food and beverage tax advisory commission. It is Friday, September 26th. Could someone do a roll call,
please? Commissioner Cassidy. Is it? Commissioner Zulek. Here. Commissioner Feidl. Here. Commissioner
Thomas. Here. And Commissioner Knapp. Here.
We have five commissioners present. Quorum has been established. Thank you. Our first agenda item relates
to the organization and I'm going to go ahead and follow our tradition and nominate Sydney Zulik as
the chair and Liz Fiddle as the vice chair of this organization.
We don't need to do a roll call vote, do we? We don't have anybody online? No. OK. All right. All those
in favor of approving the chair and vice chair, signify by saying aye. Aye. It's your meeting.
Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. So it looks like next up on, do we need to do vice president still, or
did we do that together? I did both. Thank you. Next up on our agenda is adoption of agenda. If I could
get a motion.
second. We need to do a vote on that. Yes we don't we don't do that we don't do it that way
in the commissioners meeting so I guess we could we should probably do a vote. Right yeah. All in favor
hi hi. Opposed same sign. Passes and now okay moving on to agenda item number five approval of summary
minutes from
Can I get a motion? Has everyone gotten a chance to review them? I'm going to move approval, but ask
that they be revised to indicate which Thomas is speaking at various points. There's more than one Thomas.
Yes. Oh, okay. Thank you. We'll figure that out. Thank you. We'll need a second. I second. Thank you.
There's been a move of approval with the revision that each Thomas speaker
is identified. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Same sign. Okay. I'm going to abstain since I wasn't
at this meeting. Absolutely. I'm sorry. You don't have, you're just voting that the minutes are there.
You don't have to be present. That's the way the, and I'm just interrupting because this is the way
the county council does it.
You're just voting that, as far as you know, these minutes are accurate and ready to move forward for
that. It doesn't have to indicate that you were part of it. You're just approving that, yes, these are
the minutes for that period of time. But you guys can talk about it however you want. I'm just saying
that's what we do for the county council. Thank you. Well, I've abstained before, and I would still
like to abstain. OK, thank you. Number six, we have our update on food and beverage revenue from Megan
Miller. Good morning. Um, since our last meeting wasn't since, you know, last year in November, I wanted
to provide the 2024 end of year numbers as well. Um, so the city revenue end of year totaled $4,171,248.29
and the county revenue for the end of 2024 totaled $488,408.24.
And then our cash balance for the county, as of December 31, 2020, totaled $2,121,794.69. And then Jessica
McClellan from the city was kind enough to provide the city's cash balance as of December 31, 2024.
It totaled $20,738,037. Repeat that last number, please.
$20,738,037. And I'm happy to provide all of this in an email as well to all of you, since it wasn't
included in the packet. That would be wonderful. Yes, no problem. Moving on to 2025, January through
present, as far as the city's revenue totaled
two million seven hundred sixty six thousand three hundred twenty one dollars and seven cents so far
the county's revenue has totaled three hundred and seven thousand three hundred sixty nine dollars and
then The county's current cash balance as of today totals two million four hundred seventy one thousand
fifty five dollars and seventy two cents Then the city's total
cash balance as of today totals $18,195,244. That's all I have. Thank you so much. Does anyone have
any questions? No, but I don't think the county's totals correct based on the number red for beginning
of 2025 or the end of 2024 and then the amount since
January, uh, so i'm not worried about it if the numbers are accurate on their own piecemeal i'm not
worried about the total Thank you Thank you Okay moving on to Did you have a question? Okay, great moving
on to agenda item number seven a request for a recommendation regarding city funding Which is the city
resolution for the 2026 cib budget
I believe Mr. Weickart is here to discuss the CIV budget if we have questions. Are there any questions
for Mr. Weickart? I have any questions. What else would you like for us to know? I'd like for you to
know that Jeff Underwood is on the meeting virtually who can answer the controller for the CIV who can
answer any specific questions.
What you're looking at in the resolution, you can see by the budget, part of the budget is for professional
services, if you will, for the project. The other part of the budget, the lion's share of it, is for
what we refer to as soft cost. The hard cost for construction are from the bond.
The revenue bond soft cost, as you can see on the list here, are for things other than construction
costs. So you can see it's for utility connections, environmental testing, communications, security,
the arts, 1% for the arts, signage, relocation services, furniture, fixtures, and equipment, et cetera.
So it's a large budget request of over $8 million,
the majority of activity and construction for the project is happening in 2026. So moving into 2027,
we will have, at that point, hopefully, not hopefully, we will have cut a ribbon and you'll see these
costs have declined because the money's already been expended and used. So we would appreciate your
support and your recommendation back to the city council. Thank you. Any questions?
I don't have any questions. I just want to thank the capital improvement board again for their hard
work. It's a lot to deal with. I'm going to move approval for the city's request for the use of the
food and beverage tax. There's been a move of approval for the recommendation regarding city funding
in the city resolution for the 2026 CIP budget.
All in favor, please say aye. I think we should. Aye. Public comment, maybe? Oh. If there is anyone
in the public in chambers who would like to speak, please let us know. And on Zoom, please raise your
hand or message the host. Oh, on Teams. Thank you. Eustacity. Any takers on Zoom? Oh, I'm sorry.
Any takers on teams? Any takers in chambers? Okay. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed,
same sign. Great. That passes. Thank you very much. Yes, and congratulations on putting steel in the
ground. Yeah, things are moving along out there. Thank you. Now we are moving on to the request for
a recommendation regarding county funding.
I'll go ahead and put it on the floor. I'd like to move approval of the Monroe County plan for the use
for food and beverage funds for 2026 2027. Is there a second? What exactly are we? I'm just putting
it on the floor so I can discuss it. Oh sure, yeah, I second. Thank you.
We met, Menorah County Commissioners meet every week, just about every week, and we had our meeting
yesterday and approved this plan. So I apologize for the late addition to the packet. In a nutshell,
it lists out the funding that we've utilized to date, and we do have the Quarry
project, which is an economic development project, much more than a park, that includes limestone history
center, indoor, outdoor. But the information is there. That's actually the same as the information presented
last time. But we do have
a general outline of planned use for the funds, and there's a committee that's meeting and beginning
work on this project to set the timeline and parameters to make a recommendation for a master plan consultant
who's going to do a lot of community work, seeing what the community wants on the project.
with our justice complex going in at North Park, some of the delays and the changes in the amounts from
previous years has to do with the planning for that project and how it's impacted access to the quarry
property, which is 99 acres of old quarry site. So we're really
We're really excited about this opportunity, and we think it's going to be a jewel for the community.
So we're really excited to use food and beverage funds for that project. So we'd appreciate your support.
Thank you. Do we have any questions or comments? So would you just say publicly what the amounts are
you talking about? Yeah, so the total is $1.6 million.
that we have a master plan. Master plan estimated costs 750,000 and, um, initial development costs of
850,000. Thank you. And I assume you anticipate there will be some other for future costs as well to
actually build out and develop this. Absolutely yes. And the plan is to go gradually. Once we have a
master plan.
in what order we're going to add it. So I mean, we envision arts and limestone symposium, limestone
carving competitions, and of course, the history center indoor outdoor facility. But that initial cost
is just access and parking to begin with. So has there been any survey done right now with the public as to
what these funds should be used for in the county, or have we just decided this on our own? So the plan
to do the limestone history has to do with the fact that there is existing historic equipment on the
property. We're talking big pieces of equipment related to limestone.
that would be the southwest corner. Of State Road 46 and 69. And part of that fill site
And that has been delineated as historic portion of the property that will not be impacted by the film,
and they've agreed to donate the equipment to this quarry project. So the only thing that we know we're
going to do for sure is that otherwise,
we would have the consultant help determine what's going to go on to that property. But that will take,
no matter what we do, it will take a driveway and parking and things like that. I guess I was more asking
just the amount of money we have in the food and beverage tax fund for the county. We are
you're recommending that we put it towards this quarry park. But did we survey the public at all about
what they would like to see in the county period, like outside of that project even? Well, we do have
other park projects, but we're funding them with other funds. So there's a very specific delineation
of what we can use the money for, and it's related to tourism. And so that's why we've been focusing on this.
So maybe I'll ask it a different way, which is I think what he's asking about is what's the public engagement
process? To what degree is the public aware of this plan? And I see that it was approved by the commissioner.
So you probably had some public discussion at a commissioner meeting, but I'm just trying to judge whether
folks in the county will be surprised by this, whether they've seen some public discussions, been engaged
in some way, what kind of the resident awareness of this plan is. Well, that's what this
to engage the public in what kinds of. Of activities go on on this property. Um and that's what that's
what the role of the consultant is. So.
So I understand what I hear you saying is that part of the public engagement process for developing
the plan would be done by the consultant. But the question we're really asking is before we commit to
spending $1.6 million of your $2 million or just a little over $2 million that you have set aside for
the county,
we're devoting a considerable portion of that and personally as a resident of the city I just want to
make sure that I'm doing right by my friends in the county and that residents in the county you know
will not be surprised by my vote and and that they've had a chance to say yes we want to devote a chunk of our
I'm just trying to do my due diligence here. Sure. No, I appreciate that. I see. I see the question
now. I'm sorry. I misunderstood. Um, so, um, this has been in the plan for quite a few years. So, um,
again at, um, you know, we've we've had.
that we've been working on. Um suggestions or recommendations come up and found other ways to fund and
they were typically parks projects. And then we've got the new nature preserve opening and that we're.
We have funded as well. So I think, um. You know, we haven't heard other suggestions or recommendations
over the years. Um so we're planning to
property. It's not a buildable property. So. This has been in the plan since we bought that property
years ago, so can you remind us about when the purchase was made about? Oh gosh, it was over a couple of
Um years, so I I might I well we started this we started the Look at this and the review of this property
probably in 2017 And it really I heard your question and I would say in 2018 2019 2020 there's probably
a lot more public awareness of this because that's when we were going through analyzing the
There are basically five or six different parcels and we were going, working with the county council.
We had extensive meetings on purchasing this property for this type of use, right? So the plan for the
property has not changed although it is kind of, it's not very well detailed, right? It's always been
kind of utilizing this for that. And so I think we ended up purchasing it,
I want to say in 2020, I think it was during the like the first part of COVID. It was either late 2019
or late or sometime in 2020.
pre-COVID is a little bit different than it was back then. So I would say we started looking at these
properties in 2017. And I think at that point, there was a pretty robust discussion between the county
council and the county commissioners about these properties and the use and quite frankly, some of the
environmental issues with that area. I think even at that point in time, not only were we discussing
a limestone, but I think there was public requests for
you know, giving its nearness to a former Superfund site, whether it be an educational component about
that Superfund site as well included in this. So that's kind of the history. And then, you know, once
COVID hit, we had the property purchased, you know, it slowed everything down quite a bit. And I think
we're trying to reengage that process.
And that last piece, I think, was much later, and we had a funding component from Regional Opportunities
Initiative that we lost out on because one of the parcels wasn't purchased until late, and because of
that, we lost a little bit of funding as well. But I do think there are other, as I noted in here, I
do believe there are other potential, and less so now than before, but there are some other potential
I think it's been a very long process. So. Very helpful. Thank you. Can you remind us when the food and
And so I think it started 2018, maybe officially being collected. So was it discussed prior? I apologize
for not knowing. Was it discussed prior that these monies for food and beverage might be used for this?
It's been in the plan all along. Yeah, it has. I'm not sure it was discussed prior to.
the food and beverage tax being it right being approved because that discussion happened for quite a
long time as well. All right. So we've had a food and beverage. This has been in the plan. We'll do
it that way. Yeah, if that helps. Yeah, thank you. And I guess I would still suggest that that a public
survey go out and we say we have money to use for tourism in the in this county. And what would you
like to see? Here are some options. I think that that
That would be a reasonable thing to do. Yeah, and I think we could do this is part of a wider we could
do a wider engagement process with our consultants Sure Any other questions or comments Okay,
in that case, we'll go to public comment if you're in chambers and you would like to comment Please
raise your hand if you were on teams, please raise your hand virtually or contact the host. I
Do you have a virtual comment? Okay. Great. Thank you. If you could unmute them and whenever you're
ready, if you could state your name for the record and do we have time limits on comments here? Usually
three minutes. Okay. You will have up to three minutes. Please go right ahead. Thank you very much.
Jeff McKim, former county council member.
And I just wanted to remind everybody that actually, as Commissioner Thomas has mentioned, these discussions
have been going on for a very long time in public regarding this project. And in fact, this very body
approved back in January of 2020, approved $500,000 specifically for the Quarry Park. So it is actually
already. Now, after COVID, there was a long pause. And then we've had, as Commissioner Thomas described,
we also had
a pause more recently related to the justice facility, but the expenditure of the county share food
and beverage tax for the quarry property has actually already been discussed and vetted by this body.
So thank you very much. Thank you so much. Any other public comment? OK, in that case, I'll bring it
back to the table. Any last words?
I guess I'm not ready to really decide personally, just decide on this, especially without Mark here,
a business within the county. I would just be interested to see if there's more time to process all
this and vote on it in a future meeting. Other thoughts on this?
with the hope of getting some survey data you're talking about, or what's the goal here? Mark, I don't
want to speak on his behalf, but he's expressed the need for help for county businesses and tourism
places. I'm just not sure a limestone park would be the best use of that. There's a lot of requests
for more recreational facilities that could attract larger sporting events and tournaments that could
bring revenue in and business for county operations as well.
I think we should consider other options as well, since we have this chance. Is there any idea what
something like that would need to be funded at what level? Do you know what some other parts of the
county might need funding for? Well, I think I've expressed last year, I mean, the large portion of
land that was donated to the county on the southeast side of town going towards the lake.
I think there's there should be more consideration there. That's quite a bit of land. And I think that
could be used for some other purposes as well. So I think that could be considered. Yeah. Well, the
commissioners would have to approve something else. And the commissioners have approved this as our
plan. So I understand the interest in other opportunities. We've utilized a lot of funding for
the karst athletic fields project the. Monroe County nature preserve on the.
property. We have our development plan, and we have a mechanism to fund access to that site, but it
is a nature preserve, so that's not going to become athletic fields. It is a nature preserve, and it's
going to also, I think, attract a lot of business interest, as well as residential interest and visitor
interest to our community. So I think we've
We've done our due diligence and we have a committee meeting and working toward providing a recommendation
on a consultant developer, master plan developer, I should say, not a developer, master plan developer
for this property. And given the longstanding support
As Mr. McKim pointed out, I think it's important to continue with this project. So it seems to me like
there will be more money coming into food and beverage also as time goes on. So there will be more money
to draw upon, right? Absolutely. Yeah. OK. Yeah, I guess just
just to respond. Basically, I would just ask for more time. I don't even know if that's possible, and
apologies for my lack of understanding for how these meetings are run and stuff at times. And I don't
know how often we meet, but I just haven't been aware of this. I mean, obviously we voted on it last
year, but we don't meet often. And I think that I personally would need some more time, but completely
understand if everyone else is ready.
And I would just invite you or anyone else to contact us with other suggestions or ideas that we can
incorporate, because there is money left over, and there's obviously going to continue to be money coming
in. So this isn't the end of the road. This is the beginning. But this is a project that has been underway
in our thoughts for quite a while, even if we couldn't act on it, because we were waiting on, with the
location of the new justice center, that was actually going to be the entry point for the park.
but with the way the road is now designed, we're actually gonna have to use a different entrance. So
things have, you know, we've been waiting on other things to fall into place as well. So I would appreciate
if we could vote on this today. Do we, we still need to meet again in the next month to create our report,
our annual report?
I don't know what would change in 30 days, honestly, because we, as I said, we have a committee meeting
and they'd like to start working through requests for proposals from master plan developers and to get
surveys done and of the public and to have public engagement meetings on the use of this property sooner
rather than later. So I'm not sure what 30 days will buy.
you know, if it would be possible to leverage the public engagement for unfolding this project to say
also, you know, this is the source that we're using to do this, the work that we're doing on the quarry,
we're paying for this public engagement. And as part of that process, we'd be interested in knowing
what other kinds of attractions, you know, the public would be interested in seeing that relate to tourism
and development. That might be a nice opportunity to kind of
that's where we're at. Yeah, I know. I'm totally on board with that, and it's something that we've discussed,
so. All right. Well, I move that we recommend. The county resolution for county funding. I don't know if I've
Yes, second. Okay. Um, Mr Cockerill, would you please call the roll? I will do my best. Commissioner
cash. Can I sustain here? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Commissioner Nat. Yes. Commissioner Zulek. Yes. Commissioner
Fiddle. Yes. Commissioner Thomas. Yes. Uh, motion is approved. Four zero one. Thank you. And it looks like
That is the end of our meeting. Oh Auditor, gregory Just um, excuse me just a point of clarification.
Um, miss miller ran off the um total um county funds cash balance as of today which included um Funding
that came in since the packet was distributed Got it. So the number that you have in your packet is from
September 24th While the number she read today is from September 26, so it is the correct number. Thank
you Thank you. That's very helpful. Yeah, and we do have to meet before the end of October to approve
an annual report and That's something that our auditor's office works on. Yes or with the city controller
I believe in the past the council office has worked with us, but it's typically a council office report
is my understanding. It actually varies because it typically is one year the county council rep guides
it. The other year the city council rep guides the preparation. I think at one point one of the city
council who was putting it together put together a pretty in-depth kind of template.
that. Yes and it is actually the city's turn to provide the report. Sorry because we provided it last
year so. Can someone make sure that I have that template please? Thank you. And then if you need the
numbers for the county side that would be from our orders office in the city numbers obviously. That
would be great. Thank you.
Any other comments for the good of the order? So we're going to have to do a doodle poll or something
to set our next meeting before the end of October. That is correct. OK. We'll send out another doodle
poll for October. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you. And I have a question. So we're going
to do that report in October. So we might want to do it closer to the end to give her time to get it
together. OK. Sure. I'm just making sure. For sure.
I think Jeff said we just have to have it to the state by the end of the month. I think we need to have
the commissioners are the county puts together a report and I think the city of Bloomington has to put
together a report that they submit. This is much more of a public facing document. I don't think there's
any statutory requirement for it. Okay. But typically it is
put out around the same time those two reports go out, so. Okay. And we know the state has been interested
in getting our reports. Oh, absolutely. They're keenly interested in us. Okay. Okay. In that case, we
are adjourned. Thank you so much.