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.