All right. I'm going to call to order this work session the Monroe County Board of Commissioners. It
is a very long meeting day and beautiful spring, cold, chilly day. But before we get to our first item,
I was alerted that our vote on item T, as in Tom or Thomas, wasn't clear. And that's on ordinance 2026-12,
Highlands Parcel E.
The vote I called was related to accepting the planning commission's recommendation. That's not typically
how we vote. So to be clear, a yes vote would be to allow the planned unit development to enter into
a private. It would be to do what Mr. Winninger wants.
and has requested, so that's a yes vote. And a no vote would be to agree with the plan commission that
we need these changes made to the original plan. So, on ordinance 2026-12, let's do roll call. Let's
do roll call. If you don't mind. Unless, let's be clear, a yes vote means Mr. Winniger
is approved in making the changes he wants to make, including keeping the street private. So we're doing
it opposite how we did it. Yes, we are. And the no vote would be to follow along to support the planned
commission vote that says, no, you should make this public road. And there are other changes as well.
But simply put. Yeah. OK. I understand. Ms. Turner-King, would you call the roll? Commissioner Jones?
No. Commissioner Thomas? No.
Shiner Madeira. State. Motion passes 2-0-0-2-1. Two nays and one abstention. It doesn't pass.
It's not passed. The motion fails. Let me turn this over. The motion fails 0-2-1. You know, we should
not be doing this. I think we should have moved that by the very beginning of our agenda.
and caffeine food, I'm tapped. All right. Thank you. All right, we're good. Now let's move on to our
work session, please. First is approval of distribution of timber sale funds. Ms. Bird? Excuse me, yeah.
So I don't think we've had one of these for a few years, but the Indiana Department of Natural Resources,
retain 15% of the proceeds received from permits, lease or contracts entered into for the removal and
sale of what's termed mercantible timber. Timber for sale. Timber for sale from our local forestry.
So we have received a sum of $25,719.
And the receipt of those funds are also somewhat dispersed. So the maximum dispersal of the funds is
that $1,000 of each of the money is to go to each department that has signed a contract. The mutual
aid agreement with? Yeah, it's a cooperative agreement with the
DNR and we have, I believe, four, let's see here. Yeah, three, okay. And so you can either give them
$1,000 and the rest would remain in county general or the board of commissioners as the legislative
body can decide to provide a larger distribution.
And that's what we're here for today is to discuss whether or not you want to give a larger distribution.
Right. And we don't have to hear this again. Once we vote on it today. This is a public. Yeah. So I
prefer that we distribute everything. Now there was something said at Tuesday night's meeting about
some money in the fund that shouldn't be there because it's not just county general money. So look into
that and we may come back and have another
vote on additional funds if there are additional funds there. But let's just deal with the money that's
there now that we know is there now. Would you be okay with a motion on all of them? Okay, so I'm going
to go ahead and move that we distribute the timber sale funds to the Beam Blossom Township Fire, Volunteer
Fire Department, Bloomington Fire Department, Ellisville Fire Department, and Monroe Fire Protection District.
in the amount of $6,429.75 per unit to cover a total of $25,719. And this is fund number 1,000 and that
total amount. Second. Thank you. We have a motion and we have a second. Any public comment on this item?
All right, seeing none, all those in favor of approving the distribution of timber sale funds signify
by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries.
3-0, thank you. Ms. Biermann from the planning, are we good? Yes, thank you, sorry. Ms. Biermann from
planning department, she's the assistant director and acting director right now. You have been patient.
You and Mr. Smith have been so patient. Thank you for waiting and please tell us about ordinance 2026-15.
Right, I'm gonna go ahead and share screen for this one. So at the beginning of our ordinance, we have
a list of revisions.
And this is the summary of the revisions that we have. A lot of it is just some Scrivener errors or
trying to keep up with some of the state statute that is coming through. And so I know this didn't end
up in the work session packet, but this is the packet from the plan commission from April 21st. And
I'm just going to highlight a couple of the major substantive text amendments and not fritter our time
with the little things.
I probably have like 10 things I'd like to address. And so in red, this is what will be amending. And
on the second page, it delves into that as well. So looking for my page number. All right. So we do
have on our two pagers, we're clarifying some how we look at front setbacks for lot lines.
I'm going to jump right over to page 85 now. And those are going to be through each of our two pagers.
And then in our use table, the state statute said we needed to have schools permitted in every zone.
So we're going to add them to the industrial zones and mineral extraction on page 88 of that packet.
This is something that we're addressing now is battery energy storage systems and we have added a definition
for this. We have also added conditions that would go with this use and it is to be permitted in the
IP zone, HI, and airport zones. And then also on this page,
Just confirming that data center is not a permitted use in Monroe County. We also are stating that small
modular nuclear reactors are not permitted in the county. And this is kind of a response to some of
the state legislation that we've been seeing. And then skipping to another page. This is the conditions
that we associated with the battery energy storage systems. And this would have to go in front of the
Board of Zoning Appeals to be approved.
And we would make sure that all of these things were compliant. And then we are looking at, in this instance,
We have an alternative transportation map that we use to reference whether sidewalks or certain road
improvements are required or not with a subdivision or a commercial improvement. And we've been seeing
some, a lot of waivers and variances associated with ones that are moderate. They're just kind of far
out there. What we wanna do eventually is have a better map, a better, clearer vision with an alternative
transportation plan. And so at this point, we're gonna just exnay the moderate
road improvements, at least that's what we're proposing, and we hope that you support that. And we're
still going to go with high priority, but not the ones that are moderate priority at this time. And
then we are doing a modification to the expenses section to clarify payment for planned commission board
members. And then finally, we have several
amendments that are associated with our definitions chapter. And so this is battery energy storage systems
that we have. And then I think another one that I want to touch on is 524, our lot line, and how we've
clarified this to give staff a little more guidance when we're trying to figure out what is a front
yard setback. We did provide
a diagram in the ordinance to assist our staff. Then finally, we have a major utility definition and
we are making sure that it excludes the small modular nuclear reactors and battery energy storage systems
because we are defining those elsewhere in the ordinance. That pretty much is our summary
of our ordinances. Does anyone have any questions on that? Let's see if my colleagues have questions.
Commissioner Maduro? No, I don't. It's all very clear. Thank you. Commissioner Jones? No, I don't. It
really is about fixing. You always find typos. You always find mistakes. But it's about fixing that.
But it is also about updating it to match state
state statute and all of that. So, and really the mini nuclear reactors issue is kind of a big deal.
And it's often utilized for data centers, which are huge buildings that take up a lot of resources,
but don't employ very many people. And, and so we felt like that risk was way too high to have it in
Monroe County. And we have to have that done before the end of the year, I believe, based on states
that decision. And that would be this, right?
Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. So when do you want to hear this? Yeah. May I say, can I skip next
year? Please, please, please. Sorry. There's a chance I'm not here next week. So at the earliest would
be the May 14th for me. But anytime after that. Okay. That's cool. Is it okay date for everybody?
Fourteenths. Okay. Let's aim for that. That's perfect. Yeah. Whatever works for you all. We're good.
Okay. Okay. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Yes. Take care.
Okay, anybody else have anything for work session? This is a marathon meeting. I talk too much. I apologize
for that. Thank you, TSD, as always. Thank you, Katz. And we are adjourned, and our next meeting is
May 7th, right here in the Nat Yohuru Room. We're adjourned.