- Call to order the Monroe County Three Development Commission and would you call the members? Commissioner
- Keesley? Yes. Commissioner McCarty? Yes. Commissioner Jones? Yes. Commissioner Tucker? Yes. I have three
- voting members and the school board representative present, so we have a quorum. All right. And we did
- not hear from Richard, did we? Is that what you're telling me?
- from anybody that they were not going to be in attendance. Okay. Okay. So do you want to wait with selection
- of officers? Well, I think he's just walking in. There's no traffic downtown. The bypass is packed all
- the way around.
- Well, I'll go ahead with the election of officers since we have five of us here. And I'd like to move
- that Richard be president. Okay. Do we need to have a vice president, I guess?
- you have to have a president and a secretary, but we've always had a vice president as well. Right.
- You have to speak up a little bit. I hear you, but I lose you. We're required to have a president and
- a secretary, but we have always also had a vice president, which is allowed. Okay, so I'm... Who would
- like to be vice president? I could do that again. I nominate Iris. Okay.
- Okay, anything else? All those in favor of Richard's taking president and Iris Kicely being vice president,
- please say aye. Do we have to call the roll on that? No, you do not have to call the roll since we're
- in person, but you also need to have a secretary. Okay, well that's passed. Richard, you want to do
- the meeting dates? Sure. All right, we're down to item number three. Well, I think we need to have a
- secretary.
- Yes. Oh, so you're the VP. You're going to be VP. Who wants to be the secretary? I can do that. I guess.
- Mr. McCarty is going to be secretary. Congratulations, Colin. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye.
- Aye. OK. You have that down? OK. Good. OK. Now we can go to the number three. All right. I have number three.
- Meeting schedule for 2026. Is everybody okay with this kind of third Wednesday, 430? That's what I have.
- There's one I think that we might have to miss. Which one did we decide? The March meeting is during
- spring break. Yeah. So we may have to change that. We typically will do the fourth Wednesday that month.
- Right. So it's third Wednesday except March.
- Send out reminders to Jeff. Yes. Thank you. Is everybody OK with that? Yes, I'm OK. Transfer to Ivy
- Tech. This is maybe more of a heads up. I thought we did this. Well, we did this with the pain building,
- which is a nursing school, but we also. Yes.
- I remember what it was called when we purchased it. And I remember it because it was going to be the
- nursing school and it wasn't entitled to pain building. And so I found that to be extremely ironic,
- but the county owns the building, the life science center building, the redevelopment commission owns
- that building, but not the ground underneath our lease with them. I think terminates in 27. However,
- it can be terminated earlier.
- if we pay off the bonds which have been paid off. And so I was talking to Chancellor Coyne and we think
- that since we have the process in place from last year, we should probably just go ahead and get that
- taken care of. Okay. Sounds good. So you're going to proceed with the effort to do that? Yes. Okay.
- And how long would the extension be? How long would the extension be?
- A renewal, right? Or are we looking... Okay. Our current lease agreement says that once the lease terminates,
- the building goes back to Ivy Tech. So they would be the full owner of both the land and the building.
- We're transferring. Yeah. So we have to make a motion to say that that happened or we just leave it
- alone? I think you guys just need to be aware that we're going to move forward on that. And if you had
- an objection. Well, let's show it in the minutes then, please.
- Will we have any other obligations out there then? Or is that it? I think that's the last of the property
- we own. OK. All right. Item five on our agenda are minutes. And we had two minutes in the packet, one
- for September and one for October. And then we had canceled meetings the rest of the year. Correct.
- Are there any additions or corrections to the minutes for September 17th? They were okay. Or do we have
- any additions or corrections to the minutes of October 15th? I didn't see any there. They're okay too. Okay.
- Do I have a motion to approve the minutes for September 17th and October 15th? I so move. Second. A
- motion and a second to approve the minutes for September 17th and October 15th. Do we need a roll call
- on this, I think? We certainly can do a roll call. Commissioner Kiesling. Yes. Commissioner McCarty. Yes.
- Mr. Jones. Yes. Mr. Martin. Yes. Motion is approved four to zero. All right. Then claims. We have one
- claim. This is for the town of Ellisville. If you flip over the form, you'll see that it's the annual
- payment for the firetruck. So this is our second payment on the firetruck. Is that correct? It's semiannual.
- I think it's the third.
- The third. This is the final one? Or do I have one more? No, it's five years. Okay. I just couldn't
- remember at this point. Yeah. So there'll be two more after this, you believe? There'll be one more
- this year. And then this will be the end of the second year after this. And then we have three years
- beyond that. Okay. Right. Good. It's half a million a year.
- for five years to 2.5. That's what it was. Yep. Yep. Okay. All right. Do I have a motion to approve
- claims? I submit. Okay. Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the claims
- for the town of Ellitsville for $249,945.28.
- Please call the roll. Commissioner Kiesling. Yes. Commissioner McCarty. Yes. Commissioner Jones. Yes.
- Commissioner Martin. Yes. Motion is approved four to zero. That we have committed to doing it for five
- years and this is the whatever one this is. This is the third one. This is the third. This is the third one.
- So easy to forget that, so that's better to document. No, the fire truck was over $2 million. $2 million,
- OK. So that's where the semiannual for five years. I think it was like $2.2 or $2.3. More expensive
- than you thought. Yeah. Yeah. This is President Cassidy.
- It actually happened one time. That's what happens when you're not here. Do you want to make, since
- we have public comment now, why don't you start? Congratulations to the Hoosiers.
- Amazing. Absolutely amazing. That's where it was an unbelievable situation. And when we look at it from
- Monroe County and we look at it from the city, we have to take into consideration that we now have to
- take a look at what we have as a community and how we're going to grow now that we have that national
- attention. Absolutely. Absolutely. It falls to each and every one of us, the elected officials in the
- city and the county to get the same kind of level cooperation and teamwork that we've seen
- out of the Indiana University Hoosiers. And it's colder here than it was in Miami. I said it's colder
- here than it was in Miami, but it's just as exciting. And we travel much better than I ever anticipated.
- It looks good on TV. That's okay. The Sea of Red was amazing.
- Okay, we're on to public comment. We don't have any members of the public here. Is there anybody online
- that wants to make a comment? I don't see anybody, do you? No. I don't see anybody. Okay, so there is
- no public comment. All right, staff comments. My first comment is that Lisa Ridge doesn't have a working
- microphone, so she's not going to be able to give staff comment tonight. I think we're just
- I think the what would have been my staff comment is dealing with the property transfer. I do believe
- that I've also received and. I think. Hey, you can speak. Hey, how about that? They gave me permission.
- That's what I was waiting for. Well, can you hear me? OK. Sorry, I just want to briefly say that we
- did make it to the end of 2025 and got our distribution in December, so we're not so broke.
- Also we have the curry pie phase one of the reconstruction out for bid. So we expect to get those on
- open nose on February 5th at the commissioners meeting and then we'll take those under advisement and
- everything and then bring them to the board in February before anything's awarded.
- I wouldn't anticipate anything happening until later in the summer. So we would have our second distribution
- in June, our first for 2026. So I just wanted to give you an update on that project. And if you have
- any questions on anything else. I do not. How are you set for if we get a slow dump in the next two days?
- Well, I was out getting salt delivered from a dump truck after the garage closed and was guiding in
- a dump truck. So we're down to the wire of still having materials delivered. The problem is the whole
- Midwest is pretty well out of salt after the December storm. So we are getting what we can get and it's
- trickling in everywhere around the state, but we just hope it can be replenished after this weekend storm.
- the numbers that I saw right now with our app was around 10 inches between Saturday night and Sunday.
- So, but it's still the track of the storm is still yet to be confirmed. But I do think we're gonna be
- in the path of some heavy storm, heavy snow. Good luck. Thank you.
- And then the other thing I was going to mention is I believe I got the contracts for our annual reports
- from a financial solutions group. I believe they're the same amounts as last year. I wasn't in yesterday,
- so I couldn't forward it to you guys. But assuming that's the case, unless you guys object, I'm going
- to go ahead and get it run through the commissioners and get them scheduled to start their work. Yep.
- Sounds good.
- send us send us copies so we know what what you said to the commissioners question for staff um now
- that that the property on curry pike that cook had owned has been transferred to um simtra and they've
- done all that demolishing and the stuff that they're doing what is the status you know i know we're
- trying to pay off whatever was on that had been brought against that bond what's our status on all of that
- I don't know exactly where we're at, but I wanted to say that the bond, they actually pulled only about
- $100,000. And I think we've been paying the last couple of years, I think we've been averaging about
- 20,000 a year. So I guess it would either be about 40 to 60,000 left, but I can confirm that with the
- financial solutions group and get that answer. Are there any obligations that they have from that bond
- since they didn't pull all the money, things they were supposed to be doing. I think it was all based
- upon them pulling money to do specific projects. But those projects are obviously, some of the projects
- got done, some didn't. And I don't think they have any obligation to do any of the other projects. Only
- if they pulled the money. Only if they pulled the money. Right. So if whatever they pulled, it would
- have gone through the Redevelopment Commission to approve the claims for that work. Right.
- Does that bond transfer to the new company? Or was it to a specific? It wouldn't transfer. It wouldn't
- transfer? OK. So that's all taken care of then. And actually, when we were going through that process,
- we had talked about whether that was something that they would find useful. Right. And we would have
- brought that back if they had. Right. OK. That's just one to make sure we had all the I's dotted and
- the T's crossed there. OK. All right.
- I think we're on to Commissioner's comment. Mr. Jones, do you have any comments? Mr. McCarty? Just echo
- what Randy said earlier, and we are not prepared for what's about to hit with IU. Because when you look
- at glimpses of games this previous season here at home, it was hard to get around town, hard to get
- a place to eat. Hotel rooms are going to be high.
- There are going to be a lot of people at that first game, for sure. Homecoming could be very, very busy,
- too. But we have to prepare for that. And yeah, the attention it brings will bring interest in the area.
- The second comment, and one that's a little close to home, literally, while I don't live in Richland
- Township, certainly own a sizable business in Richland Township,
- And I think it's up to the people of Ellitsville and Rissland Township to decide their future
- in infrastructure and especially fire services. And it is discouraging to hear that the commissioners
- will take this up in the spring in terms of the fate of Ellitsville's fire department, which is a joint
- fire department with Rissland Township.
- It really is up to us. We're, well, I'm not a voter, but property owner, and I certainly support the
- reorganization committee work right now. I think they're off to a, from what I've seen so far on CATS,
- a good start. There's been some tension, and I think that's good. This is a big deal. And, you know,
- it's just about consolidation, reorganization,
- of government there and just leave it to the people. Don't make any rash decisions at the county level.
- I don't think that's necessary. All that destruction from
- the old GE building was there. I thought, boy, I used to walk around that building on the inside and
- just not there anymore except the concrete. And I wonder, where are they taking all the concrete and
- all the stuff they tear down? Does anybody know that, where that's going these days? I think a lot of
- it gets pulverized and reused. Could be, but I don't know if that's what's happening to it or not. I
- have not heard that. Have you?
- be something to ask somebody sometime. I do know that when the individuals and the company and SEMTR
- and the responsibility that they're taking, it's being dealt with in the right manner without any questions.
- So I have no doubt in that based upon the individuals I have met with that organization and even with
- the construction people. It's very, very controlled and
- taking care of in the proper manner, because as it's been put, we make pharmaceuticals for people. We
- take the same care with the facilities we build. They're not kidding, they should. But it was amazing
- to see all this concrete sitting there. It had been a very nice building inside and out. That's about
- what it was. Sorry about that.
- around to be recycled is amazing, which at that point, the recycling of it. Several new buildings there,
- too, though. I noticed that. Brad, do you have anything? No, I just kind of echo what Colin said. The
- recent townships off to the reorganization meetings, and I appreciate from a school standpoint
- Dr. Sanders was asked to be on that group of seven. And hopefully, they can come do some commonality
- and let the voters make a decision at that time and place. And hopefully, you guys have a good meeting
- tomorrow night with the potential jail justice center. OK. I want to recall from last year,
- meetings I sat in on that had to do with infrastructure for the airport area and an opportunity that
- we county had and probably has missed to attract the business out there because we didn't have infrastructure
- in place. But it did get me thinking about where we might locate some kind of TIF opportunity on the
- western or southwestern side of the Bloomington jurisdiction going into the county. There's quite a
- bit of property out there that is developable. Some of it has been developed. One of the things I learned
- as I was going through it was that there's actually some sewer connection capability through the sewer
- district, which has been unused for 20 years, but has been sitting there. And that
- That area, I think we should look at that area more carefully for a residential TIF opportunity.
- We are, there's quite a bit of building there already. There is some commercial that's there already.
- So we can expect some property appreciation. May not be great, but there will be some. And that might
- be sufficient to get something off the ground if we've got 25 years to work with
- TIF project out there. So I think that's an area that we should start thinking about how to approach
- what might work as a TIF area out there. I don't know how far north or how far west or how far south,
- but I think we could consider what might happen out there. Is that all in Perry Township, you think?
- Most of it's probably in
- But I bet there's some in Van Buren, too. Yeah, I think so, too. As a matter of fact, I think you're
- right. Yeah. But I think that's an area where we could expect to see some growth. And we might be able
- to help facilitate that in a reasonable way. I mean, there are certainly some environmental constraints
- out there to deal with. But I think we know where they are, and knowing where they are, and planning
- can deal with how to manage that.
- that that's an opportunity we probably ought to look at, because I don't see any more opportunity going
- towards Ellitsville. I think we've got that up to them, and they're going to move on from there. There's
- nothing going east or north. The other opportunity would be south somewhere. And I don't really know
- how we would facilitate that area down there, because I don't know how much actual ground is available,
- because you're getting into some
- topological features. Is there a lot of quarry in that area, I think? I remember that some of the quarries,
- the areas that had been designated for quarries, actually got taken out of designation because they
- couldn't be productive enough for them to actually
- go in and start extracting. There's a couple there, I think, that I can remember. Because I was down
- there, and I was realizing that I'd forgotten all the cores we had. Yeah. But those are areas that I
- think we ought to try and take a look at this year and see if we can't make something work in that area.
- We did have that one. And the other thing, I think it'll happen this year. I think this annexation stuff
- will get resolved this year, which may open up some other opportunities or help
- get some cooperation between city and county government available again in terms of outlying development
- areas. That's my comment for the today. Randy. As you said, from a redevelopment standpoint, we're looking
- at and when we look at the rules of what the residential tips are and identifying the areas is going
- to provide us with growth, but also with the density we need because correct me if I'm wrong, Jeff,
- but part of the residential tip
- Allows that we can have some multifamily in there. Yes. Oh, yeah. Right. Will allow us additional tax
- revenues, take care of the infrastructure that's necessary because as we stated before, given the national
- attention and such, it's not only the quality of the community, but it's the affordability of the community
- that we can provide for the residents are here.
- To your point, Iris, as you put about GE and used to walk through this big building and what we had,
- it's now been condensed. But for us to be able to afford to put the workforce housing, provide not just
- the infrastructure by looking at residential TIFFs and the infrastructure that's necessary between the
- roads and the sewers and the drainage, how we also work cooperatively based on the planning of it because
- While we can designate a residential TIF, we need to specifically make sure that the process is in place,
- that when people come in and say, we want to do this, we're able to lead them through the process, not
- stop the process. So to Cullen, Brad's point with the Richland District and our communication, I think
- at this point being the Redevelopment Commission of
- Monroe County. We need to help set that example by saying here's the area and here's how we can make
- it work. We've got the right attorney. We've got the right person in the highway to show us
- the infrastructure. Now it's how we help designate that because we're going to have to get the cooperation
- moving forward. We we as a group here have already designated significant dollars to the Ellisville
- Richland Township Fire Department.
- When we look at that from a cooperative thing, cooperative nature, need to let the voters make the decision.
- Because that is where our voice finally is with the people. And right now, when I see the number of
- people that cannot afford to live in this county because of the economic basis of not having enough
- jobs, and then the requirements that we put in order to build a lot,
- We have lots now that are 65 to 85,000 and a part of that is the regulatory hurdles. And while it's
- important for us to take care of our environment, our community and make sure it's safe and secure,
- we also have to look at the affordability. And to Richard's point dealing with the residential TIF,
- we may be able to help put that in place, which will help make it cost effective for the residents here.
- So I know I ramble, I don't necessarily talk succinctly, but the idea is to get affordability and employment
- in our community because good, caring citizens that can afford to live here and have the pride in the
- future will build the businesses that stay. When I, to your point, Iris, we walked down Curry Pike,
- we had Westinghouse, we had GE, we had Otis. Oh, we have Sempra.
- And SMPTER is doing a great job, but the more of those type industries we can have located locally just
- helps our economic community, it helps the pride in our community, and it even cuts down on the environmental
- impact because we're not having to drive so far and the safety. Richard, I have a question in the area
- on the west side that you're talking about. Has that been zoned for anything other than whatever?
- Parts of it have, parts of it haven't. You know, as you are aware, kind of zoning kind of follows where
- people are going. I know. And if you want people to go someplace, sometimes you've got to make it possible
- for them to get there. And I know a lot of that area, because of the environmental constraints, has
- been zoned fairly restrictive.
- I think we'll have to, certainly we'll have to work with the planning commission to see what they've
- got in mind now, what might be possible in the future. Remember, our timeline is 20 years, 25 years,
- where their timeline from a zoning perspective is three or four years, because that's what they're looking
- at in terms of their workload and what's gonna come before them. So we have these different time scales
- that we're looking at.
- that you have to be aware of as well. OK. Any other comments for today? I think we're done then. Any
- other comments from online? I guess she's gone. All right. I think we're done. With that, is there a
- motion to adjourn? So our next meeting is on the 18th, February 18th.
- February 18th should be. That's the third Wednesday. Yeah. They interfere something with other schedules
- and I want to make sure we get. Yes. Well, now that we've got this, we can set out a calendar. That's
- what I was doing. So that's why I asked that. Okay, good. All right. I move for you, Jerry.
- We are adjourned.