- Call to order the Monday, August 24th, 2026 meeting of the Altsville Town Council. Chief, pledge,
- or prayer, I'm sorry? I have to follow just one more time to come before you and thank you so much for
- the many blessings you've bestowed on the families and individuals represented here. We thank you so
- much for this little town we serve. We've had to give us the knowledge and the understanding to make
- the decisions that are right for this town. In the name of Jesus, amen. Amen. Chief, pledge.
- 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. Whenever you're ready for roll
- call. Here. Dan Swafford. William Ellis. Here. Trevor Sager. Here. Pam Samples. Here.
- minutes from eight twenty four twenty twenty six council meeting. Move to approve the minutes from eight
- twenty four twenty twenty six town council meeting. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?
- Any abstaining? Act to pay accounts payable vouchers and payable vouchers. So moved. Second.
- Motion second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstaining?
- There are no resolutions this evening. There are two ordinances on first reading, the first of which
- is ordinance 2026-14, to prohibit use of public records for commercial purposes. So the town is receiving
- more and more requests for public records that appear to be requests for information so that the requester
- can use it for commercial purposes. And there is a section under the access to public records statutes
- which allows for a municipality to pass an ordinance
- which prohibits the information being used for commercial purpose, and that is the purpose of this ordinance.
- If the town council passes this ordinance, then any requester seeking information that appears to be
- requested for use for commercial purpose will be required to sign a certification under the penalties
- for perjury that they will not use it for commercial purpose. Okay. Just by way of explanation,
- is incredibly burdensome for our staff because some of these record searches go on for years that they're
- asking for data and they're asking for some very arcane data that is of course public record but on
- the other hand we're not able to charge for the data that our staff is producing so that these people
- can turn around and then make a profit off of it so that's what this ordinance is intended to prohibit
- not to prohibit you from getting the data you need for your own purposes but for
- someone turning it into a for-profit industry at our expense. Did I get that wrong, Darla? No, you got
- it right. OK. And Darla, what is the penalty if they say it's not for commercial uses and they use it
- as a perjury, or was there another? Well, you can certainly decline to provide them any records in the
- future. If you could prove perjury in a court of law, that would be great. OK. Chances are it would
- be more just
- Realistically for time money and effort. Just say right you're done. All right, so that is available
- on the website for public to look at and we encourage you to do so. The next ordinance on first reading
- this evening's ordinance 2026-15 adding a new section of the Eltsville town code allowing the use of
- utility task vehicles on roads located within the corporate limits of the town.
- So two town meetings ago, the town council asked me to put together proposed utility task vehicle ordinance,
- and this is the result. This would allow you TVs to be used on all the town roads, except of course,
- State Road 46. It requires them to be registered. They are not to be operated on town streets a half
- hour after sunset or before sunrise unless they have
- headlights, operating lights, limits the occupants to the number of people who are supposed to be occupying
- it as per the manufacturer's specifications. Only 16 years, persons 16 years of age and older and holding
- a valid driver's license may operate them. Operators have to have financial responsibility, comply with
- all traffic laws, and a UTV by definition does not include ATVs, three-wheelers, four-wheelers, golf carts,
- Things of that nature. And there is a penalty. First offense is $25, second offense is $50, third offense
- and each offense thereafter is $100. Questions from council or comments? And how does this compare with
- the county one? It is similar. I did look at the county's ordinance. I looked at Brown County's ordinance
- and I looked at some other ordinances that were passed by towns.
- that were directed to UTVs only and did not allow golf carts and ATVs and things of that nature. But
- it is very similar to the counties, not exactly the same as. And Scott, since Scott and Trevor, you're
- very familiar with this. Since Ellsville, sometimes we have other jurisdictions here. Is this different
- enough that they can't address it or? They cannot address a town ordinance. So it's simply our police
- department here would be able to address this.
- anything else would default to state law. Do you want to talk more about that? No. Police Department
- happy with how it's written? Yes. Okay. Anything further? Again, this is on the website. I encourage
- you all to take a look at it, and if you have comments at our next regularly scheduled meeting, this
- will come back for approval. There are no ordinances on second reading. There is no old business. Under
- new business tonight is a Police Department personnel update.
- and then I believe they're gonna have a conditional offer. Thank you, Mr. President, and Jimmy, your
- chief of police. First of all, I wanna thank my crew being here tonight. Thank you guys for coming over,
- I appreciate it. We wanted to let you know that we have a opening through the resignation at the department,
- and we're really ready to offer an officer, a conditional officer of, I'm sorry, of employment.
- So that'll be done either later this week or first of September. And also under police department personnel
- update, I want to notify you that George will stand up. Yeah, I get that every day. Deputy Chief George
- Robinson and I will be leaving at the end of January in 2027. So we want to make sure you were clear
- on that. We've got about four and a half, five months for transition.
- I think President Oldham has a plan to do that tonight. But again, I just want to thank my officers
- for coming overnight. It really means a lot to me. Thank you. Well, first off, let's start us with a
- thank you to both you and Deputy Chief Robinson for absolutely making sure the state on track for a
- long time. And you've really been able to do some wonderful things with the department. We deeply appreciate
- it. And I'm sure they have a whole lot more nice things to say later in the year, but
- For now, just suffice to say thank you both. It's really been a pleasure. In the back of my head, even
- back when I was trooper in Connorsville District, I always thought, I saw Don Kooster driving around
- here. I know I'd like to be him. I want to be him. But he ended up in Chief of Police over here. So
- it worked out wonderful for me. Thank you so much. Thanks, Jimmy. Congratulations. Thank you. You want
- to give us the name that you want us to approve the conditional offer of employment to? Gabby Meacham. OK.
- So the chief is asking that we provide a conditional offer of employment suitable or such the point
- that she passes all applicable requirements. And I would move such. Motion a second whenever you're
- ready. Yes. Yes. Trevor Sager. Yes. Pam samples. Yes.
- Motion passes. Sorry. Thank you. With that said, again, with many thanks to both Jimmy and George, I
- would like to present to council tonight, Officer Shannon Bunger, and I would recommend to the council
- that he be Jimmy's successor, and that so we can begin a orderly transition, we would name him as a
- second deputy chief this evening to allow for transition to begin and to take place over the next several
- months, because both Jimmy and George
- quite a few days they're gonna take off and we do not want to go into the first of the year with Jimmy
- being very close and George being very close to that retirement date. So to allow for Shannon to first
- assume the position of Deputy Chief, I would move that we promote Shannon Munger to Deputy Chief effective
- immediately. I'll second. Motion to second, please. Scott Ullman? Yes. William Ellis? Yes. Trevor Sager?
- Yes. Pam Samples? Yes.
- Motion carries. So congratulations to you, Shannon. Do you want to say anything? That was also a not
- really face. Get used to it. Yeah. Well, I want to thank Chief General for coming over here a couple
- of years ago and good work for this great police department, great town.
- He made the comment about being a trooper in Connorsville back in the day, and when we first met, I
- told him where I was from, and he said, well, that's where I got my start. And his training officer,
- his daughter is my best friend. So small world, here we are. Fast forward, I won't say how many years,
- Chief, but a long time. And then thank George for all of his help at IU, and thank the council for having
- a faith in me and believe in me, and I look forward to get going.
- I'm just excited, ready to go. Thank you. Thank you. And again, I do not think that we can do anything
- other than make our intentions known that Deputy Chief Bunger would assume the role of the chief at
- the first of the year because that will be under a new council at that point. But that is definitely
- this council's intention that he succeed Chief Durnall into becoming chief of police. So with that said,
- we've got a privilege of the floor and we're having the business of the council not part of our normal agenda.
- Seeing no one in chambers and no one online, we'll now move to supervisor comments. Begin with the town
- manager. Sure, let's talk about budget dates in October, leading all the way up to Halloween. I think
- the budget kind of dovetails right into Halloween. So let's start with the dates. I've emailed all of
- you and I've asked you that we have special meetings on October 5th and 19th for the budget. It'd be
- a first reading on the 5th.
- and then hearing and approval on the 19th, and it'd be at 6.30 at the town hall, and that will be the
- only item on the agenda. So I'm hoping you'll reply to me so I quit being nervous about it. If anything
- goes wrong on the 5th or the 19th, we have 10 days, which allows us to sneak in one more day, but if we miss
- The 19th for some reason, if there's some reason we don't have the meeting, then we'll have to have
- the meeting on Friday, October the 30th or October 31st, which would be perfect for. Just for the record,
- are we gonna do both of those, the 5th and 19th at 6.30? Yes. Okay. So let me know, because I've got
- a scorecard going, so please reply to me. Well, I'll let you know now, I'm good for both of those.
- I am too. You're both good? Yep.
- And, okay. Okay, and then the only other thing I have tonight is that Fall Festival's coming up and
- I just remind everybody to be prepared for what the Fall Festival brings to town. And I'd appreciate
- it if they mow the yard, pull their weeds, and make this place look as good as we can, because we're
- gonna have guests.
- So I'm looking forward to Fall Fest. So dad said pick up. That's all I got. Anything from you? Just
- a little further update with with Officer Bunger coming in as deputy chief that leaves an opening at
- the junior high and Sam Miller, who was an SRO, raise your hand Sam, who's SRO certified will be moving
- into that position.
- And then with a new offer that we just made, it'll put us at nine people on the street. So we're in
- pretty good shape, or for now anyway. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Nothing? Planning? All right,
- thank you. Now move to council comments. I just want to thank Chief Durnall
- George, I mean, you guys have steadied the ship very well. And Shannon, you got some big shoes to fill.
- I don't know what your shoe size is. I don't need to get that personal with you, but I just think that
- it's amazing that we've had the privilege to have these two gentlemen steer law enforcement with this
- town. Well said. Yeah, absolutely well said.
- Anything else? Nothing? So no further business, we're adjourned. Okay, we're not. I am glad our paths
- crossed because you boys have been more like family to me. All right, thank you, I appreciate that.
- You've been a good friend, been a good supporter. Okay. All right, we're adjourned.