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.