Welcome to our reorganization panel. A big thank you to the town of Ellitsville for letting us use this
wonderful space. We really appreciate it. We'd like to have a moment of silence before we continue to
remember GL Chandler, founder of Chandler Funeral Home. GL was a true champion of our community and
a past president of the Ellitsville Chamber of Commerce. He committed,
His sorry, his commitment to our community and his dedication to serving others will be deeply missed.
Please join me in a moment of silence in honor of GL. Thank you.
We want to recognize our presenting sponsor today, Monroe County Airport. We truly appreciate your support.
A special thank you as well to our premium partners who support the chamber at the highest level. You'll
see their logos on our slideshow. Our annual meeting and awards dinner is Thursday, October 22nd. For
details about registration and sponsorship, please visit our website. Our moderator today is Mariah Souders.
Mariah is the senior external relations and communications manager for Boston Scientific Spencer's facility
where she leads community and industry engagement and oversees local employee communications. She is
passionate about building partnerships that strengthen workforce development and community impact initiatives
throughout the region.
She is actively involved in several regional organizations, serving on the External Affairs Committee
for the Ellisville Chamber of Commerce, the Legislative Affairs Committee for the Greater Bloomington
Chamber, and the Board of Directors for Regional Opportunity Initiatives. Mariah earned her bachelor's
degree from Butler University and a master of political management from George Washington University.
She is also a 2018 graduate of Leadership Bloomington Monroe County. Mariah and her husband Jeremy have
called Monroe County home since 2012 and are proud to be raising their two children in the community.
Please help me welcome Mariah Souders. We will be prompt.
Good morning. Ooh, I thought I was gonna have to do that twice, but you all are, the coffee is flowing,
so that is exciting. Thank you for that warm welcome, Jill, and everyone for being here. I'm going to
find this. So, we'll welcome our panelists. So we have, unfortunately Noel caught something that was
going around, so we have three esteemed panelists here today though, so without,
Esteemed, yes. Esteemed, not steamed, esteemed. So we have Colin McCarty, executive vice president and
fifth generation owner of Smithville Communications and CEO of its sister company, Smithville Telecom.
Under his leadership, Smithville Telecom serves more than 20 counties across central and southern Indiana,
With over 30 years of industry experience, Cullen advocates for expanding high quality broadband access,
especially in rural US communities. He collaborates with Congress and policymakers on broadband policies
and serves on the Government Affairs Committee of the NTCA, the Rural Broadband Association.
Locally, Cullen supports economic development through his appointment to the Monroe County Redevelopment
Commission and also advocates for local business as a member of the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce
Advocacy Council, Greater Ellisville Chamber of Commerce External Affairs Committee, and his civic commitment
extends to his alma mater, Indiana University, where he is a member of the Singing Hoosiers Alumni Council
and a member of the Dean's Advisory Council at the Jacobs School of Music.
I didn't know all that until I read this. So he holds a Bachelor of Arts from Indiana University and
resides with his wife, Rachel, and their two children in rural Monroe County. So welcome, Colin. Valerie
DeWar is a lifelong Monroe County resident, has been a familiar and active part of our community for
many years. She is currently the office manager at Hoosier Family Eye Care and has served on the Ellisville
Chamber Board for many years, bringing a strong voice for small business
She is also a member of the Chamber's External Affairs Committee and represents the Chamber at Ellisville
Town Council meetings, and we thank you for that. So she is a retired social studies and English teacher,
and she and her husband, Dr. Lloyd Dewar, who's her family eye care, have four children and
four grandchildren. She has been an optometric technician for many years, and since beginning her millenary
education in 2010, has developed a real talent for designing one-of-a-kind hats. She is a lifelong trustee of
co-chair at First United Methodist Church. And then last, but certainly not least, our friendly
superintendent, Dr. Jerry Sanders of Richland Bean Blossom Community School Corporation, a position
he has held for eight years. Previously, he was dean of the School of Education at Kentucky Christian
University from 2015 to 2017. Dr. Sanders spent most of his career with the school corporation
of Martinsville, where he served as a classroom teacher, elementary principal, assistant superintendent
for a combined 28 years.
He earned his bachelor's of science from Kentucky Christian University and his teacher credentials from
Youngstown State University and master's degree from Indiana University and PhD from Indiana State.
That's a good amount of Midwest representation there university-wise. Dr. Sanders has enjoyed serving
on many community organizations, boards, and foundations and currently represents the school corporation
as a board member on the Bloomington and Monroe County Community Foundation.
and as an ex-officio for the Ellitsville Area Chamber of Commerce, and previously as an executive board
member for Envision Ellitsville. So thank you all. Let's give them a warm welcome. All righty. So we
have some general questions, and then hopefully we can take some questions at the end from the audience.
Is that OK, Jill? Excellent.
We will start, we can go left to right, or whoever feels so inspired to respond first. For those who
may still be unclear about the proposal of town reorganization, what exactly would change if the town
of Ellisville and Richland Township reorganized, and why is the reorganization being considered now?
Ooh, that's a nice loaded one to really kick it off, huh? That's a great Noel question. I know.
Yeah. Do you want me to defer to Noel? Just send an e-mail. Okay. We'll send an e-mail. Go ahead. Yeah.
I guess you can look at it from multiple angles. Looking at it from a large business angle, what would
change is the localization of government for us in terms of certain functions pertaining to developments
in particular because that's really partially how we make a living.
And as a utility, the permitting process, the planning zoning, if handled here in Ellitsville with a
combined reorganized Ellitsville and Richland township, keeps it within our borders, so to speak. And
we're pretty good at being vocal in this township, and that's why we still have our own separate school district.
We have the only locally headquartered bank and locally headquartered telecom company, among others.
So I think that the town gets it from what I've seen. And I think from our perspective, even though
it would potentially, well, it would raise our taxes a little bit as a business, it's still, I think,
the service we receive in return with all due respect with our folks within county.
I know there are two elected county council officials here. The county council does a great job,
by the way. They really do. But we've got things that we need to do, and we need to do at the Ellitsville
pace because of the amount of the growth, the quickness of the growth that's occurring. And it's more
effective, I believe, if we do it here. And that's really what it boils down to, is keeping it local
and keeping it at our pace. Because the pace of growth, when you look at places like
Prominence Point area, for example. There are people living in construction zones because you can't
build them fast enough. Ernest is doing a fine job, but he can only build houses so quickly, and they
don't last long on the market. So that's the drive, the pace that we're facing right now. And so, for
a company like ours, that's very helpful. Our engineering department, they know who to talk to at the
county. They also know who to talk to in the town.
And if we can get things done a little quicker, more effectively, and especially come winter, we can
help take that load off the county in terms of plowing, in terms of maintenance for our streets and
our roads, all the better. And I think that makes a better community for all of us. Well, when I first
started hearing about the reorganization of the government with the township and the town,
To be honest with you, I was a little bit nervous about the idea of trying to analyze the impact that
it might have on the school corporation. But the deeper I got into it, the more I learned about the
process, the more I learned about the end results, the more as a citizen of Valleysville,
came to really believe that this is something that we need to do for our community and our citizens.
And I was trying to think of an analogy. You know, if I had to depend on my neighbors to take care of
my house, take care of my property, I'm probably not gonna get their full attention. They're gonna focus
on their own. And when I think about
the idea of the township and the town merging together. I think our local community will be able to
focus more on our citizens and give them much more attention, look out for the needs, the services that
are needed, and bring us together as a community. And then, finally, I think it's always good, and I
appreciate
town leaders for trying to be progressive and looking towards the future. And it's not always what the
situation is now. It's where are you positioning yourself for the future? And I think this is really
the way that we need to go. And so as a citizen of Ellisville, I am 100% for the merger.
I think people tend to identify with whatever town their school system is a part of. And so I believe
that if we can focus the nucleus of our identification, both for business and for school in our area,
we'll be much stronger than we are today. And frankly, I think we're quite strong now. As a small business owner,
I would like to think that this will enhance my husband's practice. I'm not truthfully sure it will,
because you have to Google insurance. But other than most businesses, when you look at the SIP or other
small businesses in town, I think that if you think of yourself as Ellisville, you will think of those
places to go to rather than
driving to somewhere else. So in that sense, I think for the township people to become part of the new
organization would help that identification. Not only are we business owners, but we're township residents.
And from the township standpoint, I would much rather have my zoning and my ordinances in a smaller structure
than a large one. And so while Monroe County is quite large, it would not necessarily always be able
to focus on what our township needs, whereas if we were part of Ellisville, it would be maybe more of
a focus. So I think from that standpoint, one other thing with that is people say, what would it be
like if we don't do this? We'll have status quo.
things won't change. I was absolutely amazed at how many people, myself included at some point, do not
realize how much township land, not part of Ellisville, is so impacted by Ellisville's town and how
much the town is impacted by that land. Just one brief example is all of the ballparks.
I always thought for my first 30 years in Ellisville that that was part of Ellisville's town. The last
20 years taught me no, it's township land. So think of what would change if finally the state of Indiana
phased out townships, and that is a very good possibility. What would happen with all of those lands
that we are so carefully integrated with now?
So I think from the standpoint of business, business growth and business identification, if we identify
Ellisville as our place, that would be more beneficial. Okay, thank you. I'm gonna jump around on our
pre-prepared questions just to keep the conversation going. So talk to us about how a unified approach
to planning and development can help us manage future growth
while preserving the things people value about our community. Valerie, I think you were already kind
of going there, but if you want to elaborate and then we can pass it down, that'd be great. Well, first
of all, the township and the town, if you look at the plan, would not come under all the same ordinance,
I mean, all the same zoning. You would still have rural township zoning and you would still have town
zoning, but both areas would speak together.
perhaps even better than they do now. Although for the last, you know, people talk about the services
with that as well. The town and the fire department have had, since the 40s, has had a relationship
together. And look at how well that works. I see that as a good example of what all of it would look
like with roads, police, all of that.
Yeah, let me add on to what Valerie was saying on especially police and fire. You know, we've had that
long-standing relationship between the town and the township with the fire department. It's not the
town of Ellisville Fire Department. It's a true partnership with a township fire department, I believe,
if someone correct me. But we've had that for a very long time. We had a number of volunteers who were
part of this community.
as a part of the beginning of that, and more for many years, and now we have a good professional force.
They are an absolute asset to the county, and I think the fact that they understand the needs of the
county or the township speaks well. As a member of the County Redevelopment Commission, I enjoyed...
never enjoyed spending a lot of tax money, but over time, we're spending tax money on a new ladder truck
for that industrial area in the Highland Village area here in Richland Township. And that's a great
investment. And the Fire Department is looking at building a new facility that will better serve that
area. Because when you look at what Cimtra has invested in this community, on top of what Cook has invested,
on top of what Cingota, Tasas, and, you know, Ivy Tech's presence here, those are very important. Those
are very large facilities, and they need
great fire protection, and I think under Kevin Patton's leadership, they've continued a long-standing
tradition of serving the community. So same with the police department. That certainly wouldn't have
the same circumstance as perhaps the fire department. I'm not casting stones at Monroe Fire District.
I think they're doing a great job. But at the same time, the county, there are a lot of roads and a
lot of buildings in this county,
that are way out in the middle of nowhere. And again, I think this is where Ellitsville can come into
play. I know they have great working relationships with the other fire departments on calls. And hopefully,
we can, by doing this with reorganization, we can bolster that support and protect our fire and enhance
our police department as well. You know, a lot of roads to cover in Richland Township. When you think
about how big the township is, you know,
from here to basically Whitehall to the southwest, as well as Island Village to the southeast. A lot
of ground to cover, and I think this town and the township are ready to put things together and make
it work. So again, it's the services that are provided and what we can do together between the business
community and local government to make things happen at our pace. I'll say it again, at the Ellisville pace.
I think one of the great benefits is instead of having a township board and a town board, having their
own conversations about what the needs are for the community, where they want to take their community
to that because of the reorganization will have one board
represented by the township, represented by the town. And so those conversations will be much more impactful
because they'll be able to share the needs of the entire community, not just the township. They won't
just be hearing about from citizens from the township. They won't just be hearing from citizens of the
town of Ellisville, but a combination. And so I think that's just gonna be
good for our community going forward as we go in. You never know what issues we're going to face down
the road, but now there'll be a united front, a united effort in where they're gonna take our community.
Colin, you touched on this a little bit, but you mentioned, you know, we've got some large business
investments in this side of town between, you know, Ivy Tech, Cook, Tasos, and Simtra. So from a large
business perspective, what does a community need from its local government to support the business growth
and investment you were talking about, and how can this reorganization potentially help provide those
things? If you want to dig in a little deeper. Sure. Let me start with a qualifier.
that, and I believe Center falls into this as well, even though it's, well, not so much. It's in the
county. But some of the far corner, that far southeast corner, is within the city limits. And Mike Farmer,
our town manager, has had good conversation with Mayor Thompson about that situation. I think from,
could you ask that question once again? I'm sorry.
From the perspective of a larger business, what does the community need from local government to support
the business growth and investment and how do you see reorganization supporting those objectives? I
think because it's the business I'm in and because we all saw it up close and personal over the weekend,
it is infrastructure.
And there's only so much the town of Ellitsville can do with water, because we buy water from Bloomington,
but we certainly can, with our own sewer plant, manage that growth as well. So large businesses,
even small, medium, need good infrastructure. Good streets, security, good police protection,
which we have, good fire protection, which I got
halted by a fire run on the way over here this morning. So all those things are very important. Water
management, and I said this, excuse me, on a panel at the VEDC several years ago, is gonna become more
important as time goes on. And again, we've seen those used as political tools, unfortunately, between
that and sewer. It becomes very important that we have
adequate and great capacity to do things. On the power side, we have to deal with two providers, one
in South Central Indiana or AMC, and the other with Duke. And I think with SCI, that's more of a local
utility based out of Martinsville. It covers a good deal of this territory. I think UDWI also covers
some in the South as well.
You're dealing with local, regional, as opposed to Duke. Duke does a good job, and Liz Irwin's a good
point person for them. I think that power is going to be another issue, and telecom, we have to keep
building as well, and we have to plan for large businesses that come in. We all do, but we have to give
them good infrastructure, good support. I think the airport is doing
a bang-up job and looking at the future, absolutely. Because we have, being the home of a Big Ten university
and a national champion in football, it's a lot of money in football. And a lot of folks are coming
in from Columbus, from LA, hosting Ohio State USC. We have to have capacity to handle that, and that
bleeds over into Ellitsville as well. So we have to take a regional approach,
as a local government, if that makes sense. We can work with Clark and the team at BEDC, and they have
a new chief executive coming on board, so that'll be a great thing as well. But we have those relationships
directly, so we can address those things directly as time allows. Thank you. On the flip side, a small
business perspective, Valerie, can you share what you hope a unified government could do differently
or better to support local business? One thing that small business seems to suffer from frequently is
not always knowing what bureaucratic areas to go to and maybe getting caught in the snarl of point A,
point B, point C, and uh-oh, it should have been point D. I can remember that when we first came
back from my husband being in the military and trying to set up a practice, we looked at Bloomington.
And not bad-mouthing Bloomington completely, but think about that was 49 years ago, so things have changed.
But the red tape was just more than a small business with a beginning budget can handle. And we wanted
to be in Ellisville anyway, so we said, oh, let's go, thank heaven. We did that, it was a good move.
But I think that if we can simplify and keep things simple, that's good. And there are so many businesses
that are talking to Ellitsville that would like to come. And I'm talking small. I know in the big corporate
world, small is something like, what, 100 employees or so? But for me, I'm talking 50 and less. I mean,
really small.
A lot of times they want to start not right downtown, but then they're involved in the township and
now they have everything, DNR because of our floodplain, they have the town, they have the county. I
think it would simplify things for small businesses to start. Think about the whole corridor of 46 from
here to Bloomington, what part of that would be under the zoning.
And I think that would offer a lot more advantage. And while huge, to quote a friend of mine, huge businesses
are money power and wisdom and many experts, but small businesses are boots on the ground. And consequently,
we need them.
and we want them. And if you travel throughout places, my husband and I like to travel and go to lots
of little small towns. And you find that what makes them cozy, what makes them welcoming are the small
businesses. And when we can invite those in, that would be important. And we have a lot of township
land that would make that available if we had that unification. And I'd just like to say with that,
Having served on the committee that built the plan, and Jerry, by the way, was the overseer of that
whole project, we found that we're not the first, it's not like we're the first ones to do this. Shelbyville
did this first, and they were a good plan to follow. So while we're creating history here, we're not
the first ones.
Somebody told me a large business, every large business started as a small business. So it really is
seeding the future. And I think schools really are the heartbeat of a community. And so this one's for
you, Dr. Sanders. How do you, from your lens, how does the strength and growth of a community affect
our schools? And how do strong schools contribute to the economic development and workforce development?
Now you've got some exciting things that you can, you've got some time, go for it. You have an hour.
You know, what I love about Ellisville, and as mentioned in the introduction, I've been superintendent
here for eight years. But what I've really enjoyed over those eight years is the wonderful partnerships
that we have with the town,
and the people who make sure that our services are there and serve and support our community. We have
an awesome relationship with the police department and we have three school resource officers that keep
our students and staff safe. We have excellent partnerships with our local businesses and we
host a twice a year, we host a business leaders advisory council where we have the leaders of our local
businesses. I'm talking about presidents and CEOs and who are coming onto our campus and talking to
our students and giving them guidance and advice. One of those advisory meetings we had, we have several
student run businesses.
And one of them is the coffee corral. And we've started that I think in 2019, 20, somewhere in there.
And if you would have told me then that today that student run business was having over $50,000 in sales
a year, I would have been shocked. To the point now that just about a few weeks ago,
we sent a memo to the managers who are students, sent them a memo and said they need to come up with
a business plan to start paying their own employees. So far we've been subsidizing that and it's time,
if they have $40,000, $50,000 in the bank, it's time they start paying the bills. But that is a result
That started I mean there's so much to talk about just right there because that started with our students
creating business model and then presenting those business models to local business leaders and then
those business leaders pick the best one and.
I started to say that we recently, about a year ago, we had what I called a stockholders meeting where
the students who were running the student-run businesses had to give a report to the people who are
supporting them. And then those people gave advice on where they could take their business next.
So, you know, back in the day when I was a principal, you know, the relationship between the school
to community was the school going to the local businesses and say, hey, can you donate something? Can
you donate $100 or a gift certificate? Now it's how can we work together to be a pipeline
future employees for your company and as Mariah was talking about earlier, we've now developed a business
partnerships with Cook Medical, Boston Scientific, IU Health and Ivy Tech and recently,
We've had discussions with an organization called NCAP that will actually take that partnership and
broaden it to several more companies like Sentra and others. And so the idea is for those companies
to come onto our campus to provide training, to build relationships,
You know, the old way of doing things was you'd have a job fair and you have companies around the gym,
which we still do, and students come in and they have a few minutes conversation with a local business.
But for students, that just goes over their head. It doesn't develop the relationship. So the idea is
to bring these companies onto our campus
to build those relationships so they know exactly what Boston Scientific does, what Cook Medical does.
And so when they graduate from high school, then they go right into those companies. And if they want
to work at that job for the rest of their career, great. If they want to use that as a stepping stone to
another type of career or another medical career, those companies will support them in those efforts.
And it's all about giving students a plan for when they graduate. A few years ago, the day before graduation,
I was sitting beside a graduating senior, and I asked, what are you going to be doing when you graduate?
He didn't know.
We don't want that to happen. We want them to have a plan. So local businesses have such an impact and
our town have such an impact on providing our students with a quality education. And that's what this
is all about. As a school corporation, we were very concerned at first about what was gonna be the financial impact
of the reorganization on the school corporation. But we had conversations with the town leaders and
we use an organization called Policy Analytics to guide and advise us. The town uses Baker Tilly and
we all came together, those two companies with
folks from the town of Ellisville, folks from the school corporation. And we had a conversation, we
looked at the numbers. And yes, in the first few years, we will have less revenue coming in for the
school corporation. But over time, by 2030, all that will be neutralized. But the bottom line is, by
being a partner with the town of Ellisville,
that we will be able to work together on where, like I said earlier, where our community is going. And
if the town of Ellisville infrastructure improves, services improve, we have more parks, better roads,
all that is going to benefit companies
coming into our area, bring in more residents, and yet keep our small town filled, that's gonna help
the school corporation. And we're having conversations already, thinking down the road of future of
some of the infrastructure changes
that can happen because of this merge that will benefit the school corporation. Everybody knows that,
I was just talking to Krista Curtis in the morning, if you drive around campus, there's a little bit
of traffic. There's a lot of traffic, especially on Reeves Road. And so,
improving the infrastructure for the community will help us to have better roads, expand those roads.
We're also doing a traffic study ourselves to be able to help with those issues that come up. So I just
see nothing but great benefits for the school corporation because of the reorganization.
Thank you. We don't have Noelle here, so normally I would pitch this question to her because we have
had taxes are obviously top of mind and you alluded to it a little bit Dr. Sanders, so it's a little
bit of a segue. Colin, don't kick me from that far, but I'm gonna point this one to you as best you
want. Taxes are one of the biggest concerns that we've heard from business and residents and we know
there's a state budget year coming up,
always an exciting time at the legislature when they do their long session. What should people understand
about the potential financial and tax implications of reorganization? As best from your lens, you're
not an expert on this. Well, I'm not an expert, and I'm just over the township line to the east. I think
you have to educate yourself, and there's so much
Information out there now, the chamber has a site dedicated to reorg. The reorganization committee has
its own site or sub-site within, I think, on the web. There is a lot of information. Educate yourself
as best you can because everybody's situation is different based on the kind of property they own.
the size of the house or the size of the building that they own. And that's really what it boils down
to. You have to get out there and find that information. What I do is try to cut out the white noise
in terms of SEA 1. That's our new tax law in the state of Indiana. Because there are 92 counties in
the state, and I think every one of them is struggling with this issue of what to do.
It changes things a lot. So we're not alone. Residents of this township are not alone in terms of trying
to figure out what this reorg means because it could change. There has been discussion through this
year of making some tweaks. I don't know what's going to happen. So that's the best advice I can give
is to educate yourself because even when I look at
at what our property tax bill is, which is, you know, it's good, decent size. And what is that going
to mean moving forward? And as we shift to income, that's kind of the, that's the thing that's hanging
out there, is what is the effect of the income tax on these townships? Because now, in some ways, it's
like we have to compete against each other for residents. And in this county, it's very hard. When you look at,
And I have to refer, I don't know if Mason, yeah, I have to refer to our friends, the Realtors Association
in terms of housing and the cost of housing in this county versus our donut counties. It's pretty high
and it's challenging. I mean, at Smithville, we have a number of employees who live out of the county
that commute every day. Vigo County, Johnson County, we have multiple people out of Johnson County. So it's,
It's a challenge, and I-69, and I'll say it, I think the Martinsville area is gonna be a competitive
hotbed for a town like Ellisville in terms of housing. We have a lot of jobs coming to the Crane area
in Westgate, a lot of jobs on the table. And where are they gonna live? Because Greene County's having
a hard time finding the land. And so, that pushes everything north and maybe even a little bit east
into Lawrence.
So that's the impact, that's what I look at. And then you've got the uncertainty of SEA 1 in terms of
taxation and government services and whatnot. Educate yourself. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, go ahead, please.
So my worries as a superintendent of a school corporation is the impact of the reorganization
is something to be aware of and to be knowledgeable about, but really the worries that I face are from
SEA 1. We as a school corporation have to, we're right in the process of trying to find a way to cut
a million dollars in expenses and without impacting
the education and ways that we support our students. And it's really unfortunate putting a lot of pressure
on, this is the time of the year where we think about potential salary increases for our staff and teachers.
And those people work so hard, it's a lot harder being a teacher than when I was a teacher.
And in fact, last night I feel like I had a sleepless night trying to figure out how in the world can
I give our teachers any kind of an increase when we're trying to cut a million dollars. So that is really
my big concern. And you know, the other part of the thing I wanted to say was I think as a,
leader of a government entity or leader of a school corporation and RBB has a school board that We're
constantly having conversations about how can we cut our tax rate? How can we be respectful to our taxpayer?
now, you know, we have to stay competitive to in this day and age when
You basically have to compete for students. That's the situation we've been put into. And parents have
the option that if a school down the road has better facilities, that's where they're going to go. We're
mindful of that. We're trying to balance that, stay competitive, but at the same time be respectful
of taxpayers. So I think you just need to have leaders who try to balance that. How do we provide the services
and support for students in the community at the same time, be respectful taxpayers. Yep, we call that
a balanced scorecard in our corporation. So it's hard to do that. Valerie, did you wanna jump in? Yeah,
just for a second. Yeah. They're the experts on this. I taught history in English and we all know English
teachers don't do math. So consequently, when they start talking in these committees about all of that,
my eyes begin to glaze over.
But I think if I've got a couple takeaways, and if I'm wrong, Mike Farmer's gonna correct me later.
But the first one is that a lot of these numbers are not locally controlled. You heard all about these.
And as I sit at the town council, I'm constantly amazed at how considerate they are of the ones they
do have control over. And I can't go into all of them,
you probably would understand it better than me. But I do know that where they had an opportunity to
do one tax that could either be a nickel or 15 cents, they chose the nickel so that they at least had
the token in there. Because if we don't do some of these things locally, they don't qualify for funding
at the state level. So that's another caveat that they need to be aware of. And I'm sure businesses
are a lot different than when I talk to local residents. But the fact of the matter is that taxes are
gonna go up no matter what. And so I guess I want my dollar to be under as much control as I can find
and that I can see what bang I'm getting for my buck. And I think we could do that better with reorganization.
Like I said, it's really not a whole lot. If you look at the plan again, the town has some caps, so
that's not affected that much. And I'm a township resident, so yes, my property's going to go up, but
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
between if I do or if I don't? And there's not, so then I do.
Well, that is a good segue into the next question. I'm going to start with you. And I know we've talked
about this before. What are the consequences if reorganization doesn't pass? Like, what would that look
like? And what are the unknowns? What are the knowns? If you can dive in that, we'll start with Valerie
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.
And so from a business standpoint, if you're in the town, I think you're not going to see a huge impact
in terms of your out go. You may see a difference in the growth that you have in your own business.
Or you may see a lack of growth of new businesses. And a lack of growth of new businesses means your
business is stagnant too. Because water that doesn't move grows algae. And towns that don't move grow stagnant.
and we can see that. And I definitely don't want to be called a dying town. We've seen enough of those
around, and we don't want to be that. So from that standpoint, I think that could happen if we don't
do this. Secondly, that land that is so tightly, I'm back to Campbell's Park, that's part of it, that
we have pockets all through our town that are not town, they're township.
And the impact of suddenly those going away, if townships go away, those going under total county, that
could cause a chaos of governmental issues that I don't even want to think about. OK. Colin,
if reorganization doesn't happen, what are potential consequences? Well, one thing is certain. The sun
will rise in the east.
It will set in the West. And beyond that, we have to, in between that, we've gotta take it a day at
a time if it doesn't go through, because I really can't add a whole lot to what Valerie had said. I
think from our perspective as a company, we like the growth. The growth certainly helps, right? For
any utility, density is great.
We don't want to build everywhere in the county, and that's not what we're about. But at the same time,
to what Valerie was saying, we have cemeteries in this township that the trustee is currently responsible
for. We have a cemetery, I've been told, that's pretty much out of money. And it's gonna have to be
maintained. And, you know, is the county going to do that? Then it becomes an issue of county resources.
And when you consolidate something like that, we see that money gets stretched. And I think that's not
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
what we just discussed become... it goes out of our hands, especially in the unincorporated area of
rural Richland. And that's, again, that's not a great place to be,
So it's hard to tell. I mean, we have so much uncertainty economically, right? And I don't think anybody
ever dreamed that there would be places that are paying $10 a gallon for diesel, right? And gas is in
that $4 neighborhood now, and inflation is gonna follow that on top of what we just discussed with the
tax law in the state.
it creates probably more questions than answers, in my opinion. Okay, I think that's fair. Dr. Sanders?
Yeah, I would agree with Colin there. When you asked that question, the words missed opportunities came
to mind. I have two grandkids that live in Ellisville, and I worry about their future, as would any
grandparent.
But I wanna make sure that their future, and I hope they live forever in Ellesville and their kids live
here. But I'm thinking about the future. And knowing the financial impact that the town has faced recently and the
financial impact a school corporation is facing. We need to take some action. We need to be proactive
in trying to put ourselves in a good position to apply for grants, to receive grants, to bring and attract
businesses so that our children, our little children who are in the preschool will have a good future
for Alexville.
Awesome. Got a couple more questions. So if there's burning questions from the audience, please don't
get shy. We will welcome those in just a few moments. So we've heard missed opportunities,
a lot of unknowns. The sun will rise. That is certain. Maybe not today so much, but we will have daylight.
Jumping back into what you said earlier, Dr. Sanders, students who don't have a plan get lost. And I
think communities need to plan as well. So as we look at the future of the town, let's say reorganization
passes or we've got this, we're on the precipice of a really great opportunity here. Looking ahead 10,
15 years, what could reorganization mean for the future of the community? And what opportunities,
you know, dream big.
What opportunities could that create for business, residents, schools? Start with you, Dr. Sanders,
and kind of go down the line. Well, one of the exciting pieces of education today is the state has given
us the opportunity, school corporations, to create pathways to certain careers. And as I mentioned earlier
with our partnership with Boston Scientific and Cook Medical and IU Health,
We will just be able to expand that. We have so many students. It's really cool to be in school today.
I wish I was in school today because so many of our students can now go out and do internships in local
companies and learn about the career that they think that they want to do down the road.
and in a short time that we've been implementing the Pathways program in our student run businesses.
So we have students who've worked at German American Bank, for example, that they went there as an intern
and now they're going to IU, they're in Kelly School of Business, but they're continuing to work for
that financial institution. So the more,
companies that we have partners, basically, that we have, the more opportunities we'll create for students.
It's exciting. Yes. What are the possibilities, Colin? Possibilities, that's one thing. Yeah,
I agree with Dr. Sanders on that, on the school part. I think even both secondary,
great things are happening. I mean, I think when people really see what's happening up here at Edgewood
over the next year, they'll be amazed. And it seems like there's an annual project at RBB now, but I
think it's a good problem to have. Great problem. And I will say this about IU, being on the Dean's
Advisory Council, that school is not stagnant. It's moving forward. It has a music business program.
that is chaired by the retired CEO of Universal Music Group. There are apprenticeship opportunities
in LA available. But who knows how long LA is gonna be an entertainment capital, right? And we need
to bring some of that to Bloomington, as well. You gotta have that environment for creatives or musicians.
I think they've got to have a place to live, too. If you're going to attract great faculty, which we're
having this major turnover now, we're getting faculty in their 30s, if that, as well as some folks who
retired and may want to find an apartment or someplace in the area, Ellisville's gonna be part of that
equation. And if you're going to maintain excellence in your football program, you gotta hire
great coaches, and they've got to have a place to live. With all the research that's being
done at Bloomington, you've got to have a place to live. So those are the opportunities. And what Valerie
was saying, I think the growth may slow down a little bit, but that's, again, that would be in a situation
where it didn't go through. The town may have to wrestle with the county, so to speak, in terms of getting
things done. And we don't ever want to see that happen. And mostly, it would be with
with the commissioners or the executive, right, and the plan commission. That's what I see. And I think
the opportunities ahead are within the town, within the township. There may be challenges, but we control
what's in the town, within the limits here. And that's the opportunity. And then, we plan out the rest,
so to speak, of how we wanna proceed.
Yeah, there's still, you know, you look at the small businesses that have opened lately, they're doing
it in downtown Ellsville, and that's a fantastic thing. The town is coming alive in a way that I haven't
seen since the late 80s, maybe. So it's been a long time. We're getting back to full circle again. So
I think that's what's exciting, is that, you know what, at the end of the day, the town can still manage
what's within the limits,
and maybe pursue or persuade neighbors to voluntarily annex, which is what's happening today. But that's
going back to the status quo. But we just have to focus on those opportunities and move forward. Valerie,
what are the possibilities and opportunities? Well, there's a saying that says there's strength in numbers.
And Ellisville's population is
a little bit less than 7,000, the township is slightly more than Ellisville. And so should the two reorganize
together, that doubles the numbers and doubles the power. And I think that's important. I think that
gives us a bigger voice together and yet a small enough voice to work well together.
And so I see that as a very big positive. And I frankly would be concerned that we could lose some of
that as residences, we could lose some of that. Maybe not the bigger businesses, but the smaller businesses
could hurt as well. Okay. All right, I just thought of one more thing. Please.
You remember our Envision Ellitsville initiative? Yeah. I see that with the reorganization. I see that
Envision Ellitsville becoming a reality. Going along with that, yeah, because we talked about all the
quality of life. One of the major things that all the surveys showed was that we want quality of life.
I'd like to see a definition of that. And I think that it would be different for everyone in here. But
one of the things that it does, it talks about a great living space to play and work, both from safe
infrastructure to green space and playgrounds, the new Heritage Center downtown in Stewart Park.
quality of life, I can see things happening to make that even more so if we can combine the efforts.
Excellent. So any questions from the audience? Well, I know this is not a shy group. No, they just don't
want to. Mason.
I'm curious how the books in this room can be of support to help bring this to fruition, to bring the
new town of Ellisville into a reality. How can the people in this room partake and make that happen?
That's really what it boils down to. That's the only way it happens.
it's in the booth. You gotta get out and vote, and vote however you want. But if people are inclined
to see this, these two governments reorganized in a single unit, that's what's gonna happen. And if
you're convinced, if people are convinced that it's going to happen and want to support it, then it's
the old-fashioned, tell your neighbors, tell your friends, post it on Facebook, share, like, subscribe, all that.
Get out and and support it if people truly want it to happen. That's what they have to do and and then
early voting starts October 6th Election day is November 3rd, so Just get out and vote Yeah, I'll go
along with what he said I am amazed at the people who don't know my husband will tell you what I do
most and probably best is talk so
So consequently, I talk a lot. I'm not a social media person. I kind of am a voyeur. I kind of look
at it, but I don't really participate. OK, Krista, she just covered it. So I don't listen to the beat
of the social media. But this is the plan. And I don't understand everything, but I've read everything.
And it's on the website.
But are people going to go? No. So talk, however you do it. Everybody, you see, I do that all the time.
I stop people, even when they come in the office, as they're leaving the office and they're done,
I might say, by the way, do you live in the township? Do you live in the town? Check this out. And I'm
tired of giving out copies. But I think that's the way. Again, to be informed, frankly,
The people that I have talked to that are negative are the ones who have basically not informed. And
so by the time I say, OK, did you look at this? Or what about page 45 or whatever? They kind of go,
oh, that's not what I read on social media. I go, yeah, that's true. So that's how. Just talk. What
I just heard from you is that you as a small business
have an opportunity to share with your target audience and to educate those people. Yes. So thank you.
Yes? Well, as you well know, I don't get much chance to talk. My husband. But anyway, I do have a statement here.
The key word I hear is control. We'll have a better chance to control if we've got more people, we're
together on there. And I use as an example, in the early to mid 60s, and a lot of us weren't around
then, or were young then, and the school system. That's when all the school systems in the state were
consolidating, and Monroe County was no different.
And so the question was, can we get all the school, Monroe County schools into one school system? And
a fellow by the name of Maurice Enright said, no, we want our own school system. And I say that because
look what our school system has done since then. Look what happened to Unionville and Smithville. They're
afterthoughts.
Consolidating in that case really helped us, it helped the town, and it's kind of why you've got better
chance to control if we're together like that. Thank you. Thank you for those comments. Any other questions?
So I heard, get informed. Valerie will give you a copy of the plan if you don't have one already. The
Ellisville Chamber website, Jill's done
bang-up job of keeping that populated. You can still register to vote. You can check your polling places.
You can early vote. You can vote on Election Day. I think the biggest thing is get informed and get
involved and tell your friends. So if there's not any other questions, Jill, if you want to help close
us out. And we want to give a thanks to our panelists. They were very informative. So thank you.
Thanks, Mariah. Thank you all for being here today and taking the time to engage in this important
conversation. We hope today's discussion has provided helpful information and given you some things
to consider when you make your decision. Before you leave, I want to remind everyone to make a plan
to vote. Early voting begins October 6th. The polling place for early voting is the Showers Building
at 501 North Morton.
It's week 101. Election day is Tuesday, November 3rd. We encourage everyone who is eligible to vote
to take the time to learn about the proposal, consider the information that's available, and make your
voice heard. Be sure to check out the reorganization page on the Ellsville Chamber's website. That's
ellsvillechamber.org backslash reorg. There's information there about the proposal
answer to frequently asked questions and links to helpful resources and documents including the full
plan. A special thanks to our presenting sponsor Monroe County Airport for making this event possible.
Wanna thank our panelists and our moderator and all of you for being here today for today's conversation.
Oh yes, Stan. I wanna thank Jill for kind of spearheading this.
articles in the newspaper that were very informative and very positive. And she's a great writer. And
I think that we need to give her a really. Thank you, Dan. Thank you, everyone. Enjoy the rest of your
day. We're so happy you were here today to join us.