- God and gracious heavenly father, we thank you for bringing us all safely here together this evening. We pray that you lead our thoughts and guide our conversations and help us make the best decisions for the town and all these things we ask in Jesus name for his dear sake. Amen. 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. For all. All right. Tom Corman. Here. William Ellis. Carl Thurman. Here. Trevor Sager. Here. And Larry DeMoss. Here. OK. I guess we're going to approve the minutes from June 9, 2025 meeting.
- I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from the June 9th, 2025 meeting. May I get a second? I'll second. Tom Corman? Yes. Carl Thurman? Yes. Trevor Sager? Yes. Motion passes. Well, I guess we're going to discuss the amendments and clarifications to
- Affirmatory resolution for the Downtown Economic Development District. Okay, so at the last couple of meetings we've been discussing the discrepancies that the Auditor's Office found between the legal description and the parcel numbers that the town put together for the resolution, both the original resolution and the
- for what we're calling the downtown district or the riverfront district. And so we need to get that cleared up. And at the last meeting, what I had advised was that it may have been possible to do this with a simple resolution from the ROTC to clarify those. And between that meeting and this meeting, I went to the annual municipal law seminar
- And I attended a couple of sessions on redevelopment commission issues, and both of those sessions were headed by Lisa Lee from Ice Miller, who is the town's bond council. And she said, if you change, her advice was, if you change your resolution in any way, shape, or form, no matter how minor, even if you're just clarifying something, she said you need to start the process over again.
- which means the RDC needs to do a resolution designating certain areas that goes to the Planning Commission, back to council, back to the RDC for public hearing, and Bay-Potilly's also going to have to do another economic impact statement before the hearing. So I think that's what we're going to have to do, but my suggestion was that we put this on the agenda for this evening for discussion,
- Because if we have to go through that whole process, if there's any other changes you want to make to the downtown district, like you want to change the scope of some of your projects, we can probably do that while we're doing this. If not, what I can do is just put together a resolution for your consideration for your next meeting, which would be, I think, August
- 11th, 8th, 11th? Yes, and then the Planning Commission could consider it at September 4th meeting, and then council could look at it probably at the September 8th meeting, and then it could be back to the RDC in October for public hearing. So I wanted to get your thoughts on whether you wanted to make any additional changes to what we're calling the roof-front district, or if we just want to clear up
- the discrepancy between the legals and the parcel numbers. And to be clear, if we don't do anything, then we're covered the way it is, correct? If you don't do anything, there are some, most of these parcels that were in the downtown district, and I think there were 126 are in the TIP district, but there are some that are not. Really the pink ones with the end with the-
- So I've had a chance to look into that, and there's a split of opinion between me and Baker Tilley and the statutes and what the auditor says, but essentially says, Baker Tilley says, look,
- It's probably not going to cause you a problem if you include right-of-ways that are not within the town in your TIP district because you're not going to capture any income from them. So it's probably not going to be an issue. But he said best practice is to take those out because you legally can't set a parcel in a TIP district if it's not coterminous with the town boundaries. And so what I marked in pink is the right-of-ways that we talked about.
- For the Weaver property. Second page. Second page. So next to the Weaver property, which is area K, which is the yellow property on the first page there, just to help you orient yourself. There is a right of way that shows it's still in the Richland Township Taxing District. So not within the town.
- Area L is the blue, and that's the Township Trustee's Office has a right-of-way next to that, which is also in the Richland Township Taxing District, so not within the town. That was the blue, the L? L's blue. Okay. And then M, which is sort of the yellowish green, which is the town property at 101 South Park, has two right-of-ways that are close to that area. One is in the Richland Township Taxing District,
- The other one says it's within the town of Ellisville taxing district. So I think we're good to include that in your TIF district. And that's assuming that elevate is correct on all of these. So green is town and that is already in the language, right? Yeah, 101 South Park is part of the town and that's in the TIF.
- K is the Roy and Connie Weaver properties. There's three of them there. No problem with those being in the TIF. The blue L is the Richland Township Trustee's office and it is also within the town's boundary. So there's no issue with those properties being in the TIF. The issue last time were the right of ways that were close to those properties that are owned by the state of Indiana according to Elevate.
- we wouldn't do any improvements to their properties anyway. So whether they're in or out, when I talked to Darla, I suggested it was a non-issue. It's probably a non-issue. Now, if you wanted to do, it's possible, I suppose, in the future, if the town wanted to do, use some of its TIF funds in those areas for just, I'm making something up, if you wanna do a pedestrian bridge or build some sort of property in the right of way,
- You could do that, you'd have to get the permission from the state of Indiana, of course. You'd have to get an easement, you'd have to enter into a memorandum of understanding, get their permission. It would be possible to use the TIF funds for those areas if you wanted to. But these right-of-ways are so small, I mean, I can't imagine any project going in there, but I suppose it's conceivable that a project could. So, maybe.
- but last time we were in any of those right aways, it was to fix the main break. So we didn't even ask permission just for perspective. Well, is there any other projects coming ahead that we need to think about? I mean, I don't know anything down there on that district that we'd have to,
- Well, I think we went back before we finalized everything and included Roy Weaver's property and the trustees property because we thought we might want to use TIF money for those. Originally, Denise put together the map and I think we included everything that we wanted to and just for recollection, we went
- two blocks back from the corridors, east and west on 46. And we felt like that was enough for any improvements we might make. Didn't feel like we really wanted to go into the core neighborhoods and corrupt what's already there. And so we felt like two blocks in was plenty far enough. So I think that we haven't covered pretty well
- And right now, I can't think of any expansion that we'd wanna make to the TIF, so for me, it's leave well enough alone. I think you need to do a declaratory resolution just making sure to clarify the legals and the parcel numbers, even if you don't add any property to the TIF, just for purposes of the auditor's edification, Baker-Tilley's edification, and for what goes on gateway. And when you do, you have,
- You're going to have another report due this year on August 1st of every year. And in that report, you're going to have to explain. August 1st is your neutralization report.
- that's going to be due, and Baker-Tilley will put that together for the town, but you have to explain the effects of trending or reassessment on the economic development areas. So if not for this year, for sure for next year, you want to be sure that the parcel numbers and the legals all match up so that when Baker-Tilley does their report, that report is correct and the town is also capturing what it should be capturing from the properties that you think are in the TIP districts, if that makes sense.
- scope-wise, has anything changed or are we good with the, you said if we wanted to add something to the scope, I mean, if it's gonna be amended anyway, it sounds like, based on the advice that we've been given. Mike, can you think of anything scope-wise that needs to be added if we're already, seems like it needs to go that route? I can't. I mean, like I said, I think we covered it when we first looked at this.
- It's enough for quite a while. This is a tech district. I think it's right to get everything or ducks in a row so we don't have this problem in five years from now. Exactly. And if you want to add to it later, you don't want to get into the situation where you're sitting here thinking, okay, I thought we fixed that last time and it turns out we didn't fix it. So let's get it fixed for everyone's edification and make sure that the legals and the parcel numbers
- the legal descriptions and the parcel numbers all match, and we'll go from there. And just to be clear, I think we've talked about before at this meeting, I know I've talked about it with several people, there's a possibility that we might want to look at an East Tift district in the future for the business corridor that goes from Smith down to Heart Street where this ends, but right now we've got enough
- going on and I don't think anybody's, we haven't come to a consensus on why we would do it and what it would consist of. So there's room for expansion another way even if we want to start another tip gesture. Don't know if it's a good idea or not. Fair enough. But that would be entirely separate. Yes, that would be totally different.
- So Darla, if I'm reading your email too, just about this project, you gave us three options there at the end. And how I interpret it is option one, pass the resolution, revise and clarify legal descriptions and parcel numbers. That one is not changing the scope. Correct, that does not change your project scopes. But that would start the chain where it goes back to another, right?
- Sounds like that's kind of what we need to do then. Okay, that's what I'll put together then. I mean, I'm just speaking for myself, but what these guys make a decision to, I would vote for that version of it probably, just to get our ducks running around. Same here. Yeah, I think it'd be better to be safe. Sorry. I mean, it seems like it's a delay. We're not in a hurry right now for nothing.
- All right then, so could I have a motion to authorize me to put together a resolution to clarify parcel numbers and legal descriptions in the riverfront economic development area? So moved. And have it ready for the next meeting. Yeah, I need a second. I'll second.
- We need a roll call vote to Darla. Pardon me. Do you need a roll call vote on it? If you could please. Thank you. Tom Corman. Yes. Carl Thurman. Yes. Trevor Sager. Yes. Motion passes. All right. Thank you. That's all I had. Privilege of the floor. No questions.
- Any comments from us? Anybody who needs anything? I have a question. This resolution, will it be at the next regularly scheduled RDC meeting? Yes. In July, correct? On the 28th? I thought that RDC decided to meet once a month. OK. So the next will be August 4th. August 11th. Sorry. August 11th. OK, perfect. I have a comment today. Go ahead. No, go ahead.
- Just curious, the president position here is showing vacant. Are we down a member? We are. OK. Do you want me to explain or do you? Dr. Hash is no longer going to be on the board. So Tom Corman is the vice president, and my thought is that the vice president's sole purpose is to move into the president's position if he is not available. I should say that's your sole purpose.
- But that's your main purpose. And so I mean, if Tom is willing to serve, that's fine. If he declines, then you will have to select a president. And I understand that on the town council agenda this evening is on one of the agenda items is to pick a new RDC member.
- So, Tom, are you willing to serve as president? Yeah, I guess. Okay. If everybody's okay with it. Go for it. Yeah, there you go. I knew you'd be my boss. There you go. For the record, do we need a motion for that in a second and a vote or I guess it won't hurt. Okay. If we do it that way. All right.
- to promote Tom Corman to the position of president. Trevor Sager? Yes. Carl Thurman? Yes. Tom Corman? Yes. Congratulations. Thanks. At least I was here when they told me. Yeah, so that brought up another thing. We need advice now.
- Or you can wait for the next meeting just to see who's picked. And keep in mind that the president and the vice president have to be picked from different appointing authorities. So Scott Oldham appointed, Trevor, Dr. Hash, and William, and the council appointed Carl and Tom.
- It might be better to wait and just see who your next board member is and then at your next meeting pick the vice president If that makes sense, yes Go ahead so I Think we're down to one meeting a month right now until activity increases so the next meeting would be the 11th of August and
- And I'm asking, okay, so can we have the next meeting on the, make sure that we want it on the 11th? Because I need to save the 25th for a work session for the town board for budget. So I just wanted to make sure the 11th was okay for the next meeting. Yeah, that's what we kind of talked about.
- So we're always going to go on the first meeting of the month for the RDC.
- Just for the board's knowledge, I will not be present at the August 11th meeting, but I'll have everything prepared the same way. That was great. Thanks for doing that. I have one more comment. So in the West Tift District, the Harman Farms should be building homes in the next three or four weeks, correct? Correct. Yeah, so I thought there's going to be activity. So I think they're curbed out there on some of the lots.
- They probably are going to do the road test or whatever you call it tomorrow for the streets. Yeah, thank you. And then pay them. So you should be seeing some. Pretty exciting. Yeah. It was awful quiet today.
- One more thing before you adjourn. The handout that was referenced will be available online as an amended packet item for this meeting. It'll be available tomorrow for the public to view. With my high tech marking on it. Looks great. Is there anything else? All right, well, I declare this meeting adjourned.