yes.
- Motion carries.
- Next ordinance is 2025-15 to adopt the town of Ellsville
- construction standards and specifications manual
- for roadways.
- This was discussed at the last town council meeting as well.
- These are going to be posted if the council passes them,
- they're going to be posted on either the town's website
- or the plan commission website or both.
- And there are various points throughout the UDO
- that make reference to these construction standards
- and specifications.
- The one thing I did mention at the last meeting
- that in the final manual copy if you pass it
- is on page three under section 3.0.
- There's a reference to chapter 761 storm water management
- and it should say chapter 152.
- 'Cause the council passed that last November, I believe.
- The new storm water ordinance.
- Okay, so for procedural question here,
- if we move to pass this, does it need to be passed
- as written or should we pass it?
- Pass it as amended.
- As amended, okay.
- Other questions from council?
- From the public?
- Seeing none, back to council.
- I move that we pass ordinance 2025-15
- to adopt the town of Ellsville construction standards
- and specification manual for roadways.
- Second.
- Motion and second.
- Yes.
- Dan Swafford?
- Yes.
- William Ellis?
- Yes.
- Trevor Sager?
- Yes.
- Pam Samples?
- Yes.
- Motion carries.
- There is no old business this evening.
- Under new business, the first item is reappointment
- of the Ellsville building corporation board members.
- The three board members, Jack Neal, Brandon Wright,
- and Carly Woodruff are all up for reappointment.
- According to the bylaws,
- the Ellsville building corporation board members
- were supposed to serve three years,
- and I would ask the town council to reappoint all three of them.
- I've made contact with all three of them,
- and all three of them are willing to continue serving.
- Darla, I believe Carly Woodruff has moved
- out of the county.
- Did she say anything like that in her?
- I will check with her on that.
- She did not mention that, but I will check with her
- before you reappoint her.
- She didn't say nothing.
- Should we go ahead and just appoint the two?
- Yes, please, and I will get with her.
- And I'm sorry, Darla, the names on the other two,
- I apologize.
- Jack Neal and Brandon Wright.
- Okay.
- Any more comments from council?
- I will ask all the public for this,
- and come back to council, okay?
- Can I make a motion to reappoint
- Ellsfield Bidding Corporation board members,
- Jack Neal and Brandon Wright?
- Second.
- Motion to second, roll call, please.
- Scott Oldham?
- Yes.
- Dan Swafford?
- Yes.
- William Ellis?
- Yes.
- Trevor Sager?
- Yes.
- Pam Samples?
- Yes.
- Motion carries.
- Next on the agenda is the Richland Township
- lease termination agreement.
- As you are aware, the town has a lease agreement
- with the township to rent the property on Park Street
- for 25 years, I believe.
- In any event, the town is going to vacate
- that property fairly soon.
- And the Richland Township trustee attorney, Eric Cook,
- prepared the lease termination agreement
- for council's consideration.
- And essentially it says the town will vacate
- the premises on or before July 1st
- and surrender the premises to the township trustee
- at that time.
- Okay, questions from council?
- Anything from the public?
- Back to council.
- Can I make a motion to approve Richland Township
- lease termination agreement?
- Second.
- Motion second, roll call please.
- Scott Oldham. - Yes.
- Dan Swafford. - Yes.
- William Ellis. - Yes.
- Trevor Sager. - Yes.
- Pam Samples. - Yes.
- Motion carries.
- Now we're gonna move to privilege of the floor.
- Anyone having business for the council,
- not part of our normal agenda?
- Carl Thurmond from Thurmond Body Shop
- and resident of downtown Ellitsville.
- I'm here tonight to see when second and third phase
- of the flood mediation will begin.
- The first phase is complete, but still flood.
- Got water in there over the weekend,
- and then less than two months earlier on April 4th,
- there was significant flooding then too.
- So what has been done has helped, but it's not enough.
- There's still a lot of room to finish.
- This is not normally question and answer session,
- but this is something--
- Yeah, we talked about it at the RDC meeting.
- And all along when we had Christopher Burke come in
- and do a study of flood mitigation,
- which no matter what we do, it'll always be flood mitigation.
- We'll never tame Mother Nature.
- It always seems to come up with a new way
- to put rain on top of us.
- But as Carl said, the first project I think
- has been successful in mitigating some of the storms
- that might have posed problems in the past.
- So one of the studies, or one of the parts of the study,
- actually phase two, was to reconstruct
- the McNeely Street Bridge.
- It's just to the east of Matthews Drive.
- And we believe our experts, as well as Christopher Burke,
- they did the study, and they're the experts and engineers.
- And we believe that if we would put two large storm culverts
- on the north side of the bridge
- or on the Matthews Drive side of the bridge,
- that it would alleviate some of the flooding.
- We think that when the bridge was originally installed,
- if you remember, if you're an old-timer,
- like a couple of us are,
- you remember the road from Matthews,
- or the road on McNeely from Matthews
- when it approached the bridge,
- it used to be several feet lower
- than when it was actually on the bridge.
- And I heard about a couple of people
- that actually could jump their motorcycle across the bridge
- because it had a ramp effect.
- So just for...
- And so nowadays,
- sometimes they build bridges to have that feature
- so when the water starts backing up,
- the road isn't a dam,
- it just goes over the road and the road floods
- and the water just keeps moving.
- So I've talked to a couple of people
- that was around when that bridge was reconstructed.
- And the town supposedly,
- and I'm looking for the documents now,
- noted that that would create a backup
- and maybe not even pass muster on today's standards.
- And so we're thinking those storm boxes
- would recreate that ability for the water
- to just go around the bridge and go on down the stream.
- So I mean, for us as a town,
- our next move, if we're gonna make one,
- is to have the second phase,
- to have plans and further study
- that would tell us what we would need to do next,
- which is the box collar approach
- and give us an approximate how much it costs.
- But we can't do anything with the bridge
- 'cause that's the county's, is it not?
- Well, that is true.
- But I think Kip and I met with them a few years ago
- and asked about getting help to take care of that.
- And at that time, they didn't think they could.
- I mean, they just weren't interested in that.
- So it's a project that needs to be addressed.
- And now that we've made step one,
- step two logically is to go take care of that.
- And so I'm scheduled to call their highway department
- and I'll make that request again.
- And in the meantime, we need to decide
- if no matter how we approach it,
- we need to be able to say how much it's gonna cost
- and exactly what we're gonna do.
- So we might have to spend some money on some engineering.
- And I'll have them re-quote,
- they originally give us a price of,
- I think it was like 35 grand,
- but I'll have them re-quote what they could work,
- what it'd take to put us in a place
- where we could actually maybe bid out a project.
- Is there anything that we have left
- that we have not done from phase one
- that might help with any of this mitigation?
- Nothing.
- I mean, it's complete and,
- I mean, it's, between Carl and the rest of the town crews,
- I mean, every rain event,
- we've been there for every rain event
- since it was completed and we can kinda,
- we know what's gonna happen depending on the rain
- and the first phase really did help,
- but it's a mitigation project.
- It's not, you can't say you're going to cure the flooding.
- I just, everybody always needs to know that.
- Okay.
- So there's the answer as much as we have it.
- We may need you to help address it with the county as well
- if we can't go through there,
- but they're gonna meet with them
- and we'll see what we can do further.
- Okay.
- So, you know, there's a lot of economic growth
- happening downtown, but it's gonna remain stagnant
- as long as--
- Right, but if we can't effort anything that we don't own
- and if that's the stumbling block that we don't own,
- we can't do anything with it until we get permission.
- So it's on the county.
- The county owns the bridge.
- The county governs the bridge.
- The county governs what can happen with the bridge.
- All right, so that's phase two,
- and then do we have to have phase two complete
- before phase three?
- If phase two is the choke point from what he's saying,
- I'm assuming phase three wouldn't do as much good.
- I actually don't have the answer to that.
- I'll have to look.
- Okay.
- But as I understood it the last time,
- and sorry, didn't mean to catch off, Carl,
- wasn't phase three part of the county's version
- of the creek as well?
- Cleaning that out and opening it?
- I'd have to read it again.
- I've been pretty much focused on phase two.
- So it's a county issue at this point?
- Potentially.
- Don't wanna throw it all back on the doorstep
- until we know more, but that's where we're at right now.
- We're gonna approach it like it's the town's duty
- to get to the point where we know who's going to do what,
- and if we hit a stumbling block, then I'll report back.
- All right, thank you for your help.
- Thank you.
- Anyone else having business
- or any privilege of the floor?
- My name's Chad Stevens,
- and I hear Mr. Thurman was talking about the flood.
- Carl may get hit hard, I get hit harder.
- I'll back up a little bit.
- Some of you know me, some of you don't.
- I wasn't born here,
- but I was raised here from five years old.
- First house on the right, Ridge Springs, grew up there.
- I went to school here, first through fifth,
- down at what's now Seven Oaks.
- Graduated here, and my kids went to school here.
- I've had business here after working with my dad
- for 20 years, and I've seen a lot happen down
- at the corner of Matthews and McNeely
- when it comes to flooding.
- I fought 'em for years, usually don't say much,
- but after watching a dozen of my guys work their butts off,
- cleaning up after this flood from early Sunday morning,
- I just can't take it no more.
- I gotta come up and say something.
- So, I'm here to say something about,
- in 2017, you all had a report built by DNR,
- and as of now, we only have like one section of this done,
- and we all know, we all should know,
- that the McNeely Street Bridge
- is the biggest culprit in flooding in Ellisville.
- In this report, it said, it did need some more study,
- but in this report, it did say something
- about putting culverts at McNeely Street Bridge.
- I understand that Ellisville has no authority
- over McNeely Street, but something's gotta be done.
- I took on 21 inches of water early Sunday morning,
- with the same amount of rain that fell Thursday morning,
- three and a half inches, and it didn't flood down there,
- but Sunday, sorry, but a Sunday morning,
- I couldn't get down there to find it fast enough,
- and I took on 21 inches of water.
- Toolboxes, tools, equipment, and I firmly believe
- that these culverts that should be put,
- well, I mean, a new bridge would be great,
- but I firmly believe that these culverts
- put in McNeely Street would have,
- most likely, mitigated every bit of that water
- from flooding in there.
- 15 minutes, 15 minutes from when I checked the cameras
- and everything was okay by the time I got there
- and I had six inches of water in the building,
- I couldn't pick up stuff fast enough,
- and it was 21 inches, two and a half blocks deep.
- All day, I couldn't even go down there yesterday
- and work on it, I was just sick of my stomach,
- so today, a dozen people worked on it all day,
- and it's still not done, it's still not clean, all day.
- Tools lost and morale's down and I'm not happy,
- so I'd like to see something done,
- whatever force we can put behind getting these culverts in
- on McNeely Street 'cause that will help this flooding,
- no doubt.
- I have land on both sides of that creek
- and I would be willing and very willing
- to remove a lot of the fill that's on the land
- east of Jack's Defeat to help mitigate some of that
- and get direction into those culverts,
- so just wanted to come up here and say my piece
- about getting that, getting pressure.
- Like I said, I don't know where we stand
- with what can be done with Monroe County,
- but I would appreciate all the effort we could
- pushing forward to getting those culverts put in
- 'cause I am tired of seeing water.
- I mean, I would love to say,
- and I'm sure Carl's aren't the same,
- just, hey, go buy more land in higher ground,
- but it's not that easy.
- Very limited about I need to be where I'm at
- or, and I love being in Eltsville.
- Like I said, I grew up here, went to school here.
- I've owned all my businesses here.
- And I really want to stay here.
- So there's a limited amount of land in Eltsville
- to run my kind of business.
- And not only is it expensive to buy
- and interest rates and everything else,
- like it's just hard to do that.
- So staying where I'm at, I hope I can.
- And I hope, you know, certainly get some help
- and get this pushed through, whatever, whatever it takes.
- Like I'm here.
- I want to get the, I want to get these culverts put in
- and see what it does, 'cause it's a lot of water.
- I took 40 inches on in April, two months ago.
- Now, luckily that I had warning
- and was able to pack everything up in a trailer.
- And I wrote, I mean, all I lost was a roll of toilet paper.
- And a day's worth of cleaning and scraping.
- And, you know, we were back in business.
- No warning with this one.
- And, you know, by the time I got down there,
- it's been a rough day, so.
- We'll let them see where they can get with the county.
- I don't wanna just tell you it's the county's problem,
- 'cause we're gonna try and effort it through.
- But at some point, we may need your help
- and Mr. Thurman's help with the county
- to address it with them and see where we can go.
- Because legally, we can't touch the bridge, we know that.
- So it's gonna be a question
- that we don't disagree with you at all.
- It's how do we get a yes from a current no?
- Yeah, I don't think it's anywhere here.
- I really don't.
- I mean, you know, the mitigation,
- this report talks about things.
- And they're saying it's a report
- and you know, there's recommendations in there,
- but, and y'all are trying, like I see it.
- But that part right there,
- you got my full whatever support I need.
- Mr. Thurman brings up a very good point.
- We're a lot of people investing a lot of money
- in Ellsville right now.
- And we want that to continue.
- So we have another government at this point in time
- kind of stopping that up.
- Yeah.
- So we're gonna need to see what we can do with that.
- Yeah, and like I said, with land on both sides,
- that bend right there is,
- I'm losing about a foot to two foot of land with every flood.
- It just keeps eating the bank out and falling in.
- So I got an issue there, but like I said,
- I own land all the way from the train depot,
- all the way to McNeely and from Jack's Defeat
- to your railroad trail.
- So like, there's a huge amount of dirt
- that can be moved out of there with the right approvals,
- but it still gets us to McNeely Street.
- Right.
- And like I said, I'll do whatever I can.
- We push as much water as you want,
- but once we get to McNeely,
- it only goes under the road so fast.
- And it goes to my shop and...
- Right.
- Yeah, so.
- They're working on it.
- So if you have an answer, we'll get back with you.
- All right, thank you.
- We have a call scheduled with Monroe County, right?
- Pardon?
- You had said you have a call scheduled
- with Monroe County.
- All right, thank you.
- Thank you.
- Anyone else having business for the council?
- Good evening.
- My name is Jason Barrett.
- I'm a resident of here in Bloomington, technically,
- but on the edge of Ellisville.
- Ironically, I'm not talking about needing mitigation help
- from the flood, I bought a business into the flood,
- so hopefully trying to move our economics
- along in Ellisville.
- Try to keep this short.
- First of all, thank you guys for having this forum
- to like people like me come up and speak their piece
- about the things that may be bothering them
- or challenging with their businesses.
- Little history, I bought a company
- called Floor Coverings International four years ago.
- We were over in Bloomington, around West Plex,
- and decided to buy the couple properties
- down on Temperance last July,
- and come and try to remodel it,
- and sort of put our footprint here.
- My co-owner is my wife.
- Some of you know her, she works in the school system.
- Three kids in the school.
- I'm not from here, I've been here seven years,
- but we're deeply rooted and committed to being Ellisville.
- We got a four-year-old, so we're gonna be here
- at least another 14 years.
- But tonight, I just wanted to bring up a situation
- that I'm in with some fines that were levied against
- my business, and I've sent this to Scott and to Mike Farmer
- so they could read it ahead of time.
- And I don't want to get into every specific detail
- unless we need to, but there were three different fines.
- Jason, before you go on, let me ask one question.
- Yeah. - Okay.
- And I learned this right before the meeting,
- so I apologize.
- Darlie, he's here to appeal a fine,
- but does that not go before the BZA first
- before it gets to us?
- It goes before the Board of Zoning Appeals.
- Okay. - Before it comes to us.
- You're welcome to tell us what's going on,
- but I don't want to put you through that cycle
- and then refer you right back to BZA before you come back.
- That's fine, so a different time and place.
- Yes.
- And actually, if it goes before the Board
- of Zoning Appeals and he's not happy with that decision,
- he gets appealed to the local circuit court.
- Okay. - Okay.
- So we are not your venue, unfortunately.
- I apologize.
- I didn't learn that until right before the meeting.
- That's quite all right.
- I appreciate your guys' time, and have a good meeting,
- and we'll talk to you guys soon.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- Anyone else having business for the council,
- not part of our normal agenda?
- Anyone online?
- Seeing none.
- We'll move on now to supervisor comments,
- beginning with the town manager.
- Okay, well, the first order of business
- is to talk about June 23rd.
- We've started moving from the properties on Park Street,
- where the street department is,
- and the properties on Matthews,
- where the utilities people are.
- We're moving out of those old, nasty, rotting,
- falling down buildings,
- and we're actually gonna be able to provide our workforce
- a place to work out of that they can be proud of,
- and it'll be a lot safer and cleaner.
- Anyway, with that said, we've started the process to move.
- First thing I'd say is the utility office is closed
- for the next two days while we make the move.
- And then I also want to let everybody know
- so they can put it on their calendar.
- June 23rd, we're gonna have an open house
- and a ribbon cutting.
- It'll be from three to six,
- which with the ribbon cutting about 3.30,
- we'll have some comments in the ribbon cutting itself.
- There'll be light snacks, refreshments,
- and we'll be able to show where we're gonna be living
- for the next 20 or 30 years, at least, and give tours.
- It's a really nice building.
- It adds to the campus where we already have the town hall
- and the police department and our parks.
- And so I'd like for everybody to come if they can
- and we'll be getting ahold of you individually
- to talk about how we process the event.
- Well, you know, we've talked about the flooding
- and there's two things going on, you know,
- that make the flooding bad in Elso.
- We're down near the creek
- and that's where everything floods.
- And this year we have had rains of, you know,
- five inches and then that was April,
- that was April 5th or 4th.
- And then recently Thursday night we had 3.5 inch rain
- or four inch rain.
- And then Sunday morning we got surprised
- with the two inch rain was in about 40 minutes.
- So even this morning we had 0.6 tenths of an inch of rain.
- So we've really been taking it hard.
- It shows a weakness in our storm system
- and there's still a lot of irrigation to be done
- to maybe to lend ourselves to these guys' problems.
- So I hate it.
- We're always out there.
- There's not much we can do when it's raining.
- We try to be out there in force.
- Kip's always out there before I am.
- I try to be out there every night
- to try to help when we get to,
- when we talk to the engineer
- so we know what we're talking about
- and how the water runs.
- I don't know how helpful that is,
- but I hate it.
- I mean, it's killing me.
- I hate it.
- If I can ask a question,
- how did the plant fare during this?
- I mean, the sewer water treatment plant,
- 'cause I know we always have I&I
- coming from umpteen systems.
- We continue to have the same problems we've always had.
- We go to, I mean, all four plants are on.
- Had a couple local incidents that caused us some problems
- that were 'cause of new construction,
- but we got them rectified right away.
- We still have photos I've actually met
- with Easter Rensselaer today
- and continue to discuss
- that we really, really, really need
- to start diving deep into our I&I issues
- because it kind of used to be this way,
- it's pretty much went through this way.
- So we continue with our growth
- in our old piping system to,
- I mean, I was actually out this morning
- walking manholes with the crew,
- trying to figure out where we work next.
- But the Eastern seems to be on board.
- I showed them some pictures of some manholes
- and they were gonna get right on it.
- Kind of always dovetailing with that.
- Unfortunately, the people who've spoken tonight
- and some that haven't clearly have an issue with water.
- We know that.
- But I think the general public says,
- oh, those are limited to whatever.
- They're not because they impact everybody
- as they go to the plant.
- And I don't think most people realize
- the staggering amount of water
- that goes through that plant
- and through our pipes every day.
- And then you increase it to, what did you tell me?
- Millions of gallons a minute, you know,
- at certain points during these heavy rains,
- it's just unfathomable.
- I know from a normal flow of one million,
- it's about what our town uses during the normal fit
- of the 2.3 the plant has.
- And luckily they built that plant
- with a peak of 10 million.
- And currently we are meeting that 10 million.
- I mean, we're getting to the point
- where we need to talk about
- how are we really gonna mitigate
- what we're using up in our capacity.
- So things that we're currently working on
- just haven't brought them to the board.
- Sure.
- Jeff, excuse me, what does I and I mean?
- Excuse me?
- What does I and I mean?
- Inflow and infiltration.
- Inflow is a direct hole or a gate and hole
- in the sewer system that we don't know about.
- And I and I is, infiltration is the lots of cracks
- and breaks and laterals and stuff like that.
- And when you add it all up, it's a lot of water.
- And what's crazy is it goes down
- about as fast as it comes up.
- I mean, it takes about a day and a half
- for it to get back to normal, so.
- Thanks.
- Thanks, Jeff.
- Anything else?
- Mike, anything else?
- Chief?
- No, sir.
- Jeff, back to you.
- Will you still be here 30 years from now
- when we move with you?
- I will be.
- (laughing)
- Just out of spite.
- I have nothing to say.
- Chief?
- Remind everybody that the fireworks this year
- will be on July 5th.
- Of course, there'll be food trucks up there
- starting around five.
- The fireworks are at dusk around 10 p.m.
- And it's, the fireworks are fully funded by donations.
- And if you're on social media
- and you go to the Ellsville Fire Department Facebook page,
- you can make donations through that link also.
- Hello?
- That's it.
- He said that's it.
- (laughing)
- Thank you.
- I have nothing.
- In about March,
- town council mentioned something about the census
- in our current population.
- So I contacted the Census Bureau about a boundary update,
- filled their required paperwork out.
- They sent me the maps.
- And on May 30th, I provided an update
- adding 21 streets and eight parcels.
- So this gives them time to get everything in line
- for the next census.
- And their cutoff date was January 1st, 2025,
- for me to add that.
- Fantastic job on that, Denise.
- Thank you.
- Anything else?
- That's it.
- Okay.
- Nathan from clerk's office.
- Mr. President.
- Sir.
- I would offer one more thing.
- So we're doing the 10 week concert series.
- Yes.
- It's not there yet.
- It's went well and the crowds keep getting bigger.
- I don't know what happened.
- Saturday, I didn't get to go,
- but I know I had to move it in because it was raining
- and there was a storm coming.
- But I highly recommend you check it out.
- It's kid friendly.
- It's easy in, easy out.
- And it's a really good time.
- And there's plenty of food trucks.
- So everybody should go at least once.
- Thanks.
- Okay, moving now to council comments.
- All I have to say is that,
- do we have in our, the back of our mind plans
- for the 250th anniversary next year of the country?
- So I don't know what it's called, not bicentennial,
- but I'm sure there's a name for it.
- Just if we don't, maybe we, just a thought.
- It's a good thought, but I mean,
- I'll be at my house if you wanna come over.
- (laughing)
- But yeah, maybe we should.
- And I would take a leap from the board
- of what they think we should do.
- Yeah, I mean, yeah.
- I know in the bicentennial and showing my age here,
- I remember in the town of Speedway,
- where I lived at the time, they had,
- on their main streets, they had flags,
- like where we have the ones from the school now,
- just American flags, both ways, everyone.
- They even painted their fire hydrants, red, white, and blue.
- I mean, little things like that really.
- And if we're having a concert series with,
- and if that continues, I think that would be great.
- Just something to think about.
- We've got plenty of hydrants that they painted,
- maybe we could, I mean, you know.
- I'll volunteer to help do some of them.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, so, well,
- I guess we need to start talking about it.
- I might even grow a beard.
- And so, but anyway, yeah, we'll work on it.
- I hadn't even thought about it.
- I didn't want to bring it up in like February
- and say, what are we doing?
- Yeah, we did a great job being prepared for the eclipse.
- Yeah, I'm just kind of the same, yeah.
- (audience laughing)
- We did, though, we were on point.
- We did.
- We apparently scared everybody away.
- (audience laughing)
- I didn't have to wait in line too long
- for my Diet Coke at McDonald's, so it was all good.
- Yeah, well, I'm all about being patriotic,
- so yeah, we should work on that.
- I just hadn't thought about it.
- I mean, try to make sure it doesn't rain.
- I understand.
- Any other council comments?
- None.
- We're good? - We're good.
- Seeing no further business for the council.
- We're adjourned.
- (orchestral music)
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