- This is the Monday, February 2nd, 2026 meeting of the Hospital Town Council. 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. Dear Ward, thank you. Bless this town.
- the decisions we have to make tonight and future nights, give us the wisdom and the discernment to make
- the right decisions for the best of and the betterment of the town of Ellitsville and those around us.
- In your name, Jesus Christ, amen. Amen. When you're ready, roll call, please. Scott Oldham. Here.
- Andy Telfer. William Ellis. Here. Trevor Sager. Here. Pamela Samples.
- If you would mind watching Zoom that way. She said she's gonna try and jump in, but not sure when she'll
- be able to make it happen. Let's go immediately to opening bids for the Community Crossing Grant. The
- first bid is for a B and B painting.
- For the resurfacing of various streets in Ellisville, the bid is $154,277.15. How much is that again,
- Darla? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. How much is that last bid again? $154,277.15. Thank you. The next one is
- from DC Construction Services, Inc.
- and their bid is for $196,486.51. Third one is for Milestone Contractors. Their bid is for $147,834.26.
- And the final one is from Lentz Paving, $166,152.39. So as always, I recommend the council take the
- bids under advisement so that they can be reviewed by the street department and or the planning department
- to make sure that the bids are in compliance with the specifications. May I add something to this also as well?
- Initially, we did not get granted the money through the grant because of the decrease in funds from
- $300 million to $100 million. So not only myself, but other local small towns, I think, for instance,
- locally, Olidick was one of them, reached out to them. And right now, I think it's been through the Senate.
- going to the House now, but it's Senate Bill 179, and it's proposal of an additional $75 million for
- called projects that some of the smaller communities like us really rely on this. And if this goes through,
- pretty much we've got a pretty good chance that we are going to get the funding. So these are kind of
- like preliminary bids, so I will hold onto these bids after Denise and I look at them, and we will not
- award the winning bidder
- until NDOT notifies me and says, yes, you're good to go. And we've gotten some funds from that, correct,
- approved? No. Oh, I thought they approved some of it. No, no, they just gave me certain streets that
- I was able to do a pre-bid with. So that's what I went with was what they suggested I bid for. So now
- I just need to wait on NDOT to find out the rest.
- but it sounds like we're gonna get something. It does sound like we are gonna get something, yes. Thank
- you guys for the work on that, because it's kind of contrary to what we were told at the state for passing
- the wheel tax, and now all of a sudden. Well, there's a shot. Yeah. All those in council in favor of
- taking the bids in advance until we find out further, say aye. Aye. Aye. Be opposed.
- We'll move on now to normal action to pay, I'm sorry, action approved minutes from January 12th,
- 2026 meeting. So moved. Second. Motion second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Act to pay
- accounts payable vouchers and payable vouchers. So moved. Second. Motion second. All those in favor
- say aye. Aye. Opposed? None abstaining.
- resolutions this evening, there are two. The first resolution is 03-2026 to repeal resolution 30-2025
- and to establish labor and equipment costs for the Town of Altsville Department of Public Works. This
- is a housekeeping matter. Back in October of last year, the town council voted to go before the IURC
- to file what's called a 30-day filing petition to increase non-recurring charges. At the same time,
- the council approved that
- You also passed a resolution which was designed to set forth the charges that the town would charge
- operators or contractors or other utilities that they needed help from the town. And so when the IURC passed
- gave you your 30-day filing. I went back and looked at the resolution, and basically you had some overlap.
- There were things in the resolution that didn't need to be in the resolution because they were covered
- by the IURC. So I took out the apples, oranges, and just left the bananas. So this is what this is.
- It's just a cleanup, and it just sets forth the rates that the town will charge other contractors, period.
- It doesn't cover anything that the IURC would regulate.
- I guess is there any type of annual increase or do we have to revisit this every year if we're gonna
- have an increase? These are just your own personal charges, so yes, if you wanted to increase them,
- you would have to do it either through a resolution or some sort of internal policy change mechanism.
- So we could set an internal policy that we kept up with inflation? Yep. Okay. Questions from council?
- Pam, can you hear us all right? Did you see me, Scott? Yes.
- Any questions from council? Any action or any questions from the public? Mr. Town Manager, do you wanna
- speak at all with this? Okay, and we're back to the council. I'll move to pass resolution 03-2026 to
- repeal resolution 30-2025 and to establish labor and equipment cost for the town of Ellisville Department
- of Public Works. Second. Motion to second. I'm sorry, roll call please.
- Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
- Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
- the council will see in their packet the exact amount to make the final payment for the fire truck.
- And so that is the amount of the additional appropriation. It will come out of the local income tax
- economic development fund. And I have the projected balance for the end of 2026 if you would like that
- as well. Currently, right?
- If you were to approve this amount, I subtracted it out so that you would know with the budget that
- we have currently in place, if we were to appropriate all of the funds, what the ending total balance
- for the LED would be. What is it? $841,639.93. And that's assuming that we spend all the money that
- we appropriated. And in 2025, we turned in
- $163,846.24 back into the LED. Questions from council. Just making a comment to the public that this
- is not additional taxes. We're not taxing more. We're just moving from one fund to the other. We're
- taking it from
- the bank account essentially, and asking permission to spend it. Got you. But it's money we already
- have is what I'm saying. We don't have to collect this. Questions from the public? Seeing none, back
- to the council for action. Make a motion to approve resolution 04-2026, the additional appropriation
- for the final fire truck payment. I'll second. Motion to second, roll call please. Scott. Oldham.
- William Ellis? Yes. Pamela Samples? Yes. Trevor Sager? Yes. Motion passes. We have one ordinance on
- first reading this evening, which is ordinance 202602, amending sewer deposit fee. The purpose of this
- ordinance is to increase the sewer deposit fee for renters from $100 to $250. Okay. This is on first
- reading this evening.
- Is there any reason to do any more with it tonight? No. Okay. Did you have a question? That's quite
- a bit of a jump. It reflects a couple of months, or maybe three months, of the bill. And so we will raise it.
- get left holding the bill, so to speak. And so that just seemed to be where we landed as far as an amount.
- Just concerned about the amount, because renters are already stretched thin. And I don't know if there's
- something we can do for fees to assess ones that are delinquent, but I just don't like the idea of everybody
- that's paying
- normally without problems, being punished for delinquencies when they're not delinquent. And that's
- in a sense what we're doing here. Do we have a lot of this? Because most apartments is handled through
- the landlord, right? Or am I wrong on that? Yeah. We do have a lot of problems when people don't pay
- their bills. No, I mean renters. Do we have a lot of renters that come to us to get sewer?
- Or is that usually going through the landlord? Well, when they rent, they have to pay a deposit on water
- and sewer prior to renting. Like houses, but not apartments. Yeah. Right. The big problem is we have
- failure to pay on water when we're shutting water off. If we have failure to pay on sewer, we have no
- recourse. Correct. If they own the property, we can't lien the property. If you give the money back, which
- So it's just, you know, the cost of services is one of them. We're trying to bring the deposit up to
- match it because you're always in arrears when you're paying a water reserve bill. Sometimes these renters
- will be short-term renters or renters that are, you know, they're nowhere moving on and they will not
- pay their last couple of months and we have no recourse to get the money back.
- So we take the deposit and pay the end of your payment. So your student bills and water bills don't
- go up in the future. Thank you. Is there a way we could put a lien on the property owner if they're
- renting? So they have some skin in the game, too. Actually, let me look into that. OK. Or we could find
- where it is. Right. Well, we could. I mean, I think we can.
- I'll let her look into it, but I think in the past, it causes problems when we have to deal with the
- property owners as well. And it is a problem. Okay. Are we good on that conversation? Yeah. Ma'am? No,
- I'm fine. There are no ordinances on second reading this evening. There are, however, three items of
- old business. The first is the Heritage Center barn.
- Yeah, you want to start or you want me to start? Oh, thanks. OK, so well, we have our rules and regulations,
- if you will, set up for using the barn. And one of the things we'd like to change is asking for a certificate
- of insurance. We think it's just fraught with problems, everything from people
- not, you know, whatever their deductible is, we have to go after that. I mean, somebody's gotta pay
- that, so then we have to go after that, and it doesn't really cover, it doesn't cover our costs if they
- have a high deductible. If the claim's denied, then who do we go after? And just the claim process itself
- just seems to be cumbersome for us to work with.
- we don't understand why we would have a certificate of insurance. We have insurance on our property
- anyway. And so if it's a small amount and we want to get our money back, the deposit usually will cover
- it. Most people that get certificates of insurance
- I'm not sure about this, but I think have a deductible. And so there's always gonna be this tug of war
- of trying to make a claim if we ever had to make a claim. So like I said, we already have insurance
- ourselves. So we just don't, I think it would be hard to, for our staff to process that certificate
- of insurance. I don't know if it was originally suggested
- Mike on that. That he has the ability to wave or the parks department. Well, we want to talk about that
- too. Here the whole purpose. I rewatched that meeting because I figured this anyway. She was snowed
- in. So yeah.
- I think the whole purpose of the either or was to give people a break on the $500 for the damage deposit.
- As Noelle said, she cannot take the check and just let it sit on her desk. If someone gives her a check,
- she has to deposit it. There was some discussion among the council members as to whether the $500 deposit
- was hefty, so I think the compromise was $500 or a certificate of
- liability insurance or event coverage, which is a little different than liability insurance. I think
- the town council decided on event coverage, which covers liability. So I think that was the compromise,
- but really truly damage deposit and liability insurance or event coverage are two different things.
- Some people wait till the last minute to pay us the deposits or the application fee or whatever.
- And then, so if they whip a certificate of insurance on us and hand it down, I mean, we'll be, you know,
- it'll be our responsibility to determine if it's even legit or not. And so, you know, I just. Didn't
- we have a lower price for residents?
- It was well that was just the rental fee was 25 to 15 in the damage deposit was the 3rd issue. Okay
- we want we want to encourage people to use it for sure. So I want to rent the barn. As a resident how
- much is going to cost me all in 25. $500 so then it doesn't cost 125 cost 625. You get the $500 back.
- I understand, but it's still right correct.
- We can hold the check. I thought we were going to be able to hold the check originally, and I didn't.
- But we're going to do that because they could go and cancel the check on you. Can we? Seeing that this
- meeting was a special meeting because we moved it and we have another meeting next Monday as a regularly
- scheduled meeting, could we perhaps table this and have some internal discussion on where we can go
- with this before then?
- Sure, and so a couple other things to think about. That's great. So employees, back to deposits, should
- I have the ability to waive the deposit for employees and can we offer them the in-town rate? Yes, I
- would say so. Yes. And then lastly,
- I don't think I should want to have the ability to waive the fee for anybody. I mean, there's probably
- some institutions, quasi-government institutions or people we might want to waive the fee for, but I
- hesitate to be arbitrarily saying yes and no to people.
- Darla is waving the feet put us up to. I guess legal risk, but what is that arbitrary capricious where
- we mean? I think you can have a policy for whatever you want. OK, I mean, as long as you're not. Denying
- people based on race, color, protected yet. So let me ask you this. I'm not sure how to phrase this.
- Do we have a limit on what it's used for when it's used, how it's used and how many people are going
- to be there?
- Yes, yes. Okay, occupancy limits, 80, we put that in our rules. We also put the time. Inside the building?
- Yes. What about outside the building? We didn't address that. What if I want to have a concert and I
- put my act on the front steps and I have this entire... I do want a general liability policy. Yeah,
- there we go. There's a difference between... Wouldn't that be an event? Yeah, there's parties and then
- parties where the public's invited, which
- There's been a couple of private parties that the majority of the public showed up at. And it was those
- big things where I was concerned with, but Mike kind of addressed it when he says we already have our
- own policy. So if they do something and do severe damage, we can get that taken care from our policy
- and then our insurance company will go after them. Well, yeah, I get it, but I'm after some protections
- from known quantities that
- We've seen over the years I assume it's me assuming that in all these leases we have peremptory clauses
- where if for whatever reason police or fire find this a danger to public safety or find this too big
- to manage with the on-duty resources they can walk and say we're done everybody close get out and If
- not, why don't we have that? We put something in similar
- I can't remember the wording. I don't have it in front of me. We also put they could be banned for violating
- the rules. And we did put something about safety in there, but I don't have it in front of me. Again,
- having occasion to attend some parties that thousands of people show up at, we simply don't have the
- manpower for that. So. Or town manager, depending.
- Also, too, they could say, oh, we're going to have 80 people here and 500 show up. And I don't know
- who all these people are. Again, there may be a reason that you need to close for whatever other governmental
- problems, issues, flooding. The river is too high. We've got rain coming in. Take your pick or whatever
- that doesn't necessarily fall under either of these two lines. Maybe.
- Maybe it's your family down there and you want us to close it out for you. I don't know, I'm just saying.
- I just want the ability because it's, to use a word that I learned a long time ago, it's an attractive
- nuisance. It's very attractive and I don't want it becoming a nuisance. Yeah, I mean, sometimes you
- just have to kind of make the sausage out of something like this to get where we wanna be. I think it's
- gonna be a perfect event
- I'm. Place for events that we we we just got a couple of rough edges we need to fix here. So with your
- permission we table this Council. Right. I don't think we're getting a lot of rentals next 5 or 6 days.
- So can I get a motion to table the Heritage Center discussion? I'll make a motion to table the Heritage
- Center discussion. Second. Motion to second. Roll call, please. Scott Oldham? Yes. William Ellis? Yes.
- Pamela Samples? Yes. Trevor Sager? Yes. Motion tabled. Thank you all. The next is the wastewater control
- panel replacement and SCADA system migration.
- Yes, you actually, the first part of that control panel, you approved last meeting. And the second part
- of it is the SCADA system. It's professional service from Wessler Engineering. I think it's in your
- packet. Is it in your packet? Yes. So basically, those services are for programming, labor, as well
- as system software and licensing.
- computers and everything. And the total for it was not to exceed $258,400. So they don't know that it
- will cost that much. They just wouldn't put enough hours on there. They're going to rewrite the whole
- SCADA system. This will actually set us up to be able to include our water towers, our lift stations,
- our water booster stations in the future. And we have a town-wide SCADA system for all the things
- cost doing business, this will be paid for out of the equipment. The shared equipment replacement account
- that us in Eastern Ridge District have, and I've already shared this information with Eastern Ridge.
- And I just like to add, we use the SCADA system every day and all the time. So I mean, it's like first
- thing in the morning, I jump on the SCADA system, so does he. So it's very important. Thank you.
- Is that the system that lets you guys know, like if the water pressure is low in a certain area or?
- We can actually do that, but it kind of would, because we're looking at water towers and we can tell
- they're probably moving down rapidly. But this will also tell us if we have some kind of alarm in the
- wastewater plant or our equipment failure. We do not have to staff it 24 hours a day, because we have
- this skated system. So if you can imagine having to put
- for this year. Right. That's true. So I apologize if you need a vote on this. Sure. So there's a motion
- from council concerning this case system.
- Yeah, I make a motion to approve the SCADA system. How do you want that phrase? Migration? How do you
- want it phrased? The Wessler bid should be approved. I'll make a motion to approve the Wessler engineering
- bid. I'll second it. Sorry, I'm zoned out. Scott Oldham? Yes.
- William Ellis? Yes. Trevor Sager? Yes. Pamela Samples? Yes. Motion passes. The next one is appointments
- to the Monroe County Solid Waste District Board and MPO. And that's the MPO policy committee. So the
- policy board appointment is to be the president of the town council, but the bylaws state that
- Scott cannot do it. He can appoint an alternative. You can't serve the whole board picture or replacement.
- Okay. I can't serve. Who do we want as a proxy? Suggestions? Kevin or Chris?
- This doesn't have to be a council, one of us councilmen. Oh, it does have to be. It has to be. And Trevor,
- because, I mean, I have no expertise with that. Yeah, I can. I'm strapped on time as it is. Pam, do
- you want to do this? No, I wouldn't. It can place the timing. Right. And I know Dan said he could not
- do either. Can we let it sit vacant for a brief time?
- We're just talking about if you can't make it correct or yeah, I can oh, okay, so Yeah solid waste management
- board is the same thing is it not because that's actually pointed by the county commissioners at our
- request But that doesn't have to be counsel does it
- get that. Yes, it has to be. It's a member who's a member of the legislative body of a town in the county
- that is not the municipality having the largest population in the county. So, yes. Okay. Why don't we,
- I would suggest we just let this one sit moot for a little bit and we'll see if somebody can free up
- time to do some of these things. Once I'm done with reorganization I can.
- You want a motion to table, Darla? Should we just let it set? A motion to table would be fine.
- Thank you. I said motion to table. These appointments. So moved. Yes. No, go ahead. Is there a second?
- Second. Motion to second. Roll call, please. Scott Oldham? Yes. William Ellis? Yes. Pamela Samples?
- Yes. Trevor Sager? Yes. Motion to table.
- Okay, go ahead, Mike, I'm sorry. Yeah, I'd like to point out we need to appoint somebody to the RDC
- as well. We have a resignation. Yes, correct. So I don't know if we can do it. Tom Corman, correct.
- Yes. I don't think it's necessary we do it tonight, but. We'll wait till Monday and we'll do something.
- Yeah, yeah, so I just wanted to make sure. Do we have any applicants so far?
- No, I mean, we really haven't advertised, but I did say today at the department head meeting that maybe
- somebody out of one of the reorganization committees might work. I apologize, Mike. I just said we might
- be able to pick somebody out of one of the reorganization committees to might be a good candidate, so.
- Why don't we all give some thought to that. And again, with a pretty convenient way of a meeting next
- Monday that we can come back to some of these things in a timely fashion.
- So with that said, is there a new business? Anything? Seeing none there. Now we'll move to privilege
- of the Florida and having business for the council, not part of the normal agenda. None there. Supervisor
- comments. Well, I'm just gonna say, I'm gonna let Kip take care of it, but just hats off to the people
- that plowed the snow and then plowed the other snow and then plowed
- the rest of us know, hats off to him. I mean, we's in really good shape pretty quick, relatively speaking,
- so hats off to that. In about a week, we're gonna start warming up and people need to be aware if they've
- had frozen pipes and they're still frozen, people that have fire suppression systems and if they've
- not been paying attention to how warm their ceilings are,
- They need to be aware when we start thawing out, if they're frozen pipes, they're more likely going
- to start leaking, and then it'll be emergency shutoffs. Of course, you can always call the Elstil Water
- Department. We have 24-hour service, and we'll come out. But I just want people to be aware it's inevitable
- that when we start thawing out, we've been 10 days below freezing.
- A lot of them been around zero and we've had wind. So I know there's some stuff out there froze up when
- it thaws out, it's gonna cause damage. So just be aware. Thank you, sir. You had one other item. I solicited
- bids to construct the new septic proceeding station at the wastewater treatment plant. I asked four
- people to bid on it. Two did send in bids.
- The first bid is from West Concrete and their bid is for $59,574. And the second one is from Eric Mastin.
- $57,830. What was the first one?
- Pardon me. How much was the first one? First one was 59,574, the second one was 57,830. I would suggest
- you allow me to take these out of advisement and make sure they're bidding on what the actual print
- or the new prints and specs call for. Do we have a motion for that? Please. I'll make a motion to let
- Jeff Farmer take the bids under advisement.
- second roll call please. Scott Oldham? Yes. William Ellis? Yes. Trevor Saker? Yes. Pamela Samples? Yes.
- Motion passes. Any others? Well, I need to bring that back to the next House meeting or... Please, once
- you make the recommendation. Pardon? I can do that next month. Yes. Thank you. Chief?
- I don't know where to begin, other than I've got an awesome group of guys that work under me that stuck
- it out from the beginning to the end. We came in about an hour before it started on Saturday. Nobody
- went home till 3.30 on Monday. So the guys were there the whole time. I had constant conversations with
- the town manager.
- Monroe County Highway was in contact with me, and I even had conversations with the City of Bloomington
- Streets as well. So we all three, with this storm, talked out our plans, worked all out, made sure the
- guys had rest, made sure they had food. I mean, it did really well. I mean, I've never had anything
- this big in my position. I did when I first started here 24 years ago.
- but that was under the helm of Jim Regal. But it went really, really well. We had very little breakdowns.
- And on the contrary, we are not out of sand, or salt, but we are low. There's been a shortage in this
- area and a lot of it, I was told, went south because they needed a lot of it down there because they're
- not equipped for that kind of stuff in that area. So we're still good.
- And I just want to thank the guys a lot for what they did, so. This is a little too low temperatures
- for the salt to even take effect though, isn't it? Yeah, you get down into your upper teens. It doesn't
- want to work. And the salt that I normally get that's, let me word it the right way, less expensive,
- will not treat at lower temperatures. But the salt that I end up having to get will treat down. It was
- treated salt.
- cost me a little more money, but I got that semi-load in on Friday before the storm hit Saturday night.
- So that's how close it was getting, so. But yeah, you're right. Temperatures, there's a, right around
- the upper teens, salt quit working, so. Well, it should go without saying, you know, to pass along our
- thanks, but I will say that your guys constantly amaze me how quick things get done, so. I'd point one
- more thing out.
- The new facility really helped too. It supports the operations. It's unbelievable. I mean, if I hadn't
- been for the support of the board to get that building built, we'd be back to the other two places that
- we used to work out of. And it's superb being able to work out a facility that it actually supports
- the effort. So thanks for that. I will say that the residents are noticing it too. Cause I've seen many
- comments saying,
- I'm driving in Ellisville, even the side streets have been plowed a couple times and I hit X. I mean,
- I'm not insulting any other road people, but when they hit X, they notice where the borders are. And
- I did call in a few extra guys. I mean, we don't even really plow with about eight guys. And I think
- we had a total of 12 guys here that was there for primarily them three days or pretty much.
- So we did have a few extra guys in there and that did help out a lot. So it gave us an extra truck here
- and there, so thank you. Council comments? Anybody? Pam? No. Carla? Seeing no further business, we'll
- stand and adjourn.