September 14th, 2026, meeting of the Oldsville Town Council. Chief, the prayer. I have the father just
one more time to come before you and we thank you so much for the blessings. We ask you to be with this
country and this state and this county that was affected by the 9-11 attacks and we moralize that. Just
be with us tonight as we make those decisions that affect this group. We ask the same Jesus name, amen.
Amen. Chief. 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. Scott Woodham. Here. Dan Swaffer.
William Ellis. Here. Trevor Sager. Pamela Samples. Here. Now we need a motion to approve the minutes
for the 8-24-2026 town council meeting.
So moved. Second. Motion is second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstaining? Acts
to pay accounts, payable vouchers and payroll vouchers. So moved. Second. All those in favor say aye.
Aye. Opposed? Abstaining. There are several resolutions this evening. The first is resolution 21-2026,
clerk department legal fees, legal services, I'm sorry.
brought for an additional appropriation for the town legal services line for $36,000. The 2026 budget
was $37,500. We are currently negative $3,107.37 from invoices sent in from Darla Brown Law Services.
Questions from the council? Action from the council. This is a public hearing, Scott.
I apologize, anyone from the public? And back to Council. Motions? Can we do it? Sure. I move to approve
Resolution 21-2026, Clerk Department Legal Services. Second. Motion to second. Roll call, please. Scott
Oldham? Yes. William Ellis? Yes. Pamela Sampos? Yes. Motion passes.
resolution 22, 2026, the fire department equipment. We've had some unexpected repairs on three of our
large trucks this year and pretty much depleted the repair funds. So I'm looking to do an additional
appropriations out of our CB&E line, the cumulative building equipment, basically just to get us through
the end of the year. And then obviously with the bid in that fund, should it not be used, which is my hopes,
then it'll just stay in there for future use. Questions from council? No. From the public. And back
to the council fraction. I move to approve resolution 22-2026, fire department equipment. Second.
Roll call, please. Scott Oldham. Yes. William Ellis. Yes. Pamela Samples. Yes. Motion passes.
Thank you. Resolution 23-2026, police department arms, radar, and equipment maintenance.
moving funds around, correct? Yes. This was submitted by the police department for a reimbursement check
that they will get for equipment to come in, so we did not have it appropriated when we did the budget,
so they're asking for permission to spend the $4,600 that will come in. You lost me on reappropriation.
They have a check. They spent money out of their, let me slow down and rephrase this. They purchased funds
out of this GL and they're receiving reimbursement. I don't know exactly which. So we just need appropriate
more money until the funds are reimbursed. Yes sir. Okay. Sorry. I got confused. That's all right. Questions
from council. From the public and back to council. I move to approve resolution 23 dash 2026 police
department arms radar and equipment maintenance.
Second. Motion to second, roll call please. Scott Oldham. Yes. William Ellis. Yes. Kamala Samples. Yes.
Motion passes. Next is resolution 24, 2026, street department, capital outlays, building improvements.
Okay. Our salt and sand barn was probably built in the late 70s, early 80s, somewhere around there.
And we have already outgrown that building. And with the proposed reorganization coming up,
We are working at rebuilding a new salt sand barn behind the DPW building. So far we've been doing good
with appropriating funds within the budget to do a lot of the concrete work and I am needing an additional
roughly $40,000 to do the concrete walls in that new building behind the DPW building for salt sand barn.
I'm sorry, that will be coming from the CCD. Irrespective of whether the consolidation is approved or
not, we still need that. If you all remember back in January, we had that big snow and I almost depleted
our salt inventory in that one snow. So I'm having a hard time maintaining the salt amount in the building
for the snow. It would be ideal that if I could actually have what we need for the whole season,
and not worry about trying to get more salt. I actually had to try to get salt another route because
salt shortages that was going on in the state of Indiana. And there's also a possibility of salt shortages
again for this winter. So we need to be able to try to get more salt on storage on hand. Questions from
council? From the public? And back to council fraction.
I move to approve resolution 24-2026, street department capital outlays, building improvements. Second.
Motion second. When you're ready. Yes. William Ellis? Yes. Pamela Samples? Yes. Motion passes.
Thank you. There are no ordinances on first reading this evening. There are two on second reading, the
first of which is ordinance 2026-14, to prohibit use of public records for commercial purposes. This
is the second reading on this ordinance, and the purpose of this ordinance is to limit
the number of requests that the town gets for public records that appear to be earmarked toward getting
information that the requester can use for commercial purposes to sell things to town citizens or to
town employees. So under the Indiana code, the town has the right to pass an ordinance that would require
the requester to sign a document certifying that they will not use any information
solicited for commercial purposes. And if they refuse to certify that, we do not have to give them the
records. And what happens if they certify that and then turn around and do it? Well, we can refuse them
the second time if they ask again. Otherwise... Questions from Council? Discussion? Anything from the
public? Back to Council.
to approve ordinance 2026-14 to prohibit use of public records for commercial purposes. I'll second.
Motion to second roll call please. Scott Oldham? Yes. William Ellis? Yes. Pamela Samples? Yes.
Motion passes. Next ordinance is ordinance 26-15 adding a new section of the Ellsville town code allowing
the use of utility task vehicles on roads located within the corporate limits of the town.
the Town Council asked me to put together an ordinance that would allow utility task vehicles on town
roads, and this is the second reading on this ordinance that would allow that. Individuals who violate
the ordinance can be fined, and this does not mean that ATVs and golf carts will be allowed on the roads.
It's just UTVs.
If somebody habitually violates this, can they have the UTV impounded based on this? Under the Indiana
Code, yes, they can. Any other questions or comments? Any from staff that want to talk about this?
Any from the public? Seeing none, we're back to the council for action. I'll move to approve Ordinance
2026-15, adding a new section to the eligible town code allowing the use of utility task vehicles on
roads located within the corporate limits of the town. Second. Motion second, roll call please.
Scott Oldham. Yes. William Ellis. Yes. Pamela Siamples. Yes. Motion passes. There is no old business
this evening. New business, none listed,
but that doesn't keep it from happening. Do you have anything? I have no new business. Do you want to
go back to old business, revisit that? I have none. Okay. Now we'll move to privilege of the floor and
having business for the council not part of our normal agenda. Not seeing that, we'll now move to supervisor comments.
I'd just like to thank all the volunteers that helped put together the Fall Festival. It is a huge endeavor,
a lot of hours spent planning and then implementing. And so just a huge shout out to all the volunteers
because anything that actually helps with making our town feel like a community
that social interaction and the entertainment it brings to the kids and adults alike. It's a big deal.
And so the Fall Festivals ingrained in me, I can't remember when we didn't have one all the way back
into the 60s. And so it's a big shout out to everybody that has anything to do with it. I'd really like
to thank the police and the fire and the DPW and everybody that
actually had to work to help put it together. I don't think we could do it without the police firing
the DPW. So thanks to them, even though they had to do it, they always seem to do it with a smile on
their face. And then, of course, Shannon had mentioned it. I'd like to shout out to Jeff Farmer for
doing such a good job of driving the pylon truck.
So thank you everyone that made the Fall Festival great. Our grandkids have more candy than Halloween.
The Fall Festival's gonna put Halloween out of business, I'm pretty sure. Anything from you? Yes, I
have a couple things. I wanna notify you, first of all, we've had an SRO that has indicated he's going
to resign from the department in the middle of October.
And we'd like to have permission to open that spot up if we could. We'd like to do that tomorrow if
at all possible. We're okay with that? Do we need a formal vote Darla? I don't think so. Also I want
to bring to your attention the annual grant that the school receives for the SROs was short $12,000
this year. So I'd like to present that we
meet them halfway and do $6,000 Noel, and Baker Telly tells me that I have enough in the budget for
next year to do that. I wouldn't see that being a problem. I mean, I think it's in our best interest
to have those officers where they're at. Yeah, they, they pay for three quarters of the salaries anyway,
so. Even if they didn't, I still think it's in our best interest to have the officers there. Right,
we gotta have somebody there, yeah. That's probably gonna take a vote though, so does anybody wanna?
I just have a question first. Any idea why it was short? Is the grant funding shrunk or? They thought
the funding was going to go down after a few years. Oh, okay. So there's nothing we did wrong. Okay.
No. Darla, does that actually take a vote? I think it does, but if you want to, you can wait until the
next meeting and I'll have the SRO contracts up for renewal and we can talk about it then and just do
it in one fell swoop.
So yes to that, but we'll have to wait till next week. I'll talk to President Sanders about that Thursday.
And while we're giving gratitudes out for the Fall Festival, we have Acting, or I'm sorry, Acting Chief,
Deputy Chief Shannon Bunger, Sam Miller, Lieutenant Michael, Zach put the whole shindig together down
there for us and it really worked out well. So we really appreciate that. Also have a recognition time
if we could, please.
I remember a lot of Wednesday the half ago, we had a bad storm went through town. It did do a lot of
damage, but where it did do damage, it really put people in jeopardy. Is Beth Staggs here by chance?
She couldn't make it, okay. This is from Beth Staggs. She said, I am writing to inform you of Officer
Sam Miller, who pretty much saved my life after the storm on Wednesday night.
I had a tree fall on my house and buried my car. He happened to drive by right after it happened and
stopped to see if everyone was okay. My dog and I were shaken, but fine. My neighbor had told him that
I had dialysis the next morning at 6 a.m. Officer Miller said he would come back after going on a few
calls and get my car out. And he did. It had to be chainsawed out.
It was buried. I cannot express my gratitude enough. What he did to me was rather matters, life or death.
Literally, I don't go to dialysis, I die. I am hoping that you can do some type of recognition for officers
for outstanding service. He definitely deserves it. The way I look at it, he saved my life. If you have
any questions of this time, anything to recognize Officer Miller for his outstanding service in the
community, please let me know.
I will forever be grateful. Thank you, Beth Staggs. I've asked Deputy Chief Bunger to read the recognition
letter. So I'm not going to read the whole thing and bore everybody with it, because what the chief
said is pretty much exactly what happened that night. Sam was out on his patrol with the other officers,
and anybody that was in town that night knew that it was straight chaos.
made sure she was okay, and then promised her that he would come back later with a chainsaw and help
get her out, which he did. So we're very, very grateful and thankful for that. On a side note, this
is our SRO that's resigning, so I don't know if he should really get this or not. I don't know if he
got to anyway, so. Sam's a great, when we asked him to step in and fill in the SRO spot when I vacated
it, he jumped on it. But he's got too good of an opportunity to pass up, so he is gonna stay on with
us part-time and help us with training.
the festival for the July stuff like that. So we appreciate you staying on and job well done. We're
in Michigan, but you've always got a home in your jail, so please department. Thank you.
Congratulations, Sam. Mr. Farmer, you're up. Even though Mike covered most of it, got to work the parade
with the DPW and the police. As always, it's a joy of mine on that Saturday morning. A lot of craziness
out there and they did a good job and I thought it went really well this year. I don't think we had
any accidents, did we?
My lands, watching all those kids pick up that candy is incredible, isn't it? That's something else.
But just wanted to shout out to all the guys that came in from the DPW. Chief? Tomorrow morning, we're
going to Appleton, Wisconsin to do the final inspection on our new fire engine. After that's done, it'll
go to Whitetown for a couple small installs of some loose equipment.
and we should have it the first October, should be in service, we're hoping by the middle of October.
It is fire truck blue. So we'll probably have it come up here during one of the council meetings now
where everybody can take a look at it and see what we have. Yes, well not in this building though, but
it will fit in the current fire station, so we're good there.
Okay, I got a couple things. To go along with what is talked about with the warning of Sam, that storm,
the DPOW has been kind of behind on trying to get some of the storm stuff picked up. So this week we'll
be picking up storm damage as well as our brush pickup as well. We've put it on social media and on
the town's website. So also,
I attended a meeting about a week and a half ago just to let you all know. NDOT is preliminary doing
a State Road 46 and Flatwoods Road intersection improvement. It's where they'll, where Flatwoods comes
in at an angle, they're gonna bring it over a little bit and bring it in at a right angle. So right
now they are in the planning process still. They plan to be letting bids August of 2028.
the utility locations will happen in the year of 28 and the proposed construction start would be the
spring of 2029. Just wanted to let you know, since that's a town street as well, just to let you know.
I can't say they didn't give us foreign evidence on that one. Yeah, exactly. Okay, now to the council
comments. Just had a great time at the Fall Festival and at
I think it just shows that with all the supervisors and everybody, the feedback we've gotten, that this
is one of the things that we need to be really proud of being here in our town. I think everybody is
a part of it. Absolutely. Seeing nothing further before this council, we'll stand adjourned.