WEBVTT 00:00:00.226 --> 00:00:08.205 - Welcome to our reorganization panel. A big thank you to the town of Ellitsville for letting us use this 00:00:08.205 --> 00:00:16.031 - wonderful space. We really appreciate it. We'd like to have a moment of silence before we continue to 00:00:16.031 --> 00:00:23.703 - remember GL Chandler, founder of Chandler Funeral Home. GL was a true champion of our community and 00:00:23.703 --> 00:00:29.150 - a past president of the Ellitsville Chamber of Commerce. He committed, 00:00:29.282 --> 00:00:46.682 - His sorry, his commitment to our community and his dedication to serving others will be deeply missed. 00:00:46.682 --> 00:00:57.662 - Please join me in a moment of silence in honor of GL. Thank you. 00:01:02.466 --> 00:01:10.078 - We want to recognize our presenting sponsor today, Monroe County Airport. We truly appreciate your support. 00:01:10.078 --> 00:01:17.478 - A special thank you as well to our premium partners who support the chamber at the highest level. You'll 00:01:17.478 --> 00:01:24.668 - see their logos on our slideshow. Our annual meeting and awards dinner is Thursday, October 22nd. For 00:01:24.668 --> 00:01:32.350 - details about registration and sponsorship, please visit our website. Our moderator today is Mariah Souders. 00:01:32.706 --> 00:01:40.920 - Mariah is the senior external relations and communications manager for Boston Scientific Spencer's facility 00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:48.602 - where she leads community and industry engagement and oversees local employee communications. She is 00:01:48.602 --> 00:01:56.969 - passionate about building partnerships that strengthen workforce development and community impact initiatives 00:01:56.969 --> 00:01:58.718 - throughout the region. 00:01:59.458 --> 00:02:05.881 - She is actively involved in several regional organizations, serving on the External Affairs Committee 00:02:05.881 --> 00:02:12.305 - for the Ellisville Chamber of Commerce, the Legislative Affairs Committee for the Greater Bloomington 00:02:12.305 --> 00:02:18.791 - Chamber, and the Board of Directors for Regional Opportunity Initiatives. Mariah earned her bachelor's 00:02:18.791 --> 00:02:25.214 - degree from Butler University and a master of political management from George Washington University. 00:02:25.378 --> 00:02:36.634 - She is also a 2018 graduate of Leadership Bloomington Monroe County. Mariah and her husband Jeremy have 00:02:36.634 --> 00:02:47.673 - called Monroe County home since 2012 and are proud to be raising their two children in the community. 00:02:47.673 --> 00:02:53.950 - Please help me welcome Mariah Souders. We will be prompt. 00:02:54.818 --> 00:03:02.734 - Good morning. Ooh, I thought I was gonna have to do that twice, but you all are, the coffee is flowing, 00:03:02.734 --> 00:03:10.497 - so that is exciting. Thank you for that warm welcome, Jill, and everyone for being here. I'm going to 00:03:10.497 --> 00:03:18.185 - find this. So, we'll welcome our panelists. So we have, unfortunately Noel caught something that was 00:03:18.185 --> 00:03:24.350 - going around, so we have three esteemed panelists here today though, so without, 00:03:24.450 --> 00:03:31.188 - Esteemed, yes. Esteemed, not steamed, esteemed. So we have Colin McCarty, executive vice president and 00:03:31.188 --> 00:03:37.926 - fifth generation owner of Smithville Communications and CEO of its sister company, Smithville Telecom. 00:03:37.926 --> 00:03:44.926 - Under his leadership, Smithville Telecom serves more than 20 counties across central and southern Indiana, 00:03:45.026 --> 00:03:50.614 - With over 30 years of industry experience, Cullen advocates for expanding high quality broadband access, 00:03:50.614 --> 00:03:56.201 - especially in rural US communities. He collaborates with Congress and policymakers on broadband policies 00:03:56.201 --> 00:04:01.150 - and serves on the Government Affairs Committee of the NTCA, the Rural Broadband Association. 00:04:01.922 --> 00:04:06.685 - Locally, Cullen supports economic development through his appointment to the Monroe County Redevelopment 00:04:06.685 --> 00:04:11.584 - Commission and also advocates for local business as a member of the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce 00:04:11.584 --> 00:04:16.574 - Advocacy Council, Greater Ellisville Chamber of Commerce External Affairs Committee, and his civic commitment 00:04:16.574 --> 00:04:21.428 - extends to his alma mater, Indiana University, where he is a member of the Singing Hoosiers Alumni Council 00:04:21.428 --> 00:04:24.830 - and a member of the Dean's Advisory Council at the Jacobs School of Music. 00:04:25.282 --> 00:04:31.275 - I didn't know all that until I read this. So he holds a Bachelor of Arts from Indiana University and 00:04:31.275 --> 00:04:37.505 - resides with his wife, Rachel, and their two children in rural Monroe County. So welcome, Colin. Valerie 00:04:37.505 --> 00:04:43.498 - DeWar is a lifelong Monroe County resident, has been a familiar and active part of our community for 00:04:43.498 --> 00:04:49.906 - many years. She is currently the office manager at Hoosier Family Eye Care and has served on the Ellisville 00:04:49.906 --> 00:04:54.238 - Chamber Board for many years, bringing a strong voice for small business 00:04:54.338 --> 00:05:00.088 - She is also a member of the Chamber's External Affairs Committee and represents the Chamber at Ellisville 00:05:00.088 --> 00:05:05.838 - Town Council meetings, and we thank you for that. So she is a retired social studies and English teacher, 00:05:05.838 --> 00:05:10.829 - and she and her husband, Dr. Lloyd Dewar, who's her family eye care, have four children and 00:05:10.829 --> 00:05:16.687 - four grandchildren. She has been an optometric technician for many years, and since beginning her millenary 00:05:16.687 --> 00:05:22.654 - education in 2010, has developed a real talent for designing one-of-a-kind hats. She is a lifelong trustee of 00:05:22.850 --> 00:05:28.116 - co-chair at First United Methodist Church. And then last, but certainly not least, our friendly 00:05:28.116 --> 00:05:33.602 - superintendent, Dr. Jerry Sanders of Richland Bean Blossom Community School Corporation, a position 00:05:33.602 --> 00:05:39.198 - he has held for eight years. Previously, he was dean of the School of Education at Kentucky Christian 00:05:39.198 --> 00:05:44.409 - University from 2015 to 2017. Dr. Sanders spent most of his career with the school corporation 00:05:44.409 --> 00:05:50.115 - of Martinsville, where he served as a classroom teacher, elementary principal, assistant superintendent 00:05:50.115 --> 00:05:51.486 - for a combined 28 years. 00:05:51.810 --> 00:05:57.640 - He earned his bachelor's of science from Kentucky Christian University and his teacher credentials from 00:05:57.640 --> 00:06:03.246 - Youngstown State University and master's degree from Indiana University and PhD from Indiana State. 00:06:03.246 --> 00:06:08.964 - That's a good amount of Midwest representation there university-wise. Dr. Sanders has enjoyed serving 00:06:08.964 --> 00:06:14.850 - on many community organizations, boards, and foundations and currently represents the school corporation 00:06:14.850 --> 00:06:19.166 - as a board member on the Bloomington and Monroe County Community Foundation. 00:06:20.098 --> 00:06:27.941 - and as an ex-officio for the Ellitsville Area Chamber of Commerce, and previously as an executive board 00:06:27.941 --> 00:06:35.557 - member for Envision Ellitsville. So thank you all. Let's give them a warm welcome. All righty. So we 00:06:35.557 --> 00:06:43.475 - have some general questions, and then hopefully we can take some questions at the end from the audience. 00:06:43.475 --> 00:06:45.662 - Is that OK, Jill? Excellent. 00:06:45.794 --> 00:06:52.613 - We will start, we can go left to right, or whoever feels so inspired to respond first. For those who 00:06:52.613 --> 00:06:59.499 - may still be unclear about the proposal of town reorganization, what exactly would change if the town 00:06:59.499 --> 00:07:06.317 - of Ellisville and Richland Township reorganized, and why is the reorganization being considered now? 00:07:06.317 --> 00:07:12.798 - Ooh, that's a nice loaded one to really kick it off, huh? That's a great Noel question. I know. 00:07:13.506 --> 00:07:21.177 - Yeah. Do you want me to defer to Noel? Just send an e-mail. Okay. We'll send an e-mail. Go ahead. Yeah. 00:07:21.177 --> 00:07:28.774 - I guess you can look at it from multiple angles. Looking at it from a large business angle, what would 00:07:28.774 --> 00:07:36.518 - change is the localization of government for us in terms of certain functions pertaining to developments 00:07:36.518 --> 00:07:41.534 - in particular because that's really partially how we make a living. 00:07:41.634 --> 00:07:50.472 - And as a utility, the permitting process, the planning zoning, if handled here in Ellitsville with a 00:07:50.472 --> 00:07:59.398 - combined reorganized Ellitsville and Richland township, keeps it within our borders, so to speak. And 00:07:59.398 --> 00:08:09.374 - we're pretty good at being vocal in this township, and that's why we still have our own separate school district. 00:08:09.570 --> 00:08:17.286 - We have the only locally headquartered bank and locally headquartered telecom company, among others. 00:08:17.286 --> 00:08:24.925 - So I think that the town gets it from what I've seen. And I think from our perspective, even though 00:08:24.925 --> 00:08:32.717 - it would potentially, well, it would raise our taxes a little bit as a business, it's still, I think, 00:08:32.717 --> 00:08:39.134 - the service we receive in return with all due respect with our folks within county. 00:08:39.298 --> 00:08:45.069 - I know there are two elected county council officials here. The county council does a great job, 00:08:45.069 --> 00:08:51.375 - by the way. They really do. But we've got things that we need to do, and we need to do at the Ellitsville 00:08:51.375 --> 00:08:57.444 - pace because of the amount of the growth, the quickness of the growth that's occurring. And it's more 00:08:57.444 --> 00:09:03.453 - effective, I believe, if we do it here. And that's really what it boils down to, is keeping it local 00:09:03.453 --> 00:09:08.510 - and keeping it at our pace. Because the pace of growth, when you look at places like 00:09:08.706 --> 00:09:14.776 - Prominence Point area, for example. There are people living in construction zones because you can't 00:09:14.776 --> 00:09:20.967 - build them fast enough. Ernest is doing a fine job, but he can only build houses so quickly, and they 00:09:20.967 --> 00:09:27.159 - don't last long on the market. So that's the drive, the pace that we're facing right now. And so, for 00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:33.350 - a company like ours, that's very helpful. Our engineering department, they know who to talk to at the 00:09:33.350 --> 00:09:36.446 - county. They also know who to talk to in the town. 00:09:36.546 --> 00:09:44.163 - And if we can get things done a little quicker, more effectively, and especially come winter, we can 00:09:44.163 --> 00:09:51.704 - help take that load off the county in terms of plowing, in terms of maintenance for our streets and 00:09:51.704 --> 00:09:59.471 - our roads, all the better. And I think that makes a better community for all of us. Well, when I first 00:09:59.471 --> 00:10:06.334 - started hearing about the reorganization of the government with the township and the town, 00:10:06.434 --> 00:10:15.979 - To be honest with you, I was a little bit nervous about the idea of trying to analyze the impact that 00:10:15.979 --> 00:10:25.336 - it might have on the school corporation. But the deeper I got into it, the more I learned about the 00:10:25.336 --> 00:10:33.758 - process, the more I learned about the end results, the more as a citizen of Valleysville, 00:10:33.890 --> 00:10:42.236 - came to really believe that this is something that we need to do for our community and our citizens. 00:10:42.236 --> 00:10:50.664 - And I was trying to think of an analogy. You know, if I had to depend on my neighbors to take care of 00:10:50.664 --> 00:10:59.341 - my house, take care of my property, I'm probably not gonna get their full attention. They're gonna focus 00:10:59.341 --> 00:11:02.398 - on their own. And when I think about 00:11:02.594 --> 00:11:11.616 - the idea of the township and the town merging together. I think our local community will be able to 00:11:11.616 --> 00:11:20.998 - focus more on our citizens and give them much more attention, look out for the needs, the services that 00:11:20.998 --> 00:11:30.110 - are needed, and bring us together as a community. And then, finally, I think it's always good, and I 00:11:30.110 --> 00:11:31.102 - appreciate 00:11:31.202 --> 00:11:40.864 - town leaders for trying to be progressive and looking towards the future. And it's not always what the 00:11:40.864 --> 00:11:50.338 - situation is now. It's where are you positioning yourself for the future? And I think this is really 00:11:50.338 --> 00:11:58.686 - the way that we need to go. And so as a citizen of Ellisville, I am 100% for the merger. 00:12:01.826 --> 00:12:11.155 - I think people tend to identify with whatever town their school system is a part of. And so I believe 00:12:11.155 --> 00:12:20.484 - that if we can focus the nucleus of our identification, both for business and for school in our area, 00:12:20.484 --> 00:12:30.910 - we'll be much stronger than we are today. And frankly, I think we're quite strong now. As a small business owner, 00:12:31.874 --> 00:12:39.943 - I would like to think that this will enhance my husband's practice. I'm not truthfully sure it will, 00:12:39.943 --> 00:12:48.252 - because you have to Google insurance. But other than most businesses, when you look at the SIP or other 00:12:48.252 --> 00:12:56.481 - small businesses in town, I think that if you think of yourself as Ellisville, you will think of those 00:12:56.481 --> 00:12:58.718 - places to go to rather than 00:12:58.914 --> 00:13:08.205 - driving to somewhere else. So in that sense, I think for the township people to become part of the new 00:13:08.205 --> 00:13:17.947 - organization would help that identification. Not only are we business owners, but we're township residents. 00:13:17.947 --> 00:13:27.870 - And from the township standpoint, I would much rather have my zoning and my ordinances in a smaller structure 00:13:28.034 --> 00:13:36.572 - than a large one. And so while Monroe County is quite large, it would not necessarily always be able 00:13:36.572 --> 00:13:45.194 - to focus on what our township needs, whereas if we were part of Ellisville, it would be maybe more of 00:13:45.194 --> 00:13:53.648 - a focus. So I think from that standpoint, one other thing with that is people say, what would it be 00:13:53.648 --> 00:13:57.790 - like if we don't do this? We'll have status quo. 00:13:57.890 --> 00:14:06.735 - things won't change. I was absolutely amazed at how many people, myself included at some point, do not 00:14:06.735 --> 00:14:15.321 - realize how much township land, not part of Ellisville, is so impacted by Ellisville's town and how 00:14:15.321 --> 00:14:22.878 - much the town is impacted by that land. Just one brief example is all of the ballparks. 00:14:23.586 --> 00:14:31.189 - I always thought for my first 30 years in Ellisville that that was part of Ellisville's town. The last 00:14:31.189 --> 00:14:38.939 - 20 years taught me no, it's township land. So think of what would change if finally the state of Indiana 00:14:38.939 --> 00:14:46.395 - phased out townships, and that is a very good possibility. What would happen with all of those lands 00:14:46.395 --> 00:14:49.790 - that we are so carefully integrated with now? 00:14:49.890 --> 00:14:57.822 - So I think from the standpoint of business, business growth and business identification, if we identify 00:14:57.822 --> 00:15:05.602 - Ellisville as our place, that would be more beneficial. Okay, thank you. I'm gonna jump around on our 00:15:05.602 --> 00:15:13.458 - pre-prepared questions just to keep the conversation going. So talk to us about how a unified approach 00:15:13.458 --> 00:15:18.110 - to planning and development can help us manage future growth 00:15:18.210 --> 00:15:24.001 - while preserving the things people value about our community. Valerie, I think you were already kind 00:15:24.001 --> 00:15:29.965 - of going there, but if you want to elaborate and then we can pass it down, that'd be great. Well, first 00:15:29.965 --> 00:15:35.985 - of all, the township and the town, if you look at the plan, would not come under all the same ordinance, 00:15:35.985 --> 00:15:41.834 - I mean, all the same zoning. You would still have rural township zoning and you would still have town 00:15:41.834 --> 00:15:44.414 - zoning, but both areas would speak together. 00:15:44.578 --> 00:15:51.430 - perhaps even better than they do now. Although for the last, you know, people talk about the services 00:15:51.430 --> 00:15:58.148 - with that as well. The town and the fire department have had, since the 40s, has had a relationship 00:15:58.148 --> 00:16:04.933 - together. And look at how well that works. I see that as a good example of what all of it would look 00:16:04.933 --> 00:16:07.486 - like with roads, police, all of that. 00:16:13.186 --> 00:16:19.747 - Yeah, let me add on to what Valerie was saying on especially police and fire. You know, we've had that 00:16:19.747 --> 00:16:26.116 - long-standing relationship between the town and the township with the fire department. It's not the 00:16:26.116 --> 00:16:32.741 - town of Ellisville Fire Department. It's a true partnership with a township fire department, I believe, 00:16:32.741 --> 00:16:39.301 - if someone correct me. But we've had that for a very long time. We had a number of volunteers who were 00:16:39.301 --> 00:16:40.830 - part of this community. 00:16:40.962 --> 00:16:48.192 - as a part of the beginning of that, and more for many years, and now we have a good professional force. 00:16:48.192 --> 00:16:55.213 - They are an absolute asset to the county, and I think the fact that they understand the needs of the 00:16:55.213 --> 00:17:02.235 - county or the township speaks well. As a member of the County Redevelopment Commission, I enjoyed... 00:17:02.235 --> 00:17:09.534 - never enjoyed spending a lot of tax money, but over time, we're spending tax money on a new ladder truck 00:17:10.274 --> 00:17:16.617 - for that industrial area in the Highland Village area here in Richland Township. And that's a great 00:17:16.617 --> 00:17:23.087 - investment. And the Fire Department is looking at building a new facility that will better serve that 00:17:23.087 --> 00:17:30.001 - area. Because when you look at what Cimtra has invested in this community, on top of what Cook has invested, 00:17:30.001 --> 00:17:36.597 - on top of what Cingota, Tasas, and, you know, Ivy Tech's presence here, those are very important. Those 00:17:36.597 --> 00:17:39.198 - are very large facilities, and they need 00:17:39.330 --> 00:17:45.984 - great fire protection, and I think under Kevin Patton's leadership, they've continued a long-standing 00:17:45.984 --> 00:17:52.572 - tradition of serving the community. So same with the police department. That certainly wouldn't have 00:17:52.572 --> 00:17:59.226 - the same circumstance as perhaps the fire department. I'm not casting stones at Monroe Fire District. 00:17:59.226 --> 00:18:05.749 - I think they're doing a great job. But at the same time, the county, there are a lot of roads and a 00:18:05.749 --> 00:18:07.902 - lot of buildings in this county, 00:18:08.066 --> 00:18:14.450 - that are way out in the middle of nowhere. And again, I think this is where Ellitsville can come into 00:18:14.450 --> 00:18:21.210 - play. I know they have great working relationships with the other fire departments on calls. And hopefully, 00:18:21.210 --> 00:18:27.720 - we can, by doing this with reorganization, we can bolster that support and protect our fire and enhance 00:18:27.720 --> 00:18:34.104 - our police department as well. You know, a lot of roads to cover in Richland Township. When you think 00:18:34.104 --> 00:18:36.670 - about how big the township is, you know, 00:18:37.762 --> 00:18:44.630 - from here to basically Whitehall to the southwest, as well as Island Village to the southeast. A lot 00:18:44.630 --> 00:18:51.498 - of ground to cover, and I think this town and the township are ready to put things together and make 00:18:51.498 --> 00:18:58.570 - it work. So again, it's the services that are provided and what we can do together between the business 00:18:58.570 --> 00:19:05.982 - community and local government to make things happen at our pace. I'll say it again, at the Ellisville pace. 00:19:08.162 --> 00:19:16.043 - I think one of the great benefits is instead of having a township board and a town board, having their 00:19:16.043 --> 00:19:23.848 - own conversations about what the needs are for the community, where they want to take their community 00:19:23.848 --> 00:19:28.286 - to that because of the reorganization will have one board 00:19:28.546 --> 00:19:35.889 - represented by the township, represented by the town. And so those conversations will be much more impactful 00:19:35.889 --> 00:19:42.759 - because they'll be able to share the needs of the entire community, not just the township. They won't 00:19:42.759 --> 00:19:49.698 - just be hearing about from citizens from the township. They won't just be hearing from citizens of the 00:19:49.698 --> 00:19:54.750 - town of Ellisville, but a combination. And so I think that's just gonna be 00:19:54.882 --> 00:20:02.070 - good for our community going forward as we go in. You never know what issues we're going to face down 00:20:02.070 --> 00:20:09.470 - the road, but now there'll be a united front, a united effort in where they're gonna take our community. 00:20:11.778 --> 00:20:17.266 - Colin, you touched on this a little bit, but you mentioned, you know, we've got some large business 00:20:17.266 --> 00:20:22.918 - investments in this side of town between, you know, Ivy Tech, Cook, Tasos, and Simtra. So from a large 00:20:22.918 --> 00:20:28.735 - business perspective, what does a community need from its local government to support the business growth 00:20:28.735 --> 00:20:34.332 - and investment you were talking about, and how can this reorganization potentially help provide those 00:20:34.332 --> 00:20:38.942 - things? If you want to dig in a little deeper. Sure. Let me start with a qualifier. 00:20:39.330 --> 00:20:46.144 - that, and I believe Center falls into this as well, even though it's, well, not so much. It's in the 00:20:46.144 --> 00:20:53.363 - county. But some of the far corner, that far southeast corner, is within the city limits. And Mike Farmer, 00:20:53.363 --> 00:21:00.109 - our town manager, has had good conversation with Mayor Thompson about that situation. I think from, 00:21:00.109 --> 00:21:03.550 - could you ask that question once again? I'm sorry. 00:21:04.226 --> 00:21:10.874 - From the perspective of a larger business, what does the community need from local government to support 00:21:10.874 --> 00:21:17.205 - the business growth and investment and how do you see reorganization supporting those objectives? I 00:21:17.205 --> 00:21:23.853 - think because it's the business I'm in and because we all saw it up close and personal over the weekend, 00:21:23.853 --> 00:21:25.246 - it is infrastructure. 00:21:25.794 --> 00:21:34.673 - And there's only so much the town of Ellitsville can do with water, because we buy water from Bloomington, 00:21:34.673 --> 00:21:42.723 - but we certainly can, with our own sewer plant, manage that growth as well. So large businesses, 00:21:42.723 --> 00:21:50.524 - even small, medium, need good infrastructure. Good streets, security, good police protection, 00:21:50.524 --> 00:21:54.590 - which we have, good fire protection, which I got 00:21:54.946 --> 00:22:03.109 - halted by a fire run on the way over here this morning. So all those things are very important. Water 00:22:03.109 --> 00:22:11.353 - management, and I said this, excuse me, on a panel at the VEDC several years ago, is gonna become more 00:22:11.353 --> 00:22:19.596 - important as time goes on. And again, we've seen those used as political tools, unfortunately, between 00:22:19.596 --> 00:22:23.998 - that and sewer. It becomes very important that we have 00:22:24.706 --> 00:22:33.310 - adequate and great capacity to do things. On the power side, we have to deal with two providers, one 00:22:33.310 --> 00:22:42.085 - in South Central Indiana or AMC, and the other with Duke. And I think with SCI, that's more of a local 00:22:42.085 --> 00:22:50.690 - utility based out of Martinsville. It covers a good deal of this territory. I think UDWI also covers 00:22:50.690 --> 00:22:52.990 - some in the South as well. 00:22:54.082 --> 00:23:02.163 - You're dealing with local, regional, as opposed to Duke. Duke does a good job, and Liz Irwin's a good 00:23:02.163 --> 00:23:10.164 - point person for them. I think that power is going to be another issue, and telecom, we have to keep 00:23:10.164 --> 00:23:18.404 - building as well, and we have to plan for large businesses that come in. We all do, but we have to give 00:23:18.404 --> 00:23:23.870 - them good infrastructure, good support. I think the airport is doing 00:23:24.162 --> 00:23:32.288 - a bang-up job and looking at the future, absolutely. Because we have, being the home of a Big Ten university 00:23:32.288 --> 00:23:39.742 - and a national champion in football, it's a lot of money in football. And a lot of folks are coming 00:23:39.742 --> 00:23:47.271 - in from Columbus, from LA, hosting Ohio State USC. We have to have capacity to handle that, and that 00:23:47.271 --> 00:23:53.086 - bleeds over into Ellitsville as well. So we have to take a regional approach, 00:23:53.378 --> 00:24:00.596 - as a local government, if that makes sense. We can work with Clark and the team at BEDC, and they have 00:24:00.596 --> 00:24:08.165 - a new chief executive coming on board, so that'll be a great thing as well. But we have those relationships 00:24:08.165 --> 00:24:15.384 - directly, so we can address those things directly as time allows. Thank you. On the flip side, a small 00:24:15.384 --> 00:24:22.462 - business perspective, Valerie, can you share what you hope a unified government could do differently 00:24:22.786 --> 00:24:32.230 - or better to support local business? One thing that small business seems to suffer from frequently is 00:24:32.230 --> 00:24:41.673 - not always knowing what bureaucratic areas to go to and maybe getting caught in the snarl of point A, 00:24:41.673 --> 00:24:50.654 - point B, point C, and uh-oh, it should have been point D. I can remember that when we first came 00:24:51.010 --> 00:24:58.231 - back from my husband being in the military and trying to set up a practice, we looked at Bloomington. 00:24:58.231 --> 00:25:05.876 - And not bad-mouthing Bloomington completely, but think about that was 49 years ago, so things have changed. 00:25:05.876 --> 00:25:13.168 - But the red tape was just more than a small business with a beginning budget can handle. And we wanted 00:25:13.168 --> 00:25:20.318 - to be in Ellisville anyway, so we said, oh, let's go, thank heaven. We did that, it was a good move. 00:25:20.578 --> 00:25:29.098 - But I think that if we can simplify and keep things simple, that's good. And there are so many businesses 00:25:29.098 --> 00:25:37.778 - that are talking to Ellitsville that would like to come. And I'm talking small. I know in the big corporate 00:25:37.778 --> 00:25:46.137 - world, small is something like, what, 100 employees or so? But for me, I'm talking 50 and less. I mean, 00:25:46.137 --> 00:25:47.262 - really small. 00:25:47.586 --> 00:25:55.003 - A lot of times they want to start not right downtown, but then they're involved in the township and 00:25:55.003 --> 00:26:02.494 - now they have everything, DNR because of our floodplain, they have the town, they have the county. I 00:26:02.494 --> 00:26:10.207 - think it would simplify things for small businesses to start. Think about the whole corridor of 46 from 00:26:10.207 --> 00:26:15.102 - here to Bloomington, what part of that would be under the zoning. 00:26:15.586 --> 00:26:26.507 - And I think that would offer a lot more advantage. And while huge, to quote a friend of mine, huge businesses 00:26:26.507 --> 00:26:37.328 - are money power and wisdom and many experts, but small businesses are boots on the ground. And consequently, 00:26:37.328 --> 00:26:38.718 - we need them. 00:26:39.490 --> 00:26:46.960 - and we want them. And if you travel throughout places, my husband and I like to travel and go to lots 00:26:46.960 --> 00:26:54.503 - of little small towns. And you find that what makes them cozy, what makes them welcoming are the small 00:26:54.503 --> 00:27:01.827 - businesses. And when we can invite those in, that would be important. And we have a lot of township 00:27:01.827 --> 00:27:09.150 - land that would make that available if we had that unification. And I'd just like to say with that, 00:27:09.442 --> 00:27:17.480 - Having served on the committee that built the plan, and Jerry, by the way, was the overseer of that 00:27:17.480 --> 00:27:26.241 - whole project, we found that we're not the first, it's not like we're the first ones to do this. Shelbyville 00:27:26.241 --> 00:27:34.360 - did this first, and they were a good plan to follow. So while we're creating history here, we're not 00:27:34.360 --> 00:27:35.646 - the first ones. 00:27:39.074 --> 00:27:44.873 - Somebody told me a large business, every large business started as a small business. So it really is 00:27:44.873 --> 00:27:50.787 - seeding the future. And I think schools really are the heartbeat of a community. And so this one's for 00:27:50.787 --> 00:27:56.586 - you, Dr. Sanders. How do you, from your lens, how does the strength and growth of a community affect 00:27:56.586 --> 00:28:02.615 - our schools? And how do strong schools contribute to the economic development and workforce development? 00:28:02.615 --> 00:28:08.414 - Now you've got some exciting things that you can, you've got some time, go for it. You have an hour. 00:28:09.026 --> 00:28:18.351 - You know, what I love about Ellisville, and as mentioned in the introduction, I've been superintendent 00:28:18.351 --> 00:28:27.767 - here for eight years. But what I've really enjoyed over those eight years is the wonderful partnerships 00:28:27.767 --> 00:28:30.302 - that we have with the town, 00:28:31.138 --> 00:28:40.852 - and the people who make sure that our services are there and serve and support our community. We have 00:28:40.852 --> 00:28:50.757 - an awesome relationship with the police department and we have three school resource officers that keep 00:28:50.757 --> 00:28:59.614 - our students and staff safe. We have excellent partnerships with our local businesses and we 00:28:59.746 --> 00:29:08.959 - host a twice a year, we host a business leaders advisory council where we have the leaders of our local 00:29:08.959 --> 00:29:17.818 - businesses. I'm talking about presidents and CEOs and who are coming onto our campus and talking to 00:29:17.818 --> 00:29:27.120 - our students and giving them guidance and advice. One of those advisory meetings we had, we have several 00:29:27.120 --> 00:29:29.246 - student run businesses. 00:29:29.410 --> 00:29:39.737 - And one of them is the coffee corral. And we've started that I think in 2019, 20, somewhere in there. 00:29:39.737 --> 00:29:50.368 - And if you would have told me then that today that student run business was having over $50,000 in sales 00:29:50.368 --> 00:29:58.974 - a year, I would have been shocked. To the point now that just about a few weeks ago, 00:29:59.138 --> 00:30:07.327 - we sent a memo to the managers who are students, sent them a memo and said they need to come up with 00:30:07.327 --> 00:30:15.679 - a business plan to start paying their own employees. So far we've been subsidizing that and it's time, 00:30:15.679 --> 00:30:24.030 - if they have $40,000, $50,000 in the bank, it's time they start paying the bills. But that is a result 00:30:24.162 --> 00:30:31.615 - That started I mean there's so much to talk about just right there because that started with our students 00:30:31.615 --> 00:30:38.716 - creating business model and then presenting those business models to local business leaders and then 00:30:38.716 --> 00:30:41.950 - those business leaders pick the best one and. 00:30:42.242 --> 00:30:50.766 - I started to say that we recently, about a year ago, we had what I called a stockholders meeting where 00:30:50.766 --> 00:30:59.042 - the students who were running the student-run businesses had to give a report to the people who are 00:30:59.042 --> 00:31:07.070 - supporting them. And then those people gave advice on where they could take their business next. 00:31:07.330 --> 00:31:14.518 - So, you know, back in the day when I was a principal, you know, the relationship between the school 00:31:14.518 --> 00:31:21.849 - to community was the school going to the local businesses and say, hey, can you donate something? Can 00:31:21.849 --> 00:31:28.318 - you donate $100 or a gift certificate? Now it's how can we work together to be a pipeline 00:31:28.418 --> 00:31:41.145 - future employees for your company and as Mariah was talking about earlier, we've now developed a business 00:31:41.145 --> 00:31:51.710 - partnerships with Cook Medical, Boston Scientific, IU Health and Ivy Tech and recently, 00:31:51.874 --> 00:32:00.509 - We've had discussions with an organization called NCAP that will actually take that partnership and 00:32:00.509 --> 00:32:09.144 - broaden it to several more companies like Sentra and others. And so the idea is for those companies 00:32:09.144 --> 00:32:15.102 - to come onto our campus to provide training, to build relationships, 00:32:15.202 --> 00:32:23.384 - You know, the old way of doing things was you'd have a job fair and you have companies around the gym, 00:32:23.384 --> 00:32:31.646 - which we still do, and students come in and they have a few minutes conversation with a local business. 00:32:31.646 --> 00:32:39.749 - But for students, that just goes over their head. It doesn't develop the relationship. So the idea is 00:32:39.749 --> 00:32:43.006 - to bring these companies onto our campus 00:32:43.170 --> 00:32:50.526 - to build those relationships so they know exactly what Boston Scientific does, what Cook Medical does. 00:32:50.526 --> 00:32:57.811 - And so when they graduate from high school, then they go right into those companies. And if they want 00:32:57.811 --> 00:33:05.310 - to work at that job for the rest of their career, great. If they want to use that as a stepping stone to 00:33:05.730 --> 00:33:13.707 - another type of career or another medical career, those companies will support them in those efforts. 00:33:13.707 --> 00:33:22.311 - And it's all about giving students a plan for when they graduate. A few years ago, the day before graduation, 00:33:22.311 --> 00:33:30.523 - I was sitting beside a graduating senior, and I asked, what are you going to be doing when you graduate? 00:33:30.523 --> 00:33:31.774 - He didn't know. 00:33:32.610 --> 00:33:40.946 - We don't want that to happen. We want them to have a plan. So local businesses have such an impact and 00:33:40.946 --> 00:33:49.202 - our town have such an impact on providing our students with a quality education. And that's what this 00:33:49.202 --> 00:33:58.590 - is all about. As a school corporation, we were very concerned at first about what was gonna be the financial impact 00:33:58.690 --> 00:34:09.398 - of the reorganization on the school corporation. But we had conversations with the town leaders and 00:34:09.398 --> 00:34:20.213 - we use an organization called Policy Analytics to guide and advise us. The town uses Baker Tilly and 00:34:20.213 --> 00:34:25.246 - we all came together, those two companies with 00:34:25.506 --> 00:34:33.745 - folks from the town of Ellisville, folks from the school corporation. And we had a conversation, we 00:34:33.745 --> 00:34:41.985 - looked at the numbers. And yes, in the first few years, we will have less revenue coming in for the 00:34:41.985 --> 00:34:50.306 - school corporation. But over time, by 2030, all that will be neutralized. But the bottom line is, by 00:34:50.306 --> 00:34:54.014 - being a partner with the town of Ellisville, 00:34:55.234 --> 00:35:07.488 - that we will be able to work together on where, like I said earlier, where our community is going. And 00:35:07.488 --> 00:35:19.742 - if the town of Ellisville infrastructure improves, services improve, we have more parks, better roads, 00:35:19.742 --> 00:35:24.382 - all that is going to benefit companies 00:35:24.514 --> 00:35:35.359 - coming into our area, bring in more residents, and yet keep our small town filled, that's gonna help 00:35:35.359 --> 00:35:46.096 - the school corporation. And we're having conversations already, thinking down the road of future of 00:35:46.096 --> 00:35:49.854 - some of the infrastructure changes 00:35:50.082 --> 00:35:59.683 - that can happen because of this merge that will benefit the school corporation. Everybody knows that, 00:35:59.683 --> 00:36:09.190 - I was just talking to Krista Curtis in the morning, if you drive around campus, there's a little bit 00:36:09.190 --> 00:36:16.062 - of traffic. There's a lot of traffic, especially on Reeves Road. And so, 00:36:17.186 --> 00:36:24.465 - improving the infrastructure for the community will help us to have better roads, expand those roads. 00:36:24.465 --> 00:36:31.887 - We're also doing a traffic study ourselves to be able to help with those issues that come up. So I just 00:36:31.887 --> 00:36:38.238 - see nothing but great benefits for the school corporation because of the reorganization. 00:36:39.938 --> 00:36:46.577 - Thank you. We don't have Noelle here, so normally I would pitch this question to her because we have 00:36:46.577 --> 00:36:53.215 - had taxes are obviously top of mind and you alluded to it a little bit Dr. Sanders, so it's a little 00:36:53.215 --> 00:36:59.788 - bit of a segue. Colin, don't kick me from that far, but I'm gonna point this one to you as best you 00:36:59.788 --> 00:37:06.427 - want. Taxes are one of the biggest concerns that we've heard from business and residents and we know 00:37:06.427 --> 00:37:08.990 - there's a state budget year coming up, 00:37:09.378 --> 00:37:17.604 - always an exciting time at the legislature when they do their long session. What should people understand 00:37:17.604 --> 00:37:25.442 - about the potential financial and tax implications of reorganization? As best from your lens, you're 00:37:25.442 --> 00:37:33.590 - not an expert on this. Well, I'm not an expert, and I'm just over the township line to the east. I think 00:37:33.590 --> 00:37:37.470 - you have to educate yourself, and there's so much 00:37:37.698 --> 00:37:46.490 - Information out there now, the chamber has a site dedicated to reorg. The reorganization committee has 00:37:46.490 --> 00:37:55.196 - its own site or sub-site within, I think, on the web. There is a lot of information. Educate yourself 00:37:55.196 --> 00:38:03.646 - as best you can because everybody's situation is different based on the kind of property they own. 00:38:03.746 --> 00:38:11.515 - the size of the house or the size of the building that they own. And that's really what it boils down 00:38:11.515 --> 00:38:19.207 - to. You have to get out there and find that information. What I do is try to cut out the white noise 00:38:19.207 --> 00:38:26.824 - in terms of SEA 1. That's our new tax law in the state of Indiana. Because there are 92 counties in 00:38:26.824 --> 00:38:33.374 - the state, and I think every one of them is struggling with this issue of what to do. 00:38:33.474 --> 00:38:40.596 - It changes things a lot. So we're not alone. Residents of this township are not alone in terms of trying 00:38:40.596 --> 00:38:47.380 - to figure out what this reorg means because it could change. There has been discussion through this 00:38:47.380 --> 00:38:54.299 - year of making some tweaks. I don't know what's going to happen. So that's the best advice I can give 00:38:54.299 --> 00:38:57.758 - is to educate yourself because even when I look at 00:38:58.242 --> 00:39:05.245 - at what our property tax bill is, which is, you know, it's good, decent size. And what is that going 00:39:05.245 --> 00:39:12.387 - to mean moving forward? And as we shift to income, that's kind of the, that's the thing that's hanging 00:39:12.387 --> 00:39:19.528 - out there, is what is the effect of the income tax on these townships? Because now, in some ways, it's 00:39:19.528 --> 00:39:27.294 - like we have to compete against each other for residents. And in this county, it's very hard. When you look at, 00:39:27.650 --> 00:39:34.708 - And I have to refer, I don't know if Mason, yeah, I have to refer to our friends, the Realtors Association 00:39:34.708 --> 00:39:41.503 - in terms of housing and the cost of housing in this county versus our donut counties. It's pretty high 00:39:41.503 --> 00:39:48.232 - and it's challenging. I mean, at Smithville, we have a number of employees who live out of the county 00:39:48.232 --> 00:39:55.422 - that commute every day. Vigo County, Johnson County, we have multiple people out of Johnson County. So it's, 00:39:55.842 --> 00:40:02.804 - It's a challenge, and I-69, and I'll say it, I think the Martinsville area is gonna be a competitive 00:40:02.804 --> 00:40:09.835 - hotbed for a town like Ellisville in terms of housing. We have a lot of jobs coming to the Crane area 00:40:09.835 --> 00:40:16.935 - in Westgate, a lot of jobs on the table. And where are they gonna live? Because Greene County's having 00:40:16.935 --> 00:40:23.828 - a hard time finding the land. And so, that pushes everything north and maybe even a little bit east 00:40:23.828 --> 00:40:24.862 - into Lawrence. 00:40:25.410 --> 00:40:34.883 - So that's the impact, that's what I look at. And then you've got the uncertainty of SEA 1 in terms of 00:40:34.883 --> 00:40:44.356 - taxation and government services and whatnot. Educate yourself. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, go ahead, please. 00:40:44.356 --> 00:40:53.086 - So my worries as a superintendent of a school corporation is the impact of the reorganization 00:40:54.050 --> 00:41:05.250 - is something to be aware of and to be knowledgeable about, but really the worries that I face are from 00:41:05.250 --> 00:41:16.232 - SEA 1. We as a school corporation have to, we're right in the process of trying to find a way to cut 00:41:16.232 --> 00:41:21.886 - a million dollars in expenses and without impacting 00:41:21.986 --> 00:41:32.223 - the education and ways that we support our students. And it's really unfortunate putting a lot of pressure 00:41:32.223 --> 00:41:42.652 - on, this is the time of the year where we think about potential salary increases for our staff and teachers. 00:41:42.652 --> 00:41:51.454 - And those people work so hard, it's a lot harder being a teacher than when I was a teacher. 00:41:51.746 --> 00:42:01.656 - And in fact, last night I feel like I had a sleepless night trying to figure out how in the world can 00:42:01.656 --> 00:42:11.955 - I give our teachers any kind of an increase when we're trying to cut a million dollars. So that is really 00:42:11.955 --> 00:42:20.894 - my big concern. And you know, the other part of the thing I wanted to say was I think as a, 00:42:21.026 --> 00:42:30.122 - leader of a government entity or leader of a school corporation and RBB has a school board that We're 00:42:30.122 --> 00:42:39.842 - constantly having conversations about how can we cut our tax rate? How can we be respectful to our taxpayer? 00:42:39.842 --> 00:42:46.174 - now, you know, we have to stay competitive to in this day and age when 00:42:46.274 --> 00:42:53.471 - You basically have to compete for students. That's the situation we've been put into. And parents have 00:42:53.471 --> 00:43:00.807 - the option that if a school down the road has better facilities, that's where they're going to go. We're 00:43:00.807 --> 00:43:07.794 - mindful of that. We're trying to balance that, stay competitive, but at the same time be respectful 00:43:07.794 --> 00:43:15.550 - of taxpayers. So I think you just need to have leaders who try to balance that. How do we provide the services 00:43:15.650 --> 00:43:22.012 - and support for students in the community at the same time, be respectful taxpayers. Yep, we call that 00:43:22.012 --> 00:43:28.436 - a balanced scorecard in our corporation. So it's hard to do that. Valerie, did you wanna jump in? Yeah, 00:43:28.436 --> 00:43:34.983 - just for a second. Yeah. They're the experts on this. I taught history in English and we all know English 00:43:34.983 --> 00:43:41.407 - teachers don't do math. So consequently, when they start talking in these committees about all of that, 00:43:41.407 --> 00:43:43.198 - my eyes begin to glaze over. 00:43:43.810 --> 00:43:51.818 - But I think if I've got a couple takeaways, and if I'm wrong, Mike Farmer's gonna correct me later. 00:43:51.818 --> 00:44:00.146 - But the first one is that a lot of these numbers are not locally controlled. You heard all about these. 00:44:00.146 --> 00:44:08.234 - And as I sit at the town council, I'm constantly amazed at how considerate they are of the ones they 00:44:08.234 --> 00:44:12.638 - do have control over. And I can't go into all of them, 00:44:12.962 --> 00:44:19.139 - you probably would understand it better than me. But I do know that where they had an opportunity to 00:44:19.139 --> 00:44:25.377 - do one tax that could either be a nickel or 15 cents, they chose the nickel so that they at least had 00:44:25.377 --> 00:44:31.738 - the token in there. Because if we don't do some of these things locally, they don't qualify for funding 00:44:31.738 --> 00:44:37.854 - at the state level. So that's another caveat that they need to be aware of. And I'm sure businesses 00:44:38.146 --> 00:44:46.393 - are a lot different than when I talk to local residents. But the fact of the matter is that taxes are 00:44:46.393 --> 00:44:54.640 - gonna go up no matter what. And so I guess I want my dollar to be under as much control as I can find 00:44:54.640 --> 00:45:03.614 - and that I can see what bang I'm getting for my buck. And I think we could do that better with reorganization. 00:45:03.714 --> 00:45:11.063 - Like I said, it's really not a whole lot. If you look at the plan again, the town has some caps, so 00:45:11.063 --> 00:45:18.558 - that's not affected that much. And I'm a township resident, so yes, my property's going to go up, but 00:45:18.558 --> 00:45:26.642 - it's not gonna go up that much more. When I say not that much more, I'm looking at is there a $100 difference 00:45:26.642 --> 00:45:31.198 - between if I do or if I don't? And there's not, so then I do. 00:45:32.770 --> 00:45:39.203 - Well, that is a good segue into the next question. I'm going to start with you. And I know we've talked 00:45:39.203 --> 00:45:45.635 - about this before. What are the consequences if reorganization doesn't pass? Like, what would that look 00:45:45.635 --> 00:45:52.068 - like? And what are the unknowns? What are the knowns? If you can dive in that, we'll start with Valerie 00:45:52.068 --> 00:45:58.686 - and then go down the line. OK. As a business owner, I don't think we have a lot because we're in the town. 00:45:59.298 --> 00:46:06.607 - And so from a business standpoint, if you're in the town, I think you're not going to see a huge impact 00:46:06.607 --> 00:46:13.636 - in terms of your out go. You may see a difference in the growth that you have in your own business. 00:46:13.636 --> 00:46:20.734 - Or you may see a lack of growth of new businesses. And a lack of growth of new businesses means your 00:46:20.734 --> 00:46:28.606 - business is stagnant too. Because water that doesn't move grows algae. And towns that don't move grow stagnant. 00:46:29.378 --> 00:46:37.357 - and we can see that. And I definitely don't want to be called a dying town. We've seen enough of those 00:46:37.357 --> 00:46:45.180 - around, and we don't want to be that. So from that standpoint, I think that could happen if we don't 00:46:45.180 --> 00:46:53.082 - do this. Secondly, that land that is so tightly, I'm back to Campbell's Park, that's part of it, that 00:46:53.082 --> 00:46:58.814 - we have pockets all through our town that are not town, they're township. 00:46:59.490 --> 00:47:08.710 - And the impact of suddenly those going away, if townships go away, those going under total county, that 00:47:08.710 --> 00:47:16.955 - could cause a chaos of governmental issues that I don't even want to think about. OK. Colin, 00:47:16.955 --> 00:47:26.087 - if reorganization doesn't happen, what are potential consequences? Well, one thing is certain. The sun 00:47:26.087 --> 00:47:28.126 - will rise in the east. 00:47:29.122 --> 00:47:36.903 - It will set in the West. And beyond that, we have to, in between that, we've gotta take it a day at 00:47:36.903 --> 00:47:44.685 - a time if it doesn't go through, because I really can't add a whole lot to what Valerie had said. I 00:47:44.685 --> 00:47:52.466 - think from our perspective as a company, we like the growth. The growth certainly helps, right? For 00:47:52.466 --> 00:47:54.878 - any utility, density is great. 00:47:55.138 --> 00:48:02.202 - We don't want to build everywhere in the county, and that's not what we're about. But at the same time, 00:48:02.202 --> 00:48:09.402 - to what Valerie was saying, we have cemeteries in this township that the trustee is currently responsible 00:48:09.402 --> 00:48:16.194 - for. We have a cemetery, I've been told, that's pretty much out of money. And it's gonna have to be 00:48:16.194 --> 00:48:23.326 - maintained. And, you know, is the county going to do that? Then it becomes an issue of county resources. 00:48:24.610 --> 00:48:32.734 - And when you consolidate something like that, we see that money gets stretched. And I think that's not 00:48:32.734 --> 00:48:40.779 - a good place to be, but that's what we have to live with. And at that point in time, I think a lot of 00:48:40.779 --> 00:48:48.666 - what we just discussed become... it goes out of our hands, especially in the unincorporated area of 00:48:48.666 --> 00:48:53.950 - rural Richland. And that's, again, that's not a great place to be, 00:48:54.946 --> 00:49:04.266 - So it's hard to tell. I mean, we have so much uncertainty economically, right? And I don't think anybody 00:49:04.266 --> 00:49:13.319 - ever dreamed that there would be places that are paying $10 a gallon for diesel, right? And gas is in 00:49:13.319 --> 00:49:22.461 - that $4 neighborhood now, and inflation is gonna follow that on top of what we just discussed with the 00:49:22.461 --> 00:49:24.414 - tax law in the state. 00:49:24.802 --> 00:49:34.266 - it creates probably more questions than answers, in my opinion. Okay, I think that's fair. Dr. Sanders? 00:49:34.266 --> 00:49:43.731 - Yeah, I would agree with Colin there. When you asked that question, the words missed opportunities came 00:49:43.731 --> 00:49:52.831 - to mind. I have two grandkids that live in Ellisville, and I worry about their future, as would any 00:49:52.831 --> 00:49:54.014 - grandparent. 00:49:54.178 --> 00:50:06.136 - But I wanna make sure that their future, and I hope they live forever in Ellesville and their kids live 00:50:06.136 --> 00:50:19.358 - here. But I'm thinking about the future. And knowing the financial impact that the town has faced recently and the 00:50:20.450 --> 00:50:29.570 - financial impact a school corporation is facing. We need to take some action. We need to be proactive 00:50:29.570 --> 00:50:39.137 - in trying to put ourselves in a good position to apply for grants, to receive grants, to bring and attract 00:50:39.137 --> 00:50:48.257 - businesses so that our children, our little children who are in the preschool will have a good future 00:50:48.257 --> 00:50:49.598 - for Alexville. 00:50:51.074 --> 00:50:59.962 - Awesome. Got a couple more questions. So if there's burning questions from the audience, please don't 00:50:59.962 --> 00:51:07.891 - get shy. We will welcome those in just a few moments. So we've heard missed opportunities, 00:51:07.891 --> 00:51:17.214 - a lot of unknowns. The sun will rise. That is certain. Maybe not today so much, but we will have daylight. 00:51:18.498 --> 00:51:25.375 - Jumping back into what you said earlier, Dr. Sanders, students who don't have a plan get lost. And I 00:51:25.375 --> 00:51:32.593 - think communities need to plan as well. So as we look at the future of the town, let's say reorganization 00:51:32.593 --> 00:51:39.607 - passes or we've got this, we're on the precipice of a really great opportunity here. Looking ahead 10, 00:51:39.607 --> 00:51:46.280 - 15 years, what could reorganization mean for the future of the community? And what opportunities, 00:51:46.280 --> 00:51:47.710 - you know, dream big. 00:51:47.810 --> 00:51:55.100 - What opportunities could that create for business, residents, schools? Start with you, Dr. Sanders, 00:51:55.100 --> 00:52:02.754 - and kind of go down the line. Well, one of the exciting pieces of education today is the state has given 00:52:02.754 --> 00:52:10.554 - us the opportunity, school corporations, to create pathways to certain careers. And as I mentioned earlier 00:52:10.554 --> 00:52:16.094 - with our partnership with Boston Scientific and Cook Medical and IU Health, 00:52:16.898 --> 00:52:25.181 - We will just be able to expand that. We have so many students. It's really cool to be in school today. 00:52:25.181 --> 00:52:33.545 - I wish I was in school today because so many of our students can now go out and do internships in local 00:52:33.545 --> 00:52:40.702 - companies and learn about the career that they think that they want to do down the road. 00:52:40.802 --> 00:52:49.395 - and in a short time that we've been implementing the Pathways program in our student run businesses. 00:52:49.395 --> 00:52:58.413 - So we have students who've worked at German American Bank, for example, that they went there as an intern 00:52:58.413 --> 00:53:07.006 - and now they're going to IU, they're in Kelly School of Business, but they're continuing to work for 00:53:07.006 --> 00:53:10.494 - that financial institution. So the more, 00:53:10.786 --> 00:53:21.941 - companies that we have partners, basically, that we have, the more opportunities we'll create for students. 00:53:21.941 --> 00:53:31.649 - It's exciting. Yes. What are the possibilities, Colin? Possibilities, that's one thing. Yeah, 00:53:31.649 --> 00:53:40.222 - I agree with Dr. Sanders on that, on the school part. I think even both secondary, 00:53:40.642 --> 00:53:48.231 - great things are happening. I mean, I think when people really see what's happening up here at Edgewood 00:53:48.231 --> 00:53:55.602 - over the next year, they'll be amazed. And it seems like there's an annual project at RBB now, but I 00:53:55.602 --> 00:54:02.899 - think it's a good problem to have. Great problem. And I will say this about IU, being on the Dean's 00:54:02.899 --> 00:54:10.270 - Advisory Council, that school is not stagnant. It's moving forward. It has a music business program. 00:54:11.106 --> 00:54:20.111 - that is chaired by the retired CEO of Universal Music Group. There are apprenticeship opportunities 00:54:20.111 --> 00:54:29.115 - in LA available. But who knows how long LA is gonna be an entertainment capital, right? And we need 00:54:29.115 --> 00:54:38.750 - to bring some of that to Bloomington, as well. You gotta have that environment for creatives or musicians. 00:54:39.842 --> 00:54:47.148 - I think they've got to have a place to live, too. If you're going to attract great faculty, which we're 00:54:47.148 --> 00:54:54.383 - having this major turnover now, we're getting faculty in their 30s, if that, as well as some folks who 00:54:54.383 --> 00:55:01.619 - retired and may want to find an apartment or someplace in the area, Ellisville's gonna be part of that 00:55:01.619 --> 00:55:08.222 - equation. And if you're going to maintain excellence in your football program, you gotta hire 00:55:08.354 --> 00:55:13.766 - great coaches, and they've got to have a place to live. With all the research that's being 00:55:13.766 --> 00:55:20.071 - done at Bloomington, you've got to have a place to live. So those are the opportunities. And what Valerie 00:55:20.071 --> 00:55:26.435 - was saying, I think the growth may slow down a little bit, but that's, again, that would be in a situation 00:55:26.435 --> 00:55:32.799 - where it didn't go through. The town may have to wrestle with the county, so to speak, in terms of getting 00:55:32.799 --> 00:55:37.854 - things done. And we don't ever want to see that happen. And mostly, it would be with 00:55:38.402 --> 00:55:46.456 - with the commissioners or the executive, right, and the plan commission. That's what I see. And I think 00:55:46.456 --> 00:55:54.665 - the opportunities ahead are within the town, within the township. There may be challenges, but we control 00:55:54.665 --> 00:56:02.719 - what's in the town, within the limits here. And that's the opportunity. And then, we plan out the rest, 00:56:02.719 --> 00:56:05.662 - so to speak, of how we wanna proceed. 00:56:06.370 --> 00:56:13.320 - Yeah, there's still, you know, you look at the small businesses that have opened lately, they're doing 00:56:13.320 --> 00:56:20.405 - it in downtown Ellsville, and that's a fantastic thing. The town is coming alive in a way that I haven't 00:56:20.405 --> 00:56:27.287 - seen since the late 80s, maybe. So it's been a long time. We're getting back to full circle again. So 00:56:27.287 --> 00:56:34.372 - I think that's what's exciting, is that, you know what, at the end of the day, the town can still manage 00:56:34.372 --> 00:56:36.126 - what's within the limits, 00:56:36.226 --> 00:56:45.191 - and maybe pursue or persuade neighbors to voluntarily annex, which is what's happening today. But that's 00:56:45.191 --> 00:56:54.242 - going back to the status quo. But we just have to focus on those opportunities and move forward. Valerie, 00:56:54.242 --> 00:57:03.463 - what are the possibilities and opportunities? Well, there's a saying that says there's strength in numbers. 00:57:03.463 --> 00:57:06.110 - And Ellisville's population is 00:57:06.242 --> 00:57:16.682 - a little bit less than 7,000, the township is slightly more than Ellisville. And so should the two reorganize 00:57:16.682 --> 00:57:26.267 - together, that doubles the numbers and doubles the power. And I think that's important. I think that 00:57:26.267 --> 00:57:34.334 - gives us a bigger voice together and yet a small enough voice to work well together. 00:57:35.074 --> 00:57:45.395 - And so I see that as a very big positive. And I frankly would be concerned that we could lose some of 00:57:45.395 --> 00:57:56.324 - that as residences, we could lose some of that. Maybe not the bigger businesses, but the smaller businesses 00:57:56.324 --> 00:58:04.318 - could hurt as well. Okay. All right, I just thought of one more thing. Please. 00:58:04.674 --> 00:58:13.598 - You remember our Envision Ellitsville initiative? Yeah. I see that with the reorganization. I see that 00:58:13.598 --> 00:58:22.434 - Envision Ellitsville becoming a reality. Going along with that, yeah, because we talked about all the 00:58:22.434 --> 00:58:31.358 - quality of life. One of the major things that all the surveys showed was that we want quality of life. 00:58:31.810 --> 00:58:41.653 - I'd like to see a definition of that. And I think that it would be different for everyone in here. But 00:58:41.653 --> 00:58:51.305 - one of the things that it does, it talks about a great living space to play and work, both from safe 00:58:51.305 --> 00:59:00.574 - infrastructure to green space and playgrounds, the new Heritage Center downtown in Stewart Park. 00:59:01.250 --> 00:59:12.808 - quality of life, I can see things happening to make that even more so if we can combine the efforts. 00:59:12.808 --> 00:59:24.823 - Excellent. So any questions from the audience? Well, I know this is not a shy group. No, they just don't 00:59:24.823 --> 00:59:26.654 - want to. Mason. 00:59:31.586 --> 00:59:42.576 - I'm curious how the books in this room can be of support to help bring this to fruition, to bring the 00:59:42.576 --> 00:59:53.459 - new town of Ellisville into a reality. How can the people in this room partake and make that happen? 00:59:53.459 --> 01:00:00.894 - That's really what it boils down to. That's the only way it happens. 01:00:01.346 --> 01:00:07.995 - it's in the booth. You gotta get out and vote, and vote however you want. But if people are inclined 01:00:07.995 --> 01:00:14.578 - to see this, these two governments reorganized in a single unit, that's what's gonna happen. And if 01:00:14.578 --> 01:00:21.293 - you're convinced, if people are convinced that it's going to happen and want to support it, then it's 01:00:21.293 --> 01:00:28.798 - the old-fashioned, tell your neighbors, tell your friends, post it on Facebook, share, like, subscribe, all that. 01:00:28.994 --> 01:00:37.847 - Get out and and support it if people truly want it to happen. That's what they have to do and and then 01:00:37.847 --> 01:00:46.528 - early voting starts October 6th Election day is November 3rd, so Just get out and vote Yeah, I'll go 01:00:46.528 --> 01:00:55.124 - along with what he said I am amazed at the people who don't know my husband will tell you what I do 01:00:55.124 --> 01:00:58.046 - most and probably best is talk so 01:00:58.754 --> 01:01:07.705 - So consequently, I talk a lot. I'm not a social media person. I kind of am a voyeur. I kind of look 01:01:07.705 --> 01:01:16.835 - at it, but I don't really participate. OK, Krista, she just covered it. So I don't listen to the beat 01:01:16.835 --> 01:01:26.144 - of the social media. But this is the plan. And I don't understand everything, but I've read everything. 01:01:26.144 --> 01:01:28.382 - And it's on the website. 01:01:28.802 --> 01:01:36.549 - But are people going to go? No. So talk, however you do it. Everybody, you see, I do that all the time. 01:01:36.549 --> 01:01:43.850 - I stop people, even when they come in the office, as they're leaving the office and they're done, 01:01:43.850 --> 01:01:51.523 - I might say, by the way, do you live in the township? Do you live in the town? Check this out. And I'm 01:01:51.523 --> 01:01:58.078 - tired of giving out copies. But I think that's the way. Again, to be informed, frankly, 01:01:58.402 --> 01:02:06.622 - The people that I have talked to that are negative are the ones who have basically not informed. And 01:02:06.622 --> 01:02:14.761 - so by the time I say, OK, did you look at this? Or what about page 45 or whatever? They kind of go, 01:02:14.761 --> 01:02:22.899 - oh, that's not what I read on social media. I go, yeah, that's true. So that's how. Just talk. What 01:02:22.899 --> 01:02:27.294 - I just heard from you is that you as a small business 01:02:27.906 --> 01:02:41.817 - have an opportunity to share with your target audience and to educate those people. Yes. So thank you. 01:02:41.817 --> 01:02:57.214 - Yes? Well, as you well know, I don't get much chance to talk. My husband. But anyway, I do have a statement here. 01:02:58.050 --> 01:03:06.048 - The key word I hear is control. We'll have a better chance to control if we've got more people, we're 01:03:06.048 --> 01:03:13.889 - together on there. And I use as an example, in the early to mid 60s, and a lot of us weren't around 01:03:13.889 --> 01:03:21.887 - then, or were young then, and the school system. That's when all the school systems in the state were 01:03:21.887 --> 01:03:25.886 - consolidating, and Monroe County was no different. 01:03:26.498 --> 01:03:34.532 - And so the question was, can we get all the school, Monroe County schools into one school system? And 01:03:34.532 --> 01:03:42.723 - a fellow by the name of Maurice Enright said, no, we want our own school system. And I say that because 01:03:42.723 --> 01:03:51.073 - look what our school system has done since then. Look what happened to Unionville and Smithville. They're 01:03:51.073 --> 01:03:52.254 - afterthoughts. 01:03:52.674 --> 01:04:01.260 - Consolidating in that case really helped us, it helped the town, and it's kind of why you've got better 01:04:01.260 --> 01:04:10.259 - chance to control if we're together like that. Thank you. Thank you for those comments. Any other questions? 01:04:10.259 --> 01:04:18.680 - So I heard, get informed. Valerie will give you a copy of the plan if you don't have one already. The 01:04:18.680 --> 01:04:21.982 - Ellisville Chamber website, Jill's done 01:04:22.082 --> 01:04:28.263 - bang-up job of keeping that populated. You can still register to vote. You can check your polling places. 01:04:28.263 --> 01:04:34.095 - You can early vote. You can vote on Election Day. I think the biggest thing is get informed and get 01:04:34.095 --> 01:04:40.101 - involved and tell your friends. So if there's not any other questions, Jill, if you want to help close 01:04:40.101 --> 01:04:45.758 - us out. And we want to give a thanks to our panelists. They were very informative. So thank you. 01:04:53.410 --> 01:05:00.392 - Thanks, Mariah. Thank you all for being here today and taking the time to engage in this important 01:05:00.392 --> 01:05:07.445 - conversation. We hope today's discussion has provided helpful information and given you some things 01:05:07.445 --> 01:05:14.498 - to consider when you make your decision. Before you leave, I want to remind everyone to make a plan 01:05:14.498 --> 01:05:21.621 - to vote. Early voting begins October 6th. The polling place for early voting is the Showers Building 01:05:21.621 --> 01:05:23.102 - at 501 North Morton. 01:05:23.330 --> 01:05:30.870 - It's week 101. Election day is Tuesday, November 3rd. We encourage everyone who is eligible to vote 01:05:30.870 --> 01:05:38.636 - to take the time to learn about the proposal, consider the information that's available, and make your 01:05:38.636 --> 01:05:46.252 - voice heard. Be sure to check out the reorganization page on the Ellsville Chamber's website. That's 01:05:46.252 --> 01:05:52.510 - ellsvillechamber.org backslash reorg. There's information there about the proposal 01:05:52.706 --> 01:06:00.543 - answer to frequently asked questions and links to helpful resources and documents including the full 01:06:00.543 --> 01:06:08.535 - plan. A special thanks to our presenting sponsor Monroe County Airport for making this event possible. 01:06:08.535 --> 01:06:16.760 - Wanna thank our panelists and our moderator and all of you for being here today for today's conversation. 01:06:16.760 --> 01:06:21.726 - Oh yes, Stan. I wanna thank Jill for kind of spearheading this. 01:06:22.978 --> 01:06:31.892 - articles in the newspaper that were very informative and very positive. And she's a great writer. And 01:06:31.892 --> 01:06:40.894 - I think that we need to give her a really. Thank you, Dan. Thank you, everyone. Enjoy the rest of your 01:06:40.894 --> 01:06:45.438 - day. We're so happy you were here today to join us.