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.