It looks like it is 11 a.m. So I will go ahead and call this meeting to order. Can we get a roll call,
please? Lenny Bush? Here. Gretchen Knapp? Here. Liz Feidl? Here. Sydney Zulin? Here. Julie Thomas? Galen
Cassidy? Here. And Mark Bell?
Do we have anyone present with us over Teams? I don't see anybody. In that case, can we move to approval
of summary minutes as presented for the meeting of September 26, 2025? I so move.
Okay, we have a motion and a second for approval of summary minutes as presented for our September 26th,
2025 meeting. Can we get a roll call for the vote or I guess all in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed,
same sign. Great. In time with the bell, welcome in.
So just for the vocal record, we have Julie Thomas joining us, Commissioner Julie Thomas. And now we
can move on to items number four, update on food and beverage revenue totals for county and city. Good
morning. The cash balance as of today for the county is $2,511,924.67. And the city cash balance as
of Monday, October 27,
totaled $18,510,386.58. Thank you. OK, moving on to the review and approval of the 2024 annual report.
I am not connected to the Wi-Fi. My apologies, everybody. I was
tasked with the 2024 annual report for Fabtech. It is very consistent with last year, just some updated
numbers for 2025 monthly revenue and expenditures. And I am so sorry because my computer is not connected
to the Wi-Fi. Thank you. You are so awesome.
Thank you. Okay, so a lot of it is just information that was included in last year's annual report with
the addition of some updates in the 2024 cycle from the CIP in the narrative summary, which can be
found on pages five and six. Then there is a 2024 revenue details as distributed, broken down into the
total amounts received by city and county. And for 2024 expenditure details, the county spent $6,000
on the Harrodsburg Heritage Day Firework Display, and the city
spent $600,382 on architecture and engineering services paid to Schmidt Associates and $384,720 on legal
controller communications and owner's rep service paid to the Capital Improvement Board. Does anybody
have any questions? So can that be shared with the group here?
It's an attachment or something. Yes, it was included in the packet. Oh, OK. I'm sorry. Yes. All right.
Sorry. I missed that part. No problem. I think it went out in a later email with a revised packet. Oh,
that one. OK. Yes. Should we know that Mark has arrived? Oh, yes. And Commissioner Mark Bell is present
with us. So now we have perfect attendance. Yeah, we got past the parking problem. Well, you know.
So now I can't find it, but there's a language issue, pretty minor, just grammatical on page five. I'm
just trying to find it again. The other thing is I would like to have added to this, there was some
difficulty because there are a number of
restaurants that have both city and county locations, and all of the books are run out of one versus
the other, right? And at some juncture last year, and I hope the auditor's office can help us with this,
it was determined to just do a flat 90%, 10% split for
you know, clarity and ease for the auditor's office trying to weed through, is this a city, is this
a county location? I would like that inserted in the report just as a reference point because this becomes
a historical document. And I may have missed it and it may be in here. But I would like that added. And
you know I don't I don't have the details on the date but you can kind of see by the the split city
county split when it started because it becomes a very clear 10 percent versus 90 percent so I would
just like that memorialized in here and it doesn't even have to be this year's because I don't have
the information but next year is fine and I'm still looking for the
was it in the grammatical or the uh wording issue you were looking for i'm wondering if it was the second
to last paragraph from the bottom where it says that um uh in 2023 the city continued to receive loan
payments uh blah blah blah and neither dispersed funds nor request no i guess that is right never mind
yeah i remember that one
to say I did not see a reason to reinvent the wheel. So I used. No, no. I think that's the purpose of
this, is it becomes an accurate historical record of everything that's happened to date. And then you
add in, here's what we've done this year. I can't find it, so it must not be huge. It was a singular
plural thing. To address your other point,
Would it be all right to just make a note to include it in the next year's report? That'd be fine. That'd
be fine. I just don't want it to be missed again. Thank you. Totally get it. Thank you. In that case,
is there a motion to approve this report? Motion to approve. Thank you. So we have motion by Commissioner
Knapp and a second by Commissioner Bell. Could we please call the, or I guess all in favor, please say
aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed? Same sign?
Great, thank you. That passes. And now moving on to other discussion items, revised food and beverage
plan for Monroe County, 2026 to 2027. Who is meant to go over that? What did you want to say, Luhu?
Commissioner Thomas, you weren't here when they did the vote, though. I was here. Like, they did the
vote and you walked in. OK. Do we have some? Sorry, go ahead. Do we have someone to?
over the revised food and beverage plan from Monroe County for 2026 to 2027. They're asking for the
revenue numbers.
What are you asking for? On item six, other discussion items includes the revised food and beverage
plan for Monroe County for 2026 and 2027. I did not add this to the agenda, so I'm not sure. We revised
this because the county council decided not to support the nature preserve.
Before I begin with that, I'd like to note that despite the fact that we had a vote in public comment
at the previous meeting on both the plans, it's absolutely not legally necessary to do so. This is an
advisory body that provides input, but a vote isn't necessary because these plans go through other bodies
before they get here.
so happy to take comments on it. But what we did is to avoid losing this great gift from the Huntington
family of 409 acres. We wanted to ensure that we had the requisite
basic preparatory work done so that the public could go to the property and and enjoy it at least minimally.
I would I would ask the we have attorneys working with the trust on all of that but one of the requirements
is that we provide basic
infrastructure to get the public there safely so they can access the property. And so there are a number
of things that need to be addressed. Some of them required by the trust, some of them for safety sake.
There's also an opportunity to create two parking lots, one off of Knight Ridge Road 446, the other
off of Smith.
And to do that, we're also going to go ahead and have, this is all parks department, county parks department
that's providing all of this work. We're going to go ahead and proceed with the dog park as well. But
the idea is to have the basic equipment, basic trails, some basic landscaping, the surveys, stormwater reviews,
The driveway permits for both streets, Knightridge and Smith. The basic parking lot structure. But there
are a couple of structures on the property itself. And for safety sake, we are going to be
facilitating their removal and I'm going to be very vague about that because I don't know what that's
going to look like yet because the historic preservation board is still working on it, but we cannot
have structures on the property for the safety of the public that are dilapidated as these are. These
are dangerous structures.
So that's part of it as well. Yes, so I can give you, and there's a minimal signage just announcing
that this is the Nature Preserve, Monroe County Nature Preserve, et cetera. So what I did to revise
the plan, and this was approved yesterday by the Monroe County Board of Commissioners, is that we updated the,
So we reduced the fund total so that it was more accurate. So there's additional funding listed at the
top on this revised plan. We reduced some of the spending out of the fund for the Quarry project and
then added in this $905,000 to make it all work. And actually we have,
It's a total of the two projects together, $2,455,000, which gives us $15,000 cushion. But of course,
every month, additional funds are added. So we will be fine. And with all of the questions and
of certainty over the county's decisions regarding the North Park property for the justice facility.
I'm hopeful we can get moving on the Quarry project, but some of it hinges on which entrance do we start
with? And that hinges on is the county buying the other property or not?
There are still a lot of things to work out. Yeah. There's a question. Do the two projects between the
Huntington project and the CORE project. Can you speak into your microphone? Thank you. Sorry.
There you are. Hello. Thank you. So between the two projects, will that absorb all the funds in the
county food and beverage budget? In the next couple years, it'll absorb what's in there now.
But then again, every month they're accruing additional money. So the thought is, if there's too many
in there now, that's actually being dedicated or pledged to these two projects, thinking that ongoingly
the next year you'll have, I see, another. Yeah. Yeah. And the Huntington Trust does provide a stipend
for the maintenance of the Monroe County Nature Preserve. And it should be sufficient to keep that
that's not going to be a concern for the property going. Um so that's not going to be a concern. It's
just getting it. Ready to be public ready for the public safely. Um. The um, Corey Park project, I think.
May may require may well require additional funding, but it would be
um, our limestone history for the county that would be indoors. Part of this is already going for an
outdoor, uh, securing outdoor historic equipment. Uh, so we're looking to develop an indoor outdoor,
um, uh, limestone history museum. So it looks like by having the quarry project, it looked like you
had the availability of obtaining grants that you wouldn't otherwise be able to have. Yes.
So that's a huge get that you can have federal and state grants available. Absolutely. We actually had
had a, of course, we all know that that's all in question now, but we did have a regional opportunities
initiative grant, but the council had not acted quickly enough to purchase the last piece of property
and we lost that $250,000 grant. But I think in better times, I mean, as this goes along, I don't know
what it's going to become, but
As it moves along, I could see catering restaurant, the limestone symposium, poetry readings, weddings.
I mean, you know, the sky's the limit for what this could be because it's almost 100 acres. We certainly
are also going to do some, at least a small but significant educational piece on PCBs because this property
does about a
we're going to include that in the project. But there's so much in flux because we don't know which
entrance to start at. So we're going to have to work through that. And then eventually developing a
capital improvement board or 501C3 or something to manage it into the future. This is not a Monroe County
Parks project, unlike the Huntington
Monroe County Nature Preserve, the Huntington Trust property. The Quarry Project is a county project.
Multiple phase. Right. So the Huntington Project, you mind me taking some time here? But this is one
thing that the county folks are interested in, particularly the Huntington Project, because it's kind
of nestled in where we are. Yeah. So do you have a time? I mean, if somebody asked me, well, how soon
is something going to get started?
Do you have any idea when the project at least will be involved with the public? Well, we're certainly
going to have updates from our parks department at our commissioner meetings coming up. I'm sure part
of it is weather dependent. If you look at the list of the things that have to get done. But the plan
is to at least have it accessible to the public next year. Next year. Yeah. Not necessarily going to
be these amenities galore, et cetera.
but at least to get the walkers, birders, hikers out there. So you have parking and you can access the
property and the dog facility possibly. Possibly the dog facility.
So I have a question about the Quarry Project, and I know this is all visionary and not, you know, set
in stone. No pun intended. Well put. Thank you. Yeah. But so what we're visualizing here is this park
would totally be funded by the food and beverage tax. Correct. I mean, that's sort of like the convention
center. To start. To start. To start. Because I think if we do
Like the Convention Center, I think once it gets off the ground and decisions are made and we get public
input and we figure out what direction to go in and see how things are popular, maybe some things aren't,
that it could become in some way self-sustaining as well with some commercial input.
You know, I was just I was curious because I know it, you know, taking on another huge chunk of food
and beverage, especially because the county's point, I know the county cannot fund and sustain this
thing either. So, you know, I just want to kind of see that this would be the county would be this would
pretty much probably be where all their money would go for the next two years, at least.
Um, and, and then, and then from there, but the, but the hope is when you add things in, like the limestone
symposium, or you add in other projects that have a commercial connection, um, or organizational foundational
connection that you end up with, um, parts of the project to become, um, self sustaining as well. So
that's the hope, but we are, we do understand that.
The budgets are limited, but we need to start somewhere. Absolutely. Thank you. So these both sound
like cool projects and I take your point that you made earlier that a vote isn't necessary and it's
already approved. So just for my learning benefit and for the public, because this does use up
the bulk of your the funds that have been piled up over time so you'll accrue more money over time but
this is probably your best chance to spend 2.4 million sure and both of these are essentially parks
nature projects i'm just curious about um what kind of
feedback, outreach you've had with county businesses and residents about what other kinds of uses they
would like to see going forward and thinking in particular of county business owners like Mr. Bell,
whose businesses pay into this tax fund and trying to be sure that their investment in the community
pays off for them in the long run. And maybe it sounds like you know a little more about that. So just
clarifying, is this money collected by the customer?
Yeah, so you're paid by the customer, collected by the. Yeah, you're the one percent of our customers.
It's like a sales tax. Yeah, you're the pass through and then you pass that along. OK. Yeah. Thank you.
Well, I think it's I think it's similar to the idea of having
a convention center downtown and if your business is in Ellitsville, how are you going to benefit from
that? That's why there's a separate county tax or portion of the tax collected. What I like about this
is that the Huntington project is really a one-off in terms of this is a one-time expense,
to get it on its feet and to then, at that point, the annual trust payments take over and help defray
the cost of maintenance. And again, a parks project. But we really don't want to lose this gift to the
residents of Monroe County. No, not at all. Because it was dropped out of the general obligation bond.
I think the Quarry project offers
so many opportunities for commercial investment and interest. For example, actually putting restaurants
onto the property is one option, but certainly the fact is that we see that that lack of having a limestone
history museum is so
It's such a big hole for our community because we don't have anything like this. We don't have anything
that celebrates who we are historically as Monroe County, and it is so important. So, but as I mentioned
last time, part of the plan involves and includes that community,
survey before we start the master planning process. And so it's a matter of, at that point,
then prioritizing, understanding capital costs, and putting together what the community wants, both
business and residents, with what we can afford to do, what we think will do well, and making those
decisions along the way. And then adding to it as we go along. It's certainly not going to be like this
Huntington
property, a one-and-done, this is going to be a long-term ongoing investment, ongoing development, because
it is 100 acres. It's not really buildable 100 acres, but it is 100 acres, and there are a number of
quarry sites on it. So the potential is really unlimited for the economic development aspect of it. Go ahead.
We've already approved the limestone, the quarry project for master plan and all that so there's really
nothing for us to approve here on that it's really
the Huntington project that you're coming to us for approval, correct? Well, for commentary, because
approval isn't necessarily necessary anymore. We'll try to know last time. But yes, so that's the only
change. But we did drop late 50,000 off of the estimate for probably 2027 for that initial development.
Because one of the things we have to do is we have to secure historic equipment to maintain it.
maintain its historic integrity, but also to keep it safe and keep people safe. So we shaved a little
bit of money off of there at the outset. But we know there's going to be more investment that's going
to be needed. But we'd like to see this become something self-sustaining as soon as possible as well
with commercial input and a variety of activities that could attract a range of people.
Based on what you're saying, am I correct in understanding that county businesses have not yet been
engaged? We haven't even done the master plan survey yet, so no. OK, thank you. So I'll wait. I'll wait.
Well, I just want to have a I know this advisory, so this is just a point of interest.
But with these two huge projects absorbing basically all your funds, and basically when you say, what's
accounting going to do, you can now say simply there's two things. A thought would be to somehow carve
out some amount. The mind just comes in like $50,000. You say there's going to be a fund available for
more than one kind of interest rather than these two projects, which would be to say that I can think
of a dozen things
or just take two things that can be done to really help in a major way the restaurants and the hospitality
facilities that provide these funds, whether it's helping them with marketing, which is becoming more
and more digital and not everybody has a digital experience or capabilities. That'd be one. Helping
with planning. Yeah.
hiring one person could be our county person, because there's all kinds of people for the city which
needs it and brings it along. But there's nobody for the county, really. Like when I talk with Mike
at the bureau, he kind of says, you know, I'm here for the, you know, the convention center. That's
really what I do. It means there's nobody in the in his facility that really focuses on the county.
And there aren't funds for that.
So I'm just saying is that there's a lot of other things that could be major help, but it's not a lot
of money compared to the main two mains in there. Um, so rather than absorbing all the money, possibly
taking 90% of it and allowing 10% to go in like, Hey, what is it that's advisory board could come up
with? If we talked with really the people that at the four winds, you know, us here, uh, to say, Hey,
are there there's needs that you maybe haven't expressed because you didn't know where to express them.
And we could kind of like as an advisory board say here's some other priorities that could help out.
Because I can't tell you that ever since the pandemic. I mean, I'll speak for myself. We've
we've significantly struggled to say
You know, I hate to say to the public record, but the bottom line is, is that ever since we got back
in business and 20, we're still about 40 percent capacity. Yeah. I'm open four days rather than seven
down the street. The scenic views open just Friday and Saturday and Sunday. Right. And there's a lot
of reasons for that that don't relate necessarily to the pandemic, of course. But when you're struggling
that much, sometimes just takes a little bit.
to make a major difference. Absolutely. So I just say that where we would go would be only here. I can't
imagine where you would go because you don't have the ability to get grants any longer. The federal
government's shut off all the kind of funding that was available. So where do you go for some small
bit to make the difference? I'm just saying. So no, and I appreciate that point. And I think since COVID,
the inflation and everything's changed. You know everything's changed. You know that. I'm not telling
you anything you don't know.
But here's the thing. It's interesting that you raised Visit Bloomington because it's supposed to be
Visit Bloomington in Monroe County. And the innkeeper's tax pays into the Convention and Visitors Commission,
which pays for management of the convention center, marketing, which includes marketing, but also Visit
Bloomington and Monroe County.
So I think one of the first things that needs to happen and I will, you know, Ms. Feidl and I can pass
this along to the council member. There seems to be some confusion about who the council member is who's
on the CBC board. It's either Councilor Henry or Councilor Crossley. But one of them is on there and
I think we should ask them
to raise this issue with the CDC, and I'm sure between us we can do that, because that is also county
money that's supposed to go back out to the county. This isn't just about, let's support the convention
center and the city. It is supposed to be Bloomington and Monroe County. So I think that that's an excellent point.
um I don't you know a plan is a plan and a plan is very it's a starting point we have to account based
on state statute for what we think we're going to spend money on um and um I hear what you're saying
and um I look forward to um getting further into this project planning a bit more so that we and then
getting that community engagement done and then we can
we're going to have to reshuffle and figure out what we want to invest in. And it may be that it turns
out to be 100,000 toward the limestone equipment and 700,000 then gets into a plan for something else.
Who knows? So it's open, but we do have to have a plan. So I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Thank you.
I have a question.
commissioners. Commissioner Thomas brought up the 2.455 million for the total. I wonder if you could
give us the breakdown of that amount. Um okay. So, um. So we get that out here.
I think I'm done already. For the Monroe County Nature Preserve, let me give you, ask the city any of
these questions, but go ahead, it's fine. I'm ready to answer these. I haven't been here to ask those
questions, I'm sorry. Just let me get a chance. No, no, this is all good.
I just have to find my web page. It's OK. Maybe we can go on to something else and come back. Would
that be better for you? It's here. I got it. OK. Thank you. So we'll start with the nature preserve
since that's number one on the list. So the first items include toxic material. This is regarding demolition
of structures. I'm just more interested in the total of each project amount.
So you mentioned the 2.455. I just want the total breakdown for each project. That's it. I don't need
every line item. OK. OK. So Monroe County Nature Preserve is $905,000. Thank you. For the Quarry project,
we have $750,000 allocated for developing a master plan, which includes community survey and consultant
of sorts, and site safety improvement at 800,000. And that relates to access points, parking, but also
the equipment, securing the equipment so that it doesn't fall on people. Got it. I appreciate the breakdown.
Thank you. Yes. There you go. Thanks. It's on there. Perfect. I just wanted to get it out. Oh, yeah.
No, I think that's good. I forget that.
that I did not get this uploaded till late last night.
Well, I appreciate all the detail and your patience in answering questions. And I guess in closing,
I would just say, even though these are pass-through funds from county businesses, they are the face
of it. And their success fuels the success of the funding for any future efforts you would do. So I
encourage our friends at the county to keep talking to business owners and residents about what would
fuel the growth of those businesses that provide this revenue. And our experience in the city, and I
I'm sure yours has been, too, that we assume that tourism in general is going to be good, and that when
people come to town for an event, it's going to have an impact on our businesses. But it really varies
by event. We have events that have a smaller group of people come to town, and boy, they go out,
and they eat, and they stay in hotels, and they go to events. And then other events, people come to
town, and you can't really tell if you're a business owner on Kirkwood that there's any boost in traffic.
So as you build these, great.
public beautiful places I think it'll be important to make sure that you know what does that tourism
really translate to and dollars and and can you help it along so I appreciate your efforts and thinking
about how can you integrate the business community in the in the success of these and and support their
growth so that you can continue to get some great funding to continue doing more great projects absolutely
I think it's uh it is that um collaborative relationship that develops over time and
Yes, you see one really great successful event. You replicate it, but you don't want to replicate it
too often because then it's going to start dwindling in success. It's a dance, as you know. Is it possible
to have it, or maybe it exists, I don't know where it is, a directory of the restaurants and the
Well, people that pay in to the fund for the city and also the county. Do we have a directory? So if
I want to contact to say the people, the auditor's office will have will have that information because
they collect the money. Yes. So do they have like a directory so I could go into the auditor's office
and say, can I have the directory for the restaurants and the hotels to pay in for each one of them?
There you are. She said, like, over here.
We do. I will have to look into getting that information to you. It is actually a confidentiality agreement
that a few of us signed. So I'll run that through legal. And if they can confirm that it's acceptable
for me to distribute that, I'm happy to. OK. Would that be something to be digital, so you just download
it? Or would I need to come to your office and you just give me a directory? Is that the possibility?
You don't know yet. You can do both or either. Whatever your preference is, I'm happy to provide however
you would like.
If I got my druthers like a nice little folder I'd like to contact the people for wins or whatever and
just say hey give me some input and here's a form or whatever sweet have some ideas your actual genuine
responses as opposed to me just thinking them up definitely yeah if possible i would also like that
but electronically i think and i think um um just keep in mind that the convention of visitor center
commission sorry is is um
is paid for out of innkeeper's tax, which is the tax on hotel rooms across the county. And that is a
really good source for projects and assisting with tourism-related small short-term projects, advertising,
marketing, et cetera. And I really think we need to develop that, and they're going to be quicker. They're
going to be able to help you more quickly. As an aside,
I want to have a little festival. I want to have a three day festival. And all of a sudden I got caught
in the mire of what it takes to do a festival. It's not an easy thing. And then I found out a whole
program in Nashville. I mean, they've been doing festivals, obviously, for a long time. And we have
the Lotus Festival, which is unique. But I thought, well, a county festival. So then I found out that's
a huge undertaking. And if you want to, there are people that do it. I mean, at Nashville, there's a
commission that basically put on their festival.
I thought, well, that'd be funny, a county. And then I thought, well, wait a minute, we are the commission.
We could do this. Yeah. Well, it wouldn't be us because it's outside of our purview. But that doesn't
mean we couldn't create something. Yeah. So let's talk. Send me a note. Let's talk. I think it's a great
idea. Two new ideas, a director and a commission. Can I just clarify? I mean, we're not voting on this,
right? That's correct. So what is the purpose
of our group with this. I mean, we approve expenditures and we're hearing about an expenditure, but
we're not voting on it. Is that right? We have legal here. We don't have legal here right now. But the
way that the ordinance is written for this commission, it is advisory. But it is ideas like this that
we just heard.
that may not even be related directly to food and beverage money, but related to other things. So I
appreciate having the opportunity to have this discussion. Well, you know, Julie, if you want, I mean,
obviously we could vote just to make a statement if you want to put a motion. So last meeting we voted,
but that was not necessary? It wasn't necessary as it turned out. Right. But not necessarily unhelpful.
It could happen. It doesn't mean it can't happen. It just means it doesn't have to happen. So I'm not
leaving. I guess I'm just a little confused. I thought we were approving expenditures. I know we don't
come up with these plans and they all go through a bunch of other bodies before, but I thought we did
vote to approve. And we're hearing about, I mean, at least for, I believe, the first time about the
nature preserve expenditure here. So
I guess at some point, I'd like some clarification on that. But obviously, we're not going to vote on
this now. Would you prefer to vote? No, I think I don't have enough information. So I'm just confused.
I'm stating that.
It's also confusing for me, but I'm also always confused by the weird ping pong back and forth.
You know, it comes from our city council to here and then back to city. That process is confusing. So
maybe at one of our future meetings, we could have city legal and county legal give us an overview of
remind us of what is our raison d'etre and our extent of our powers and all of that. That would be a
perfect segue to our next item, the meeting schedule for next year.
I think that's a great suggestion. Here's why, because we do have a capital improvement board, but this
group was formed before the capital improvement board was formed. This group was formed when the food
and beverage tax was first collected because we have to follow the state statute on that.
So I think it would be a great agenda item to have that discussion. I don't know typically what we do
for the meeting schedule.
You've been here as long as I have, so correct me if I'm wrong. I've been here since the beginning.
Me too. Me too. We're founding members. But just from my memory, and I'm not going to say that, what
happened was we actually were a voting board. And what happened was they changed the statute, and they
all this about having the state and that's when we had to start doing these reports and telling when
we were spending money because they'd had some problems with malfeasance in other places that they hadn't
spent their food and beverage money correctly and blah blah blah blah blah and that's when this kind
of got as they put in all these requirements that
that the county had to do to keep the tax enacted. They took away our responsibility. This board, they
made us advisory and everything is predicated on these reports that come from
I don't know if they come from the council or if they come from the commission, but that's how we became
not the end all be all. We have to approve this.
So they had like a veto power. We didn't actually enact it, but we could vote it down if we felt it
was not appropriate. Correct. That's the way I understood it. But that's no longer the case. That is
no longer the case. And you raised some interesting points about how we got here. It's a historical
thing. But I will say that I do think that we typically don't meet until there is
that's something that changes and. Based on where we're at with our current plans and yes, this board
does have to vote on the. Um the financial plan, right? The expenditures and the right. So we voted
on the annual report. Sorry annual report. We vote on the we did vote on that. Um so, um.
the need to meet to approve something and that will probably come out of the city.
Um, and I'm okay not setting a date, um, unless we want to set a date for maybe our next year's meeting.
Um, I did speak with, um, commissioner Fiddle before the meeting and when we spoke about, um, three
meetings that all fall on the second Friday in the month after a completed quarter. Um, I proposed that
we just set these three meetings and if we, if there's no reason to meet, we can cancel them, but just
to make sure that it's on everyone's schedule.
people's calendar so you have would be great so you okay so share those please they are friday april
10th 2026 at 11 a.m. friday july 10th 2026 at 11 a.m. and friday october 9th 2026 at 11 a.m. yes july
10th thank you so this is the second friday in the month after a completed quarter okay
And then the last meeting is Friday, October 9th. Okay. And at that one, you would, you would have to
have the annual report. So it may be that's our only meeting next year potentially.
OK, I think I think the staff honestly is has trouble sometimes getting everybody's schedule pinned
down. So we'd like to get something on the calendar and have people say these days. That's right. Everybody
loves the council meeting. So let's go put it on the calendar and we'll take it off until a Friday meeting.
Yeah. I think I guess I'm not.
really clear on why quarters. But some of the staff told me that they had done the quarters before.
I don't know how long ago. I haven't been here. That's probably when we had to
And my recollection is we only came together when we had to approve some sort of expenditure. And just
for my fellow restaurateurs here who are going, why in the world am I sitting on this board when we
really can't do anything? I think it's very important for the restaurants to know what's going on. And
even though we can't say no, it's very important that we as representatives of our industry
sit here and say, no, I don't think so. That's a bunch of hooey. And I'm willing to say that. So that
is why I continue to serve on this board. But it sounds like those comments are better sure for meetings
that have already happened, really. And we need to be more proactive about those things if we don't
agree with some. Because at this point, there's nothing we can do about it. It seems like. I think quarterly
meetings would give us the opportunity to ask questions and really
stay more up to date on how the funds are being decided on. Even more importantly, maybe meeting before
the commission, because really, Julie is our connection with the commission and what she can take back
like the advisory board voted and said this and they would like to have one hundred thousand dollars
cut out and da da da da. She can say something that we affirmably did. Well, you said it was twenty
five thousand dollars, whatever the amount was. We came up with an idea.
And it was able to be expressed in commission because she was here. And we never meet, and she can't
take anything back. It's just her idea that she thinks we might want to approve. And why wouldn't we
want to be the quarrel, let's just say. And I'm hopeful that you all continue to serve also as a conduit
into the community. Once we have consultants and then we start that process of bringing the public in,
um to provide input on the quarry project that that could be um really significant but my i have gear
spinning in my head because of what you suggested so i really would like to talk to you soon about that
so give me a call awesome awesome because i will say like in all politics you get old enough you realize
Being able to vote and vote to negative, to vote down a veto is probably very difficult to get done.
But to be persuasive, if you've got a good idea, can be very powerful. And that's where I think getting
the input from people like Letty, by the way, who've been here from the beginning, who have a lot of
good ideas. And frankly, old folks like myself, who've been around for a while,
can have input if we, if we have it properly, it's all about the timing. It was after the fact. Well,
then we did nothing. And that's what Galen was saying is if it's after the fact, well, why me? Because
it's already been decided. We're just, uh, an afterthought. I think what we want to say is like, well,
give us some opportunity to kind of get some better input and we'll give better input, which can be
persuasive and give power to your point of view. Like if we really love the dog,
program going into Huntington, then you ought to know that. If we wanted, instead, to have a soccer
field, you ought to know that. And we ought to be responsible for giving that input. And right now,
it's not happening. Right. And we can't do athletic fields. But I want to answer. But also remember
that you have access to a number of other
I think there are a number of points of resource in the community to help your small business, and I
encourage you to take advantage of that as well. And we have Christopher MG here from the Chamber of
Commerce. I mean, I'm sure he'd love to have a discussion about what he could do to help you out. And
so I think there are a number of those resources available.
and in addition to what goes on here. So it's really, you know, the only thing that we've really spent
money on so far in the county, and that's why we have amassed such a large amount of money, is the grant
program that we did for small businesses during COVID, and it included a couple of social service agencies inside
the city of Bloomington that do encourage tourism, which we hope would help filter over and encourage
people to spend money on local businesses. So I think we as a community are so much stronger when we
work together.
We've had to overcome a lot, but I don't see that ending. I don't see these rainbows in the sky coming
for anybody. And that's really hard. And so we have to figure out what we can do to keep our businesses
going and make sure that we're all vital. OK, thank you. It is approaching 12, and I do think that we
in the spirit of timeliness should wrap up our comments and go to public comment. I just have one more.
Great. So thinking about the issue with finding out how to go to the fact, I respect that comment a
lot. And so I wonder if it would be prudent to think that the commissioners, whoever who might be deciding
things like this elsewhere before we find out about it, if they could give us a heads up that that's
coming down the pike, right? Is that? Yeah.
and city council the same, but of course you made the decision on a bond to pay for the convention center.
So you really probably don't have a lot coming forward, but we certainly can keep everybody apprised.
That's correct. I think that would be great. And then whoever from here or other people that you know
connected that might have something to say about it could attend the appropriate meeting where the decisions
are made. That's what I'm trying to get at. Thank you. The heads up about that. So just to the matter.
question, which is scheduling. I would be delighted to put three meetings a year on my schedule. That
would be fine. And if they are these dates or a little bit earlier to accommodate some other important
meetings where we might want to give input before those happen, great. And I fully support the idea
of let's get them all on the calendar now, because I'm sure, like many others, my calendar is terrible.
And so it would be great to just get them. Can we so move? Can I so move?
a motion and a second to approve the 2026 Fabtech meeting schedule for three meetings Friday April 10th
at 11 a.m. July oh Friday July 10th at 11 a.m. and Friday October 9th at 11 a.m. can we please get a
roll call or I guess we don't have to do a roll call vote all in favor please say aye all opposed same sign
rate that passes and I know it's not on the schedule but I do think we should probably just have an
opportunity for public comment so if there's anyone in chambers please raise your hand and if you are
on teams please also raise your hand any takers please state your name and you will have three minutes
Good morning, commissioners. This is Christopher from the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. I
enjoyed the conversation today. I thought you were actually a voting authority like Mr. Cassidy did
as well. So I learned something today that you were advisory now. And I think the one thing when you're
talking about the food and beverage tax is it's for tourist purposes. So having that lens on
what is going to lure tourists or be an attraction to tourists out of towners. And what that does is
support local businesses and the food and beverage tax, so it's self-serving and self-rotating. So I
think we should have that lens, especially on the Huntington Preserve properties. We move forward with
that. And looking at the county and seeing if there might be some other little things that this might
pay for that would sort of enhance that, I know
Ms. Whitmore over at the parks does a wonderful job, especially with the award-winning job the county
did with the ARPA funds on doing some Karst improvements. I was talking with Cutter's travel parent,
and they host half of their tournaments at Karst Park. So they are home as a parent of a travel
baseball parent, we have zero here in Monroe County that I did of the 10 tournaments. I'm at North Vernon
three times of those, and I never knew where North Vernon was until it was on schedule. So people would
rather come to Monroe County. They'd rather come to Bloomington. So just keep that lens in mind as we
move forward with this. I appreciate your time. Good meeting today. Do we have any other takers in person
or on teams?
Great, then that will bring us to our final portion of the agenda, which is adjournment. And I adjourn
this meeting. Thank you all for being here.