- I'm going to call to order this meeting of the Merrill County Redevelopment Commission for Wednesday,
- August 19, 2026. Jeff, would you please call the roll? Pardon. Present. Commissioner Cass. Present.
- Commissioner Jones. And I do not see Commissioner Keesling indicated that she was not going to attend
- today. And I do not see Commissioner McCarty or Commissioner Tucker online.
- But we do have a form. Okay. First item of business, the claims. We have three claims. There's the old
- National Wealth Management for 2015. That needed to get paid as part of the annual. Another one for
- the Hunter Valley Road Bond. It's another annual fee.
- services for $514,000. And Lisa, can you tell us? That is your Curry Pike reconstruction project. That's
- the first pay app. Actually, they are finished with the project. We are having them come back and look
- at some of the thermo that went down. Putting that installation in, we noticed some of the beading was spilt.
- around the road. So we think that maybe some of the beating got out of this. I'm going to take a look.
- As of right now, it appears we will come in under budget. This right now we're, if everything goes according
- to plan, we would come in around 65,000. Good. So this is a section it looked like to me from 3rd Street South to
- Around Beasley Drive, which is where it switches to a Tulane, which becomes city of Bloomington jurisdiction.
- Second phase, we hope to put out to bid for 2027. And that would be from 48 right by CVS where the county
- and that project will go to Vernal. That'll be the more expensive one.
- Yeah, there's some more drainage things to address in that section. So we've been trying to work on
- that before we get the bids out this fall. Okay. Done. I will accept a motion. I'll make a motion to
- approve the claims as presented. Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the claims.
- $750 for the 2015 old National Wealth Management. This is the bond fee. $1,000 for the 2021 Hunter Valley
- Road bond fee. And then $514,118 to DTC Construction Services for the Prairie Pike work. Martin. Yes.
- Mr. Cassidy.
- Yes. Approved 3 to 0. Okay. Next up is staff comment. I don't have really necessarily anything. We're
- still working on closing out projects.
- Pretty much sunrise greetings, Vernal Pike Connector. All the paperwork has been submitted for that.
- The final change orders are running through construction, which I believe I had informed you guys months
- ago that that could equal around $150,000 after the project was complete. We have received those change
- orders. The commissioners have signed those, approved them. Now they'll just run through the construction
- contract to see if there's funding for
- reimbursement for those to be covered more at an 80-20 versus 100 percent. We've budgeted for it, but
- we're hoping that we can still run that through the construction. Fullerton Pike, still trying to close
- that project out. We have some pavement issues in an area that we believe we have a lane closed at this point.
- We've had some core drilling done by NDOT. We've had some pouring done, not finding any water. We think
- it's getting trapped in a certain spot where the two phases, phase two and phase three, ended up where
- they meet causing the water to rise instead of going to an under drain that was not required. So we've
- reached an agreement with Milestone on the fix. We're going to go in and we're going to mill out
- that area which I know the resident back down in that area but we want to fix it get it right before
- the contract is ended so we'll be doing that work I would say probably in the next two weeks and then
- we're going to go ahead and install an under drain to where that we don't have this problem in the future
- then we will also be closing the Fullerton Pike bridge
- for just approximately about a week. We're looking at the middle of September, talking to the school
- system and stuff. Perfect time to close that. But it's also... Now that everybody's used to using it.
- Now that it's used and it's open, but there's a different ratio in the concrete mix now, which caused
- some cracking, which is typical of what they're seeing in these bridge projects in the last couple of
- years since they... Of the concrete mix.
- But there's a fix for that and it's a sealant that you come back in and it gets down in the cracks to
- prevent. And we've chose to do that over the whole length of the bridge and just not in the cracked
- areas for the longevity of the bridge. So it'll require closing it for about a week. I think it's the
- best avenue to go. So we'll send that through to NDOT approval and work with Milestone getting that
- done. Then we'll do our final walkthrough
- hopefully be out of the way in the next in the next month, I would foresee that we could relate. Good.
- Mike, you said next phase of that is starting in twenty seven. It's our goal to do twenty twenty seven
- phase two and phase three, which would be the last phase, which would be Vernal Pike out to Hunter Valley
- Road roundabout.
- and that would be for 2028. Do I understand correctly that we are ready to proceed on Hunter Valley
- as soon as we can start tree work? That's my understanding. Yes, November 1st to April 1st is the window
- that you can cut the trees. So realistically, construction would start next
- Realistic, yeah, realistically. I believe there's a bridge to be built on that project. I haven't seen
- the plans for a couple years. A lot of times you can do bridge work if they, you know, if typically
- if a contractor wants to get in there, do the tree work and get it cleared out, then they can go,
- you know, right into the project. But that's all weather. But. I don't know what they're doing in the
- bridge or whether they're putting a couple of box collards in.
- It could still be a box culvert, but if it's typically over a 20-foot span, it would be technically
- a bridge. Yeah, I don't know whether it's that. I haven't seen it. I looked at it for a while. But.
- 2027, right now what you're looking at is Curry Pike to the north and Hunter Valley will be the two
- you have to undertake. And the RDC and yes.
- Our world. Her world, yes. I had a couple things. The first thing is I just want to remind everyone
- that we are rescheduling next week and month. Same time, same day, just we're going to go to RBB,
- the school. We're going to meet in their administrative building. I think we're there. We'll meet and
- then they're going to do their presentation on what they've done with the funding so that
- So we're actually taking a little road trip next month. And I just want to kind of remind everyone that
- we decided to do that a few months ago. The other thing I have is at the last meeting, we talked about
- the Curry Profile TIF bond and how we weren't making the full payment because we wanted to make sure
- that we don't lose that TIF as an un- I did reach out to the bond holder
- I don't think they really have a problem with, you know, the kind of us working through those issues.
- They did request that I reach out and I haven't yet, but I thought I'd let you know that I'm going to
- reach other business owner in that TIF to see if they had any ideas of any projects they want to see
- done. And then, of course, we'd involve Lisa and Highway.
- And so that we're moving forward with that in that direction. They didn't see any urgency to pay it
- off so long as we promise we aren't going to pull any more from that bond. And I assure them that I
- don't think we can. I had a conversation with Ron Walker about the same thing. They were aware that
- we knew that something ought to get done sooner rather than not at all.
- The basis is to extend the TIF. Not extend the TIF, just make sure it doesn't get, it doesn't end prematurely
- without that being a known decision of this group in the county. If it needs to be ended, that's fine,
- but my role is to make sure you guys know that's what's going on. And I don't think we've come to a
- conclusion that that's the record. Commissioner McCarty just entered
- In that area, quick question in regards to Maycomb, Lisa. Based on our profile park, Parkway Road that
- was done and following some of the things done in the city, the area to Bloomington Transit. I heard
- that they were going on the west side. It would be. They're on the old ABB side. Oh, okay.
- I think that's what the road in the area was built for. The industrial area and everything. Yeah, because
- as we looked at that, you know, what it impacts from a long-term maintenance standpoint and then when
- the storage units were built with U-Haul, that came to us for just wanted to verify that as
- Bloomington Transit has purchased the property as they move forward. Is that something that will need
- to come to this board? And I guess the... Governor Malintze. The storage unit area came to this board
- as a direct request from the Planning Commission that they... If the Planning Commission requests that,
- I think that would be... My perspective, the long-term harm, if you want to even consider it, that is that
- that they would be a tax exempt entity. And so that property would not generate any. But we're able
- to, as it is now, we're able to, we've covered all of it. Financial standpoint. Okay. We are on. I got
- a lot of comments. As I told you at the last meeting, I'm,
- going to come back and revisit this residential issue. I've been trying to figure out where and what
- we would end up doing. Part of this was generated by the discussion around the proposal to try and do
- something there.
- And there was an issue about whether or not there were sewers there, et cetera, et cetera. And that
- has now been resolved, that the city is going to service any development that occurs on the airport
- property. But as part of that, we had looked at an area that might be suitable for putting a new sewer
- plant out in that area to service.
- what might have been the airport and areas around it. And a lot of that is actually residential. So
- there was this drawing that I think most of you may have seen previously, but it was kind of an idea.
- It turns out almost all of this is encumbered by some kind of airport overlay. So I started to look
- at how I would take that same kind of notion and
- add to it the things we've learned about residential tips and the requirements to actually make it work,
- which is that there is land that can be developed for residential uses. There is at least some kind
- of commercial development there which can generate more income quicker because the residential build
- out takes so long that it would need to be consistent with
- the existing or anticipated planning and zoning over the life of the tips. So we could actually get
- people to do things. So I took two areas. One of them is an area that is bounded on the north by 48
- on the west by Garrison Chapel on the south by May road and on the
- east essentially by the city of Bloomington going south and have prepared some things that are different
- maps of this. One of them is the zoning map that the comprehensive plan map which shows most of this
- is being available for kind of rural residential development. There is the airport here
- large area. Then we also have commercial development in that area along 48 in a couple of places and
- certainly along 45. So there are some potential commercial developments but there's a fair amount of
- developable land here. The zoning shows that most of it is in this airport area which restricts the
- kind of uses that can be done primarily
- residential uses because of And these are just sketches that I turned from the from the map I can look
- at the land the current land uses and there are a lot of just small parcels and things that are being
- developed and Have to be dealt then the other thing that was of interest was the
- Developable property which is in our area is usually constrained by steep slopes But fortunately there
- aren't very many in that area I mean there are some but the big feature there that has to be dealt with
- is The karst and most of that is up around the airport area rather than south of 48 So I'll just pass
- these around so these are this is an area that I think It we couldn't do it quite this large But this
- is an area where there we could start thinking about
- how we might craft a residential TIF in some part of this area. I'll pass it around to people they can
- take a look at it if they want to. I would just add to that right now. Airport is doing a drainage study.
- There are drainage issues that kind of help deal with that. And so, you know, if we want to think of
- a project, that could be one of the projects you guys look at is, you know, healthy.
- And that was that's going to be an expensive project. Yeah. I don't think there are any cheap projects
- in this area, which is one of the reasons why I've looked at a large area, because we can get appreciating
- value on the existing housing stock as well. I haven't. There's appreciation actually occurring to that.
- Take that revenue out of that general funds revenue. So there's a trade off there that has to be looked at.
- that's that was one area. The next area would be essentially Smithville south to Harrodsburg between
- old 37 and Fairfax Road
- minus some parts of Fairfax Road that are in the Lake Monroe watershed and are not designated for intensive
- development. The attractive thing about this one is that there is a sewer plant in this one, okay? So
- this is the land use map. What's the chance to look through something in this particular area because,
- you know, there's been a sewer plant
- changing anything from a density standpoint in this particular area? Press that, because when we look
- at residential TIFFs, density. On that, two of those areas, the Harrodsburg area and the Smithville
- area already have sketch plans that would allow more development from a comprehensive plan standpoint.
- The problem is they need the services and they need the rooftops to make the commercial components work.
- And that's the kind of stuff that
- that a dedicated diff could look at. Most of this land is now agricultural rural reserve, but there
- are some developable areas that are in here, and I think we could probably convert some of that once
- we had a regular plan. So do you remember, Richard, the comprehensive plan that was put together for
- the Harrodsburg area, the density that then was moved on the new CDL?
- Didn't have enough rooftops to support any kind of commercial So if you can bring some more residential
- in now, I know that for example the Freeman Fields area where there were 40 50 lots that have been sitting
- there zone but not and they've that's been repurchased by another developer and they start to put homes
- in there the first one is up and done and living in so this is an area and these are more of the
- land use, current land use in the areas. This is a picture that shows that a lot of this area is actually
- not in the watershed. So there is a considerable amount of land, particularly along the 37 corridor,
- old 37 on the west, and Fairfax Road, and what that one is that goes off, Strain Ridge Road. So if you
- kind of do Fairfax Strain Ridge,
- all that drains outside the watershed. So there is some opportunity there. And that's the drainage shed
- that feeds into the Caslon plant down near Harrodsburg. There are some steep slopes in this area, which
- limit kind of things that can happen. So you see all the red that's on here. But there are a lot of
- ridge top and a lot of open space, particularly over in this area over here.
- This is what they call developable land. So there's all the blue is essentially developed. This is strange.
- Yeah, there are constraints everywhere. But those are the in the county. Those are the two areas that
- I thought we could think about how we would focus a TIF district that would be really working on trying
- to deal with residential development.
- as opposed to the strictly commercial development, which is what we've historically done. But both commercial
- opportunities in them, which is, I think, critical for us to make a residential TIF work. They both
- have significant amounts of residential opportunity in them. I can tell you that at one point there was
- had certainly we've had interest in more development in the county but there is a desire not to end
- up with isolated subdivisions in all of these areas there are pockets of existing reasonably reasonable
- density current development that we could leverage so that we're not end up taking up
- completely all new Greenfield development, particularly along old 37 as you go south. There's a lot
- of developable property in that area, road access. So the question was, how would we proceed in trying
- to figure out what we would do next? Question at this point.
- in just a little bit, if I don't want to go into the legal end of it, but we just, on the Bloomington
- Redevelopment Commission, we just did a residential TIF where we pulled it out of a TIF and hoped on
- separate residential TIF. So the identification of the particular area along with what kind of utilities
- and infrastructure we would need to put in would be key critical. And to the area you identified down
- south near the Caslon plant and such,
- One of the coordinations we might want to double check with is with our Southern Monroe Water Corporation
- because they've had one based on pumping and supply at this particular point. So when in that area and
- then the particular basis of residential TIF that will allow residential plus multifamily in the residential
- TIF to be able to utilize be utilized. But your density will is what kind of make it occur based upon our
- So those particular areas, identify the area and then finding out what infrastructure needs are absolutely
- necessary. I haven't talked to the people in planning at all yet. Big areas, think about what might
- be possible. If we're going to do something, I don't know where else we would be able to do it. I think
- that's the other thing. Two areas that go back, Richard, because me and you have been around a long time.
- When we go back to our rural communities basis that we looked at 30 years ago, in regards to those particular
- areas that actually had the identification of a community hub, so we can look at those. Those areas
- are great. We're always constrained by our land use and our topography and roads.
- We can do it. It's just pick that area that's going to give us the best basis of how we can bond it,
- pay for it, get the necessary infrastructure, and keep the costs of those particular developments to
- a point where we can hit the medium affordability of our community. I have a question. I know we know
- where the central.
- But do we know what the area that that can cover from a? I don't want to speak for the person. I guess
- if we're looking at next steps, I would say, because I don't know the answer to this, is Harrisburg
- and Smithville, are they currently serviced by that plant? So we know that it's there, or Harrisburg
- is? Harrisburg is.
- depends on how much rock is in the valley. If there's good soil in the valley, run it down the valley
- and it'd be mostly gravity feed. It would be, not to interrupt Richard, but predating you, I was involved
- in that when we looked through the Smithville to Seward Smithville and Lake Monroe Village at the particular
- time. And it was the rock condition because the original plan, original discussion was to follow the
- railroad corridor.
- But yeah, Richard's right, it's all downhill. It's just a matter of rock. Yeah. Well, we do and we do
- places that we didn't do sewers before. Do force mains, small force mains, and various kinds of things.
- But it's, you know, there are a lot of issues involved. But if we're going to do something, we need
- to start focusing on an area and see what we can do.
- that next stop would be planning, see if they've got... Processes work. Structured all the time. The
- other thing would be that I think for the Van Buren area, the first one I talked about, we would have
- to establish
- little better rapport with the city in terms of being able to utilize part of that area to rather than
- try and build a new plant that would service the whole area focus some of that back into the city's
- plan outside we'll have some capacity to
- perspective possibilities are with the current by the airport I think is a place for us to look for
- growth to idolizing or whatever you want to call it supporting those two communities.
- They have a sewer plant. I just don't have anybody that wants to live there. Science was also an incorporated
- area. Yeah. I mean, the thing about the sewer plants is you have to have enough customers to make it
- work. And right now, with the exception of the Calhoun plant, two municipal plants in Bloomington and
- Nellisville.
- There aren't enough customers being served. Steinsville barely pays for itself. But it's there and it
- works. But I also think that they don't have an RTC. And so if we wanted to do something, I think Harrisburg
- and Smithville make a lot of sense because they need that infrastructure. And a lot of it is in place.
- with the expensive dealing with rock and just, you know, got to do it, you got to do it because the
- upside of being able to service that area. Any trouble?
- I remember the Southern Monroe water came to the county because we owned Smithville diamonds. They wanted
- to utilize the area of that property that wasn't part of the diamonds, kind of that wooded area in back,
- to put a new pump in so that they would have the ability to get more water down to it. Their biggest
- concern was fire suppression.
- We just need to see which areas are maximized to help our rural communities and what kind of infrastructure
- is necessary, and then get into what kind of revenue generation, which is that something as we identify
- the area we need to talk to our final. I think that going through talking with people planning and knowing
- what can be the expectation of what is if we had sewer and we
- And I'm thinking roads probably is the hardest one, because that is expensive for some of these. Well,
- Richard, let me ask one other question from an area, because I'm a huge proponent of Smithville, Harrodsburg,
- and our rural communities. Area off of Heart Straight Road where we put roads in several years ago?
- Yes. West of, or east of... East of Heart Straight.
- East of Heart Street, yes. And there's the YMC out there. The only utility it lacks is sewer. Yes. So
- would that area be? No, I suspect there will be an effort from Alexville to sewer that area. OK. I just
- looked at it from a standpoint as I utilize that road going up. Yeah. And I'm like. I think they will
- think about coming down to service that area. I haven't read their plan that they
- together for the merger, but it would surprise me. It would not surprise me if putting that sewer line
- down there is part of it. They wanted to serve the airport, so if the city is going to serve the airport,
- then Ellensville wouldn't have any issue, I don't think, going to the... I know when we were talking
- about it with the airport, they were willing to run that down.
- They just got a good-sized million-dollar grant to extend their collection system, which means they're
- going to have more customers available. I think that money goes to the collection system. Is that for
- the West expansion of the collection system? That's my understanding. I don't know fully. The first
- thing is we identify, talk to planning, and see what has to happen. And then we move forward. Appreciate
- you working on that, Richard, very much.
- Thanks for the discussion. I appreciate it. And there are more opportunities. My conversation with Ron
- was having to do with the work they're doing in their workforce project. They've actually got some grant
- money to do some of that work down there. Talking with them about how we would service them with our
- the right plan which not easy to do. And time. No that the orange County redevelopment commission had
- worked with us on our. Our facility down there and there is. I'm getting more customers here help pay
- for the bills.
- I would love to get some of these communities too, right? I think that's going to be a side effect if
- one of these goes in and it's successful, is you're going to have a population density enough that you
- can have a grocery service the area and then we lose one. I agree with you 100%. There's no sense in
- making additional dialogue. Yeah, exactly.
- The only thing I'd like to do is thank Lisa for being proactive on the Fullerton Hike Bridge, even though
- it may be painful for a short little time, because everybody loves that cutway. It would be painful.
- Yes. But to ensure that we're maintaining the facilities is absolutely critical. And my hat's off to
- you and Toby and the crew for making the decision that the pain may be short, but the long-term benefits
- will be there. Appreciate it. I appreciate that.
- put it out there yet and the public doesn't know, but they will now. But that's okay. I'm pretty upfront
- and don't try to. Project done. It's, it's still. Got anything. The big project. Yeah. And I think what
- we're witnessing up North is, um,
- At Andy's point, short-term pain is definitely a term gain, because there are systems around this country.
- There are bridges around this country. I've driven on them in Louisiana that have lasted for over 80
- years under sea level. And I'm not casting aspersions at anybody in Hamilton County. They're going to
- get one to three inches more of rain from tonight through tomorrow.
- It's really, it's tragic. But when you see something like Hazelwell Parkway just wash away and a giant
- quarry become a retention pond, it brings to mind the importance of what we do here. I mean, that's,
- we got to do Fullerton doing right. And yeah, it's,
- But it's a big bridge. I don't need to tell you that. I was standing looking over the bridge, wondering
- where the water is and why I had to build that big 500 foot bridge. And I didn't see any water. But
- DNR dictates that. And they know what they're doing. So I just have to go with that. Yeah. And you never
- know. And so we, yeah. And that was not something that could happen. Yes, yes.
- Yeah, I'm very fortunate what we got was snow instead of 16 inches of rain. So earlier this year.
- But yeah, I think good discussion. And I would also like to see something within Harrodsburg, Smithville,
- because those are built in areas. They have communities of interest. It has its area association, its
- little league, and it is very organized down there. So I think they deserve a little bit of love in
- terms of the
- of creating the ability to have more housing down there. Anything? No? Okay. Do we have anybody online
- that wanted to make a comment or had a question? We're done for the day then. To adjourn would be appreciated.
- adjourned. Thank you all for coming today. Appreciate it.