Good evening. I'm going to call to order this meeting of the Monroe County Board of Commissioners. All
three commissioners are here and present in the NETU Hill Room. And we're here solely to focus on Ordinance
2025-51. If you are here from Richland Township or Polk Township or Salt Creek Township,
We are not going to be considering adding these townships to the fire district tonight. Tonight is solely
bean blossom. But we do intend in the spring to consider those
to be added to the fire protection district. So tonight is solely about being blossoming. Just wanted
to make that clear to anybody who may be online or here, and you live in a different township. Um, we'll
start with an explanation from Mr Cockrell, if you would, please. Yes and we've done this process or
at least this expansion of the fire
reminder the code allows the commissioners to approve and extend the fire protection district over new
areas it also has a process that allows people to petition the commissioners to to see that question
but it's not required in in this case we are looking at beam blossom township the notice included many
other areas but we have had discussions with the fire protection district and their then their board and
And I think at this point, moving forward with just being blossom was what they requested and what you
had announced at your meeting last week. So essentially this this in order for this to occur so that
the the beam blossom would join the township or fire protection district in twenty twenty seven. It
has to be completed prior to twenty twenty six. We have to have that year lag. I have reached out to
the Department of Local Government Finance and the
staff member confirmed that that's his understanding they were going to reach out to their legal department
and let me know if it if anything was different and I have not heard back from them so in order for
this to be effective we have to have it done by the end of the year and the ordinance in front of you
is very similar to past ordinances I guess the the
The difference is it adds beam blossom instead of a different township. It also, the board currently
has seven members on it. And so when you add a new township, you have to add a new member, trustee for
the board. And statutorily, you can't have an even number of trustees. So it does have a ninth board,
ninth trustee that can be from any, that last one just has to reside within the township or within the
fire protection district.
that are associated with that. So I hope that's clear, but basically what this is is the is an ordinance
that would add beam blossom to the Monroe fire protection. I have a quick question. Um, technical questions.
So in if this passes and in
being blossom is added to the fire protection district. There's still a continuing contract between
the fire protection district and Salt Creek and Polk townships. Those, because it's a contract, would
they be eligible to be considered for board membership as a trustee, or is it only people who reside
within the physical parameters of the fire district
within the township center. I believe it's only those people within the fire protection district right
so they they have they have contracts but they're not in the fire protection and you know it's I think
it's a four-year term so what happens in year two if the contract expires and they don't renew it it
would just okay. Do my colleagues have questions for Mr. Cockrell? I do not.
Okay. Does anyone from the fire protection district board? I see the chair Vicky Sorenson is here. I
also see Dustin Dillard here. The chief of the fire protection district are both here. Do you have anything
you want to say at the outset? Okay, great. Um, all right. So, um. Why don't we go ahead and
Yes. Okay. Great. If you'd like to speak on this issue, whether in support or opposition, please come
to the podium here in the net you Hill room or you can raise your hand on teams. And we will hear from
you. We'd like to ask you to please limit your comments to three minutes per person. And
There's a big clock up on the screen. We can actually tilt that screen so you could see it more easily.
I will go do that. And if anybody wishes to come up and speak on this item, please do so. I'll get it.
And I would just say this is a public hearing. It was noticed as a public hearing. So this would be
the hearing portion of that.
I wish to speak on this item. Hello, can you give us your name, please? And yes, not ship of residence.
My name is Carl Salzman. I'm a resident of Bean Blossom Township. Over the weekend, I was informed of
the meeting tonight that interests many taxpayers.
on the west side of the county. I was only able to contact a few people that could be here
because coincidentally, the consolidation mean for Ellsville is tonight at the same time. I found that
a little strange, but anyway, the people I'm talking about are the residents of Bean Blossom Township,
Steinsville, Richland Township and Ellsville. I'm not talking about poke. All that's been taken off
the table. As you know, we met for months about this issue.
went over the projected tax implications, had discussions with the Ellsville Fire Department, the Steinsville
Volunteer Fire Department, and our fellow citizens in many meetings. We eventually conducted a remonstrance
action, which firmly told you the wishes of the taxpayers in that area. In other words, we won. I don't
know why this is back on the agenda again,
But I can tell you we do not need the Monroe County Fire Protection District to be involved. For many
reasons which we have voiced to you in those meetings, it does not make financial sense. We will not
get better fire services. It creates redundancies that are not necessary, et cetera. The remonstrance
was not the end of our interest.
We hope for a contract to cover the services for our area with the Elseville Fire Protection District.
That contract would provide the services we need. And frankly, we already get without the enormous tax
burden that we'd be levied by Monroe County Fire Protection District takeover. We understand that contract
is available now. We would like to take part of that. That's what we'd like.
I know as commissioners, you have to look at many agendas and considerations. But as Commissioner Thomas
said in the last election, when there was a swell of remonstrance against city's annexation attempts,
quote unquote, we should listen to the people most affected. My request is that you do just that. I
will also be willing to help you if you need
point person on these issues. As we navigate the future together on this or anything else confronting
us on the west side or frankly in the county in general. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Anybody
else wish to comment? Please come up to the podium or raise your hand on teams.
Yeah, I'm sorry, you had to be at the microphone. Thank you. We'll wait. Yeah, my name is Jay Thrasher.
I'm in Richland Township. I agree with Carl that Ellitsville and Bean Blossom have a working agreement
and have had for a good while now.
I was wanting clarification that you're dealing with Bean Blossom tonight is all that you're dealing
with? That's correct. And the others you're? Not dealing with until 2026. So you're planning to deal
with them too? We will be hearing from folks about those in the spring, probably late spring, mid spring.
Yeah. Well, this is
pretty important to Richland Township because we are considering building a new fire station at this
time and I'm not going to vote to approve the funds to build a new fire station if this is what's going
on. So we need more clarification of what's going on. The trustee did not have much information to provide
for us and none of the Township board members had any
that this is going on until this past weekend, which I'm on the township board, so I guarantee that
is a fact. So we're kind of being left in the dark. It's what I'm feeling like. I'm not real happy about
that. That's all I gotta say. Thank you, Mr Thrasher. Mr Cockrell, will you address the issues that
have been raised so far regarding
the county would be very interested in. Notification, etcetera. Yeah, well, and. We had I we I had talked
with the fire chief Kevin Patton, um, with Alexville, and I indicated to him that the county would be
very interested in. We understand the merger process. We understand the reason for the merger process.
We understand the funding changes that has been occurring that
which is essentially the state is pushing people to consolidate. We understand that Ellitsville and
Richland Township are going through a process right now to do that. We would like, I think the commissioners
would like to know if the people in Ellitsville, Richland Township want their own fire protection district,
want to join the Monroe Fire Protection District or want to do something else
through the merger. And I think I expressed that to Kevin Patton. It was intended that that would go
to the whole board earlier, and it didn't. I'm not saying it did. And so that's kind of one of the reasons
we really want to look at that next year, is to see as they go through the process, from my stance,
the county looked at
what the reorganization would do from a county's perspective, and it involved a lot of different thoughts,
and it was a very complex review. And I think Richland Township and Ellitsville are also going to have
that process, and it's going to be very complex, and they're going to have to weigh a lot of things.
There are mechanisms out there for fire that maybe could simplify the process as a concern with fire
and have the rest of the
we're looking at joining the merger or consolidation or whatever term we're going to use, that that
would be simplified if you took fire out of it. But again, we haven't heard back from Richland Township
or Elvisville, but wanted to extend that offer. We've had two public meetings at Steinsville and also
a number of other meetings about this.
It's not for this board, this board's only task is to decide on whether or not to incorporate Bean Blossom
into the fire protection district. It is not up to us to decide what other fire protection district
or what other fire protection you can receive from another entity. That's outside of our purview. That
is for the Bean Blossom Township Board
the beam blossom township trustee to determine. Any other comments? Okay. So I don't see any online.
TSD, if you see someone online, can you let us know? I don't see anyone. Okay.
There is one. Oh, no. I thought I saw a hand just flash on. OK. No. OK. All right. So with that, we'll
come back to the board. Do you have any further comments or questions for Mr. Cockrell? I don't. OK.
I just had a question. I think the status of the proposal that had initially been offered by Ellitsville
has changed. Can you just describe that briefly from May 2024 when we had the first meeting to the present?
I guess I'm not aware of what the current proposal is from Ellitsville. I see the trustee here. I'm
curious if he has it.
I assumed, and it could be a part of that, with the merger going on and Senate Bill 1, I mean, that
the finances for at least on the Elitzal side had to have changed. Well, it did change, right? So I
don't know what their interests would remain. I'm guessing that they would push come to shove, continue
to provide the services, but I'm not aware of any contractual offer that has been made.
that is still current. That's my understanding as well. I don't know, Mr. Hudson, Township Trustee Hudson,
if you have any other information that might be useful. The only information I have is what was hand
delivered to me two hours before they posted
a notice of the contract being delivered to me. And it is identical to the contract that they had previously.
And they keep saying it's not deceptive, but it is. If you read it, which I've been trying to find a
lawyer to read it and go through it for me and explain it to me.
As far as I can tell, the contract that they're proposing, they would end up with all of our equipment,
all of our buildings, which I don't think they can get the buildings now because the buildings belong
to the fire department volunteers.
They would end up with all of our equipment, which we've got some expensive equipment. And it's right
in their contract there that if we backed out of the contract or notified the contract, they wouldn't
keep all that. And they keep saying, well, you can keep all that. But that's kind of deceptive to me.
I hear that.
board has actually agreed with me that we're not accepting that contract. So. That's what we're saying
right now. Thank you. That's that clarification helps a lot. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. Yeah,
perfect. Thank you so much. Okay. Um, well, um, given
that there isn't anyone else who wishes to speak. I will go ahead and close the public hearing portion
of this item, our only item on our agenda today. Mr. Cockrell, is there anything else we need to do
or add or anything else you'd like to comment on at this point? No, I don't think there's anything else.
I mean, I think when I spoke at the Steinsville School, we talked a lot about the Senate
and the financial pressures that are coming in to local governments, particularly gonna hit. Well, it's
already started to hit, but it's gonna get worse. And then in 2028, who knows what's gonna happen, right?
But there is certainly everything that has been said at conferences and everything is that the state
is the result of their legislation is that
they're pushing consolidation. Whether that was the intent or not, that is kind of how the reaction
has to be looked at. We have to provide services and we have to consolidate services. We have to figure
out how to provide the same service or better at less cost. And so that's the general message from the
state last year. Right or wrong?
that's kind of what kind of it's driven this reevaluation. And I'm going to state three things that
we've heard at various meetings. And if I've got anything wrong, Mr. Cockrell, correct me or somebody.
chief dillard or anybody can correct me on this but the first thing i know is that the current bean
blossom fire department cannot continue to operate as it is it is been relying on volunteers who have
done a magnificent job many thanks to them that's the first thing we know is that the current fire protection
is inadequate second thing we know is that
The fire protection district intends to do two things, and this is also part of the third thing we know.
So that the fire protection district will utilize the current fire department building in Steinsville
to provide service. That's the plan.
And the other thing is that volunteers are welcome to apply to be a volunteer, continue their great
service. I've always been impressed with volunteers at Bean Blossom, Steinfeld Station. Amazing, amazing
folks who really shouldn't have to be putting their hands in the pockets to pay for gas for the fire
truck. And that's what they've been forced to do. Now, the other thing we also know is that there is
we have an ongoing- mutual aid situation with Ellisville. A fire department and being blossom township
and and we're assuming that that's going to continue because there's nothing saying that it wouldn't
so- folks will get better service- than they have now and that's not a swipe on the volunteers who've
done a magnificent job it's just that they will be paid
are putting folks in a safer position than they are currently. OK, so with that being said, does anybody
disagree with anything I've laid out? Because these are things that have been set at multiple meetings
at Steinsville. At the fire district, OK. Alright, anything else from my colleagues? You just answered
the only questions I had. Any questions?
No, and especially after hearing that again the contract offer would close down the current fire station.
That is a very long trip love very long time to wait for medical services and a very long and unsustainable
time to wait for fire services. Yeah.
Yes, that's the fear. And we are moving toward this consolidation. So all right. I do appreciate everyone
who came out to the meetings at Steinsville. We've had a few of them, 2024, 2025, just a few weeks ago.
It's been really helpful to not only hear from people in that sort of formal setting of here, I'm going
to speak to you, and here are my concerns, because it helped us figure out
what's going on and what those concerns are. And we ended up, the county ended up hiring Baker Tilley
to provide a clear financial report on the impact of the fire district, which folks have. But also the
conversations afterwards. The folks who didn't feel comfortable standing up in a public forum spoke
with us afterwards as well. And so we heard from a lot of those folks. And that means a lot also via
email, for example.
the question. All right. Well, with that, I'm going to go ahead and call the question on. Well, actually,
we have to have a motion first. I'm going to go ahead and move that we approve ordinance 2025 51. Second.
motion carries three zero. We do appreciate everyone for coming in. Um and for paying attention to this,
and we know there's a lot going on, even though it's the holidays. But I do wish you all happy holidays
from all of us at Monroe County