I pledge allegiance to the city and 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. Our heavenly
Father, we come before you to see you in any manner. So let the full town serve, granted to you, with
us throughout this reorganization process, and give us a mind and an understanding that we can do it
like we see it have us do,
We ask that you be with us tonight in the meeting, and we ask that you listen with all your heart. I
say in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Hey. Hello. Yes. Laura Hayden. Yes. So my good leader, Keith Michaels.
Yes. Yes. They need to turn their mics up, and you all turn your mics up. Sober.
All right, we're gonna skip counts expenditures. We're gonna have time to do those. We're gonna refer
to old business, which is Ricky Plunkett. He is not here. And now we're gonna refer to the reorganization
subcommittee, park subcommittee. Jim, Paul, you got something to sell us? Yeah, come up there if you
would. We'll try to be formal tonight.
My name is Jim Perry, and we don't have much to tell you but we are here to take notes Is there a portable
microphone somewhere? Because this came up last time I can take that but we can take that back to the
is that working I
Good, thank you. Paula Anderson, Valerie Dewar, and I are sort of the three-person subcommittee. Okay.
It's not like church. James Perry, Paula Anderson,
Valerie Dewar and We're not sure whether we've not met Valerie face-to-face I Thought Valerie was a
man, but I'm not sure Paula thinks it's a lady, okay I Center here in Ellisville, okay and William Ellis
this added Valerie to the subcommittee after we had somebody leave us and
who had originally been appointed. So we know virtually nothing about parks, cemeteries, and recreation,
although I will say that my first job was for my uncle, who was the director of recreation at the City
of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, town of 13,000 at the time. So I do know recreation, and I sort of know it
firsthand, but that goes back 60 years.
So what we need is we're interested in getting input from the parks board because I think I don't know
why the subcommittee was created, but I assume that there's some correspondence between Structures and
institutions of the town and Township and the subcommittees and I think there are seven subcommittees,
and I don't know the list of all the sub Ivan sort of
Memorize those but and I'm gone back to the notes of the reorganization committee, but we'd like your
input And we're here to listen to you tonight to get input about What questions we should be answering
in the report we have to? Finish by the end of February It's not it's not a long time, but it will you
know but and to my knowledge there are no cemeteries in Alexville and
that for which the town of Aliceville is responsible. But there are some parks, but we'll sort of, and
we have the budgetary documents, I think, from the two entities, but is that an, is that the? That's
an additional, yeah. Okay, good. I'll bring them out to you. Ronnie, take those out to Paul or Jim.
So having said that, I'm prepared to sit down and sort of
We're prepared to listen to whatever ideas you have that we should be working on What's one reason does
that work for you? Yeah, that's one reason wanted Ricky here because he's kind of our sports whatever
director We have a wellness coach from the Y
our recreation director designate that's for your subcommittee Ricky's he's retired insurance agent
yeah in the spring possibly up here I know he's trying to get that together that's really I think the
only thing I
And he's been, I mean, he does the five K's and. What's Ricky's full name? Plunkett? No, Puckett, P-U-C.
Plunkett. Is it Plunkett? Yeah, sorry. Sorry. That's how many. Okay. P-L-U-N-K-E-T-T? Yeah. Okay. Yeah,
that's it, yeah. I'll send you his contact information. So the Funfrolk, he was talking about doing
it up here and having different like little kids games,
It reminded me kind of how they used to do the fall festival when this highway wasn't like it is. Like
the little ducks and, you know, a little ticketed games, kids get prizes, food trucks, et cetera,
et cetera. I don't know when he was, like March or April. I think one of the ambiguities of
these subcommittees is whether they have a role
And I don't think our role should be specifying any budget or set of programs going forward.
That's correct. I will add that one of your considerations is a budget consideration. The parks board
is its own tax base. So what I was told about the parks trails. What does it mean to say that it's its
own tax base? They get a portion of the tax
You know, when you pay your taxes, a portion goes into the parks board, they do their own funding. It
doesn't come from the general fund of the town. The parks board has its own tax compared to it being
going out of the general fund.
Basically, though, what you're saying is that that's an allocation of the property tax that goes directly
to the parks board and is under the parks board jurisdiction for allocation. That's the way it exists
now. Right. It'll continue to exist that way. So one of the things I was told about your... Why though,
Denise? It's always going to have its own tax base. So one of the...
That means we have funds to help with trails, build parks, all the park equipment over here and stuff
like that to maintain. Is that by ordinance or what's the legal status? That is by ordinance. When the
parks board was established, yes, in the state of Indiana, it has its own tax base. So this is state
law then? Yes. And is this the $17,000 budget that was sent out to us last week?
see on the line. More than that actually, but. I think that was 17,000 was the township was it. The
last page is 25 or 26. I mean, so could you get us the could you get us the code? The legal code on
the state law ordinance. I won't look up the state code. I don't have that kind of time.
Because I mean, part of one of the issues for the reorganization committee is if they say, this is the
structure for the township, this is the structure for the town, or we're merging, then this is all open
to sort of recreation. So as I was starting to say, however, so what I was told one of your duties as
the Parks, Trails, and Cemetery subcommittee is to look at a budget
per se for the parks, because it will also include township, how much do you think will be required
for the maintenance of the parks? And that includes snow plowing and grass mowing and any other item
that may arise that needs maintenance. The only park that the township has is Campbell's Park, right?
Campbell's Park's ours.
Marcy Jane Lewis, and then they have Flatwoods. And then they have the baseball fields, too, right?
And there's a park that starts with a D. Oh, Detmer, yeah. The baseball fields, though, as I understand
it, are actually Richland Township? Yeah, Richland. Looking at Township, I mean, Flatwoods, Detmer,
they're all controlled by the county parks and rec. Yes.
I think, my personal opinion, if they're in Richardson Township, I wanna back, don't you? Yes, so when
we met with the town's financial firm last week, so we thought Monroe County would still manage the
parks, but they said no when we consolidate all becomes under the town. Yeah, okay. Mr. Perry, the IC
code number
the parks ordinance through the state is I see 36-10-3-3 36-10-3-3 What else we're thinking about Emily
He does 5Ks in the fall normally. I think you said sometime after May, right? It's on the third weekend
in September is a 5K that Ricky runs. It was the same time as the fall festival. Fall festival changed
to the second weekend because of some issues. And Ricky told us that if he tried to change the date
of the 5K, he would go clear down the bottom of the list as far as this
group that he runs with, so we're in pretty good shape with him now as he left on the third weekend.
Now let me ask a question. If we look at the town budget, is there a parks budget, a separate? I just
said it to you. This is it? This is it, OK. That's the last three years. This year in 25 and 24.
So in the 17,000 figure, which came from the township,
that's a little more than that, yeah. Is there a way we can see what Monroe County Parks and Rec spends
on Flatwoods on the Carson Trail that they cover and Denver? We should be able to get that because I
think Serena, she's still on the Parks Board of Monroe County. So I think we'd be able to get that for
you. If we can see that, then we can see the outlays that they already have for their maintenance
and whatever else they need to do. I mean, Denver has the community gardens. I think they collect revenue
possibly to rent those spots. I don't know. Can you state your name? Paul Anderson. I didn't want to
let you know that I have asked Ricky to work in a 5k when we finish the trail that will also we're thinking
maybe more of a spring to do that.
Yeah. Great, yeah. To catch you up a little bit, do these tell them our problem with finishing the trail
and the bathrooms? So we started, we got a next level trail grant and we were building our trail and
then we had to take a detour. We thought Duke would work with us and then they wouldn't work with us.
So we had to take a detour and because we varied from the plans, the DNR stopped us till we can
submit updated plans for their approval. And then when it's approved, we'll finish our trail and bathrooms
and the trailhead and everything. We've got about three quarters of a mile that goes into the woods
down by the senior citizens that needs to be finished. Maybe it is a mile, I don't know. Well, there's
also around DPW. Then we have some loops and stuff coming up. Just so you know, if you look to your
left, you can see the DPW building back there. That's where we're meeting Thursday night at five o'clock.
back there. It's going to the front right door. So. Awesome, Mr. Perry. For the Parks and Recreation
Board, for the town code is 95-01. And that's the Department for Establishing a Parks Board for the
town. Oh, if I can ask you.
Question, how common are parks boards across Indiana? Very common. Just about every town and city has
a parks board. And counties. And counties. Are there parallel entities in the township? There's no parks
board for the township, no.
That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it.
That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it.
That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it.
And you could have a nine-hole course on concrete. And you can make up obstacles throughout the course
that resonates and has some kind of appearance with Ellsville, like limestone. Make it where there's
some limestone. We've got a really nice putters park here in town.
and they do a great job. This is just something different and out there. Where would you look to put
it? That's another thing, yeah. I have not really brought that up to the town manager or the board and
stuff, but I don't know what's available up here, you know. I'd say the first one would be a temporary
setup. Yeah. Yeah, this is how it went over.
And we got a big field out here beyond the playground that we could probably use for that. But Ricky's
got that in the back of his mind. He's thinking about that. We had an offer to do a discourse back in
the woods that we got excited about. We decided we didn't want to do that. He said the discourse at
the high school. How much it's used, I don't know.
We're talking about a discourse. Yeah. We throw the disc, you know, throw it. You mentioned this miniature
golf park. Why not try to sort of arrange for a private provider to do that? We can't. It's just in
the thoughts right now. It's in the thought process. Yeah, all this is thought process.
You know, we're kind of seeing what happens first. Yeah, all of us up here work. So it's just, it's
kind of hard to get a lot of it going. I'm the one around town most of the time. So, but it's just something
we'd like to do. And we think maybe with a new township, some money coming in from them, we'd have more
money to invest in those type things. But I think we'd have to move out in the township a little bit
too, wouldn't we? We couldn't just do everything over here.
That's if and when this goes through. I mean, the township, as I understand it, is responsible
for cemeteries, but only abandoned cemeteries. I come from a community where the cemeteries were run
by the municipality. This over here, Denise, it's privately owned? Correct. OK. Which one? The Presbyterian.
It's right across the street. There are several cemeteries in the town, but none are run or owned by
the town. That's correct. There's one here. Or from the elementary schools. Where else? But they're
not run by the town. Not run by the town. No. I think that's what you were asking. No. But if there
were a merger or a consolidation of some sort, and I was shocked to know that abandoned cemeteries are
the responsibility of townships. Yeah.
And as I was telling Paul before that we started, that one of the first things I would do would be to
approach the state legislature to say, no, we don't want responsibility for abandoned cemeteries. Take
that off the ledger. But I think actually who starts a cemetery ought to be responsible for it in perpetuity
somehow. But apparently there are cemeteries.
including in this area that have been abandoned. I think the township has two that are responsible for
it. I'm not sure. But that might be under state code. Yeah, but state code, just like Senate Bill 1,
it can be changed. Yeah, that's correct. Right. Correct. Very, yeah. Probably ought to be changed. Did
he say anything else you were thinking about, Forest Park? And again, I don't know if that's your goal is to,
talk about. It's to be very broad and talk about a budget, what maintenance may be needed. Well clearly
I think one thing we need to include in our report is if for instance if there are already parks that
are part of the town or township that are sort of public responsibility that are sort of covered in
the budgetary process in some way that we need to sort of speak to that
But and then the other question is, well, maybe we ought to speak to the to the cemeteries that are
not part of the budgetary process, but are the responsibility from the township and maybe suggest that.
Well, I think taking over the. Flatwoods and Denver would be a big undertaking from April through October.
Yeah, yeah, at least those are those are county parks. Those are county parks. Maybe a weekly morning at times.
Flatwoods has, I mean, probably five to seven miles of trails that are mowed. Question, why would the
town or a township or a merged entity want to take responsibility for the county parks? Since the county
is responsible. It has to come with the new town organization. But if they're county parks, though,
they're not town or township. They're in Richland Township.
So it will come into the reorganization of the town. Even though they're county parks. And the question
is why, or wouldn't the commissioners continue to be responsible for that? No, our financial firm, we
had a meeting with them and they said if the parks in Richland Township, it'll come into the new
town, reorganized town. But if they're county parks, though, these are not township parks? They're in
the township, however. They're just run by Monroe County Parks and Rec. Monroe County Parks takes care
of them? Yes. Okay. But that issue came up in another context, and that is the township is now patrolled by whom?
public safety, I'm not in a position to. The county sheriff's department. Presumption was that the sheriff's
office would maintain responsibility, the county sheriff's office would maintain responsibility for
the township. Well, you're hearing things that I'm not quite aware of and I've been on every meeting
I know of. That was something that was raised by the town council in the run up to the reorganization
That was part of the, I think you were probably at that meeting, Jimmy. I know, I know we'll,
my understanding is we'll be responsible. Scott Oldham was the one that raised the concern about that.
Scott Oldham was responsible for policing Richland Township, but the Sheriff's Department has indicated
they will help us do that until we get up, get our numbers up. We would probably find out a little bit
more about that come Wednesday night.
when that plan kind of gets feathered out there to people. That goes back to my question though about
the parks. If the sheriff's department, the county sheriff's department is going to maintain responsibility.
I didn't say that. I didn't say that. I didn't say that. They're going to help us cover Richland Township.
So basically it'd be like mutual aid. Yeah. The Elto Police Department will take over.
the Sheriff's Department will come in to assist and be the assisting agency. Let me ask this question
then. If the current situation or current policing for the township is done by the Sheriff's Department,
am I correct on that? No, you're not correct. They're not. Just like Ronnie said, it's my understanding
anyway that if we take over the township. No, no, not if.
the current situation. The current situation is the Sheriff's Department takes care of the township.
Yes. And so what you're saying is that consolidation would impose some new responsibilities on taxpayers
within those jurisdictions. For instance, Flatwoods Park. It's in the county now. If there was a type
of an emergency there,
more than likely an Ellisville officer would respond out there being closest to that area to provide
what is called automatic aid into that area to see if they can stop the threat, start the search,
or whatever. Am I correct, Jimmy? That's sort of the standing protocol between jurisdictions. Yeah,
it's right now, yes. That's agreement.
because the town goes right up to the Flatwoods border. So yes. So we can annex them right now. Has
anyone had any conversations with the county about the status of park comedy parks in the township?
We're not doing that. That's going to be another level to do that.
I mean, I made a call to one of the county counselors just to have a conversation about what if or what
this means. Because there, I mean, for instance, if all of a sudden you're saying the town of Ellitsville,
which is now three and a half square miles, five square miles, takes over an area for which it's responsible
35 or 40 square miles. That's a significant change in fiscal obligations among other things. It's quite
an undertaking, no doubt, quite an undertaking as you've been to most of the meetings. I'm not meeting
out, I don't know how you're feeling. Okay, anything else?
half hour already. We had a hard stop for six o'clock tonight, so that's okay. We got the council coming
up. That's right. Let's move on to new business. I want Denise to explain the Heritage Center rental
form approval. Denise? Sure. As you know, we got a ready grant to construct the town of Ellsville Heritage
Center. It was quite the undertaking. We built it in
footprint of the Stewart family barn that was there even put the bull back on the barn. And it's very,
very, very nice building. So we could not include it with our normal shelter rentals. So what that put
before you is the proposed Heritage Center rental agreement and the rules that
We've had three meetings over and has been reviewed by our insurance carrier and town attorney. The
only item that may change is town council wanted either deposit or certificate of liability insurance.
It's since come up, if the building is damaged, the certificate of liability insurance represents a
problem for us and that's collecting
Our insurance person said that most likely they're gonna have a higher deductible to afford the policy.
So it would be going after them for the money. Our dear insurance carrier could design, could deny the
claim. So tonight at council town manager is going to ask council to remove the certificate of liability
insurance.
But before we open, I need your approval or comments and our changes and I can come back to your next
meeting or approval based on either leaving it in because council may not wanna remove it or to remove
the certificate of liability. We came up with an in town resident rate, non-resident and a $500 damage
deposit that
does get returned if there's. That's for either one. 500, 500 for either employee or non-employee. Right.
Yeah. So anyway, the rules we came up with, the Heritage Center is gonna be open every day from nine
to three and it's to be a gathering place so people can come in off the trail, take a break, we'll have
coffee and water, restrooms available. We're probably gonna have art classes in there. I'm looking for a,
grant to get some art teachers. And there's three meeting rooms, a lobby, an office, a kitchen, little
galley kitchen, two restrooms. And so we want the public to use it during the day has like a set of
gathering place or I came to our attention that groups such as Boy Scouts and other organizations didn't have
place to meet so that was another reason we built it or maybe a group wants to come down and have coffee.
And so we're hoping it'll be used and then from 4 p.m. of an evening and all weekend, you can rent it
for events. And so let me know if you have any questions. So tell me what number the insurance thing
is in here. The insurance is on the part, the application.
physically sitting in that building, because if it's just open, people are, I know that a lot of people
in the town are not wild, but just having an open building is. So we do have a security system and we
do have cameras. And so, but yes, somebody will be there. We talked, there may be times where we may
have to put up, be back in half hour, 15 minutes.
but there is an office there so people can go there and work. I wanna move the planning department down
there, but they won't let me. So it's just really, really a nice building, and I hope when it opens,
you all stop by and take a look at it. So Mike's gonna recommend that this insurance thing be taken
out? Yes. Okay. But town council established it, so.
they may wanna keep it. I would ask for a motion to approve the heritage trail rental agreement with
the understanding that the insurance liability clause may be taken out. Is that okay? I'll make a motion.
Thank you. Is there a second? I do have one more question. I know there's only four parking spots. Is
there potential to expand parking? Because if I were renting that for a birthday party, there's gonna
be more than four cars.
So the closest parking, we had more parking, but part of the drive into it was in the floodway, the
building's not. So that shortened the number of parking we could have. But I think we have six and two
or three ADA spots. And then you can certainly park, have somebody drop you off and they can park.
up at the Campbell's Park shelter parking lot or across the road at the old street department. Which
is going away, I guess, pretty quick. And they haven't filed a demo for demolition permit yet. Okay.
It is going away. At some point. That's what we're hearing, yes. You know that building floods, so.
Oh yeah. Okay, so I got a motion by
and then I got a second by Emily. Jimmy Durnall. Yes. Laura Hale. Yes. Katie Michael. Yes. Ron Van Dievener.
Yes. And Emily Kelly. Yes. And that was for approval of the town of Illtel Heritage Center rental agreement
with the idea that maybe this certificate of liability of insurance will be taken out.
Okay. Thank you. And then the rules you saw attached that they also will be required to sign will be
displayed. We'll frame those at the Heritage Center as well. And you will see some public announcement
about its opening soon. Thank you. I'd like to revert back to accounts payable. I just found that Serena
did give me accounts payable. So
There's not much difference. There was last time. If you'll take a quick look at them, we'll get those
approved. Except counts payable. Okay. Jimmy journal. Yes. Laura hell. Yes. Katie Michaels. Yes.
Ron Van Deever, yes. And Emily Kelly. Yes. Kind of on back on real quick on old business on the trails,
I saw the signs are going up and they look nice and stuff. Are they gonna possibly look at putting them
both directions? Yes. Okay. There'll be one at each end.
I'm at the mile marker signs at locations. Right now, it's just on one side of the post. And if you're
walking that way, you see it. But if you're walking from a different direction and you need to see it
quickly, you can't. Right. So that's where Fire Department, how they did their longitude, latitude,
and the mile marker. It's going from west to east, and the mileage starts after, carries on from the
Carson Farm Greenway.
So when the trail is finished, we will go west to east and do it backwards, yes. Okay, thank you. Yeah.
Really, it's really nice. Is there anything else? I wanna thank Mr. Perry and Paul, oh yes, go ahead.
Paul, I had tickets for cert to whatever it is at the auditorium
canceled last week, so it was moved to tonight, so she has to be there by 7. But one thing we wanted
to promote tonight was that we are meeting on Thursday night, the next two Thursday nights, the 5th
and the 12th. The 5th will be in the DPW building. The 5th in the DPW building. And the 12th will be
here. And the one on the 12th will be here. And we are interested in public comment.
And it'd be great, for instance, if we had somebody from the township who could attend or would be there
for public comment. And I don't know how to get the word out other than to be here now and say, we'd
like public comment for the subcommittee. We can ask tomorrow night or Wednesday night when we're here
to. And maybe somebody can, during the town council meeting tonight, mention it.
if something comes up on the reorganization. But we set those two meetings, and we thought, well, this
is an opportunity to get public input, additional public input in addition to meeting due here. Have
those meetings been advertised? Subcommittee meetings, like we're having on the 5th and 12th. It's up
to the subcommittees to do that. Some of them don't want public meetings yet. Some of them do.
Like, I think public safety's going to have one. You can promote ours, said Denise, if you want to.
We schedule a public meeting, but we don't have a way to sort of make the announcement. So planning
and zoning hasn't wanted a public. They just met last week for their first time. And they just discussed
a lot of things about the re-org.
It's up to the subcommittees if they want to have public or not. OK. All right. Anything else? Ronnie?
So you know, I make a motion to adjourn. Miss Laura? No. Kelly? Katie? Oh, come on, Katie. You got something
to say? I don't. It's been moved and seconded for adjournment. Ronnie? Jimmy Durham? Yes. Laura Hill?
Yes. Katie Michaels? Yes. Myself, Ron Van Deemder, and Henley Kills.
Who seconded that? Anybody? Second. All right. Thank you. I like my hammer.