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The Grant County Record
in Grant County · Regular meeting · 2025-02-04 · full transcript
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    4:05  good evening and welcome to tonight's Maran common council meeting today's date is
    4:11  February 4th 2025 at 7 pm in the Marin city council chambers at City Hall I welcome everyone here tonight and we're
    4:20  going to call this meeting to order and begin the meeting with The Prayer by mayor Ronald Morell Jr
    4:32  all right Lord we thank you for this uh evening thank you for this day ask you just to bless this meeting and let us um
    4:39  be an encouragement and do what's best and what's right for our city in Jesus name amen thank you mayor and today's Pledge
    4:47  of Allegiance led by vice president Gary for senor
    5:10  all right and we'll go into roll call Madam clerk roll call Kane here Marshall
    5:16  here for I here Bruner here kleene here Divine here Whitten here cgill here
    5:24  McKinley here okay so tonight's Community Spotlight we were going to feature feature Michael and Ronnie contras but
    5:31  unfortunately they were they're okay but they were involved in a car accident and um it's just their whole schedule's messed up because of that so we're going
    5:40  to bring them back possibly at the next meeting or another meeting after that so unfortunately some stuff out of their um their control happened um but looking
    5:49  forward to have them in here uh at another meeting so we're going to skip the community Spotlight and move in tonight's city employees Spotlight so uh
    5:59  David Slusher is somewhere in the audience come on up you know you're coming up here welcome everybody knows David and if if you're at home you don't
    6:07  know them um hopefully you get to know him a little bit better this evening let me get this pulled up
    6:17  here me switch it for my people at
    6:25  home okay so um I uh talked to the mayor uh about this and um we decided to
    6:34  feature David Slusher he's the building and grounds manager for the city of Maran and he's been with the city for three years now uh February
    6:44  14th and um so I'm just going to read what I wrote so uh David Slusher has been our exceptional building and grounds manager for three years
    6:52  showcasing unparallel dedication and expertise and um anyone that's been around I mean I've been on the council
    6:59  for a over a year now and all those others um have definitely seen that um he his attention to detail and his
    7:07  proactive approach ensure that our facilities are wellmaintained and inviting and then David's leadership Fosters a positive environment making
    7:15  him an invaluable asset to our team and we're really grateful for grateful for his hard work and commitment um just his
    7:22  positive attitude I mean I've never heard this guy uh ever in a bad mood or have a negative attitud itude um I'm
    7:30  sure you're never like that though right it's just just around me um but he's always got a smile and he's always willing to work things out and figure
    7:39  things out and uh really you know when he came on three years ago um you know he had a lot on his plate and he still
    7:47  does um and when the mayor came in and the council decided to do a lot of upgrades to our facilities um David's
    7:56  Been instrumental and and helping us figure out what do we do where do we do it and just getting the work done I mean
    8:02  he's got a lot of done him and his team if you just go outside the building uh it looks uh much better it's refreshed
    8:11  just the carpet in here I mean every time I come in this building uh I know they're just quote doing their job but um they're doing it well and and they're
    8:19  working hard so it's not just him it's his team but he's uh really leading his team well and um you know we we really
    8:28  want our city hall to look good and all of our facilities and David is doing a phenomenal job um with bringing them all
    8:37  up to what we'd say our modern standards so we appreciate you so much David um I know he was featured one other time last
    8:45  year but it was for something else uh what was that you were featured for last year was we did it for it was the fire chief did it more or the police uh
    8:54  because you helped uh catch a suspect so he he kind of got recognized in the
    9:02  past more for civilian um Duty and civilian act but you know just that going back to that
    9:09  just shows um this this guy's willing to do anything even catch uh suspects so um um but we just really appreciate you you
    9:17  want to share anything at all thank you I just appreciate the opportunity to be here to serve the city and work for the
    9:25  bear you know I've been blessed we've really done a lot this last year and I can't wait to see what we the future
    9:32  holds you know we got a great team here and I just feel blessed to be here well we're glad you're here and um we
    9:40  couldn't help but notice the Hat you're wearing today he's the biggest Kansas City Chiefs fan
    9:47  so I don't I mean I don't know who's rooting for the Chiefs or not but uh the refs definitely yeah for
    9:55  sure we got to we mess with them all the time I mean we're Colts country here right and some Bears fans mixed in I'm
   10:03  sorry about your Bears yeah the Bears fan over here anyways so but um David really appreciate you um we just wanted to
   10:12  recognize you for all the work you're doing and the work you're going to continue to do so thank you for coming tonight we got to grab grab a quick picture uh we've got to make you know
   10:20  have Marty do something here tonight
   10:58  e e
   11:42  okay and we're going to move into the consent agenda for the approval of minutes consideration of pre-approved
   11:49  claims and consideration of claims any discussion on anything under that agenda
   11:57  item if if not I would entertain a motion Mr President I'd like to make a motion that we approve the cassette
   12:05  agenda in its entirety second have a motion by councilman calill a second by councilman Bruner any other
   12:14  discussion Adam clerk roll call Kane I
   12:19  Marshall I for I I Brer I kleene Devine
   12:26  yes Whitten yes cgill I McKinley yes moving into committee reports does
   12:35  anyone have a committee report councilman brener did tell me so
   12:41  I'll let him go first we had a park board meeting we've had not had a meeting uh with uh the winter going on
   12:50  and um we had a meeting on Monday and um among the uh probably uh
   12:59  really popular items that we're going to be doing is adding pickle ball courts to the tennis courts out at uh Moder Park
   13:08  if if you have not heard pickle ball has kind of become maybe the most popular
   13:16  sport uh in this area in fact they have a lineup to get on Pi on the pickle ball course we have out there so they're
   13:24  going to take two of the tennis courts and turn them into pickle ball courts so uh that I think is going to get a very
   13:31  uh popular uh U rise out of a lot of people mayor if you could real quickly talk about the band shell and the
   13:39  Ballard field uh discussion that you had with the par board
   13:45  yesterday uh yes so with the Ben shell we're exploring um different methods of
   13:53  how we want to move forward with uh remodeling that or upgrading that area and that's still undecided the park board is under consideration
   14:01  for it now but um one thing that was decided on by The Parks Board so the parks own all of ballot field which is
   14:07  roughly 19 acres and they um gave us approval to move forward with the development of those um 19 Acres um as
   14:16  you know the dog park is already um was already started previously and that's just it's supposed to start construction last I heard it was this either June or
   14:25  July so I think that takes up a few of those Acres but the rest of the roughly 17 um 18 Acres that'll be available the
   14:33  parks boort has approved for us to move forward with um that development thank
   14:39  you so um hopefully we get some uh nice warm weather uh earlier rather than
   14:46  later and we can uh resume uh uh the uh the fact of we're going to be adding some T pickle ball courts out at modder
   14:55  Park and look forward to that so that's my report thank you than you councilman Bruner any other committee reports
   15:03  councilwoman Divine so last week the um Maring
   15:09  Utility Services Board met and they um discussed the fact that we're still kind of in the same place on all the projects
   15:18  due to um the weather but they were still talking about um the discussion
   15:25  about dripping the meter or dripping water faucets and to get a meter um adjustment if you're one of those that
   15:32  needed to to have your faucet dripping to keep your pipes from pre freezing um and they I think put out a reminder on
   15:40  Facebook but it's also so if you have it dripping say for the month of January when you get your February Bill if you
   15:47  call into them they will then review your January bill against your average usage and then automatically adjust off the difference for that amount for that
   15:56  dripping and that'll work through the winter at we have those months where it's really cold so good thing to know that they won't they won't just show up
   16:04  you do have to actually call in and let them know that you were doing that um they did some updates to their drug
   16:14  screen policy they decided um that they had a CDL random policy in place they've decided to go ahead and extend that policy to their whole Workforce so
   16:22  they're going to be doing random drug screening for the whole Maran utilities um they have started getting
   16:30  quotes for um the biosolids de uh dewatering to get the new equipment and
   16:38  um they're looking at uh looking at a refurbished unit which is almost half about a third of the cost of what a new
   16:46  one would be so they're working on that um trying to think they said actually
   16:55  water usage has increased by 1.5 million gallons a day since the cold water and they are seeing more water lines
   17:03  breaking um through the cold snaps and that's pretty much what the utility services has been up to um Board
   17:11  of Works met this week and they uh swore in two new probationary um
   17:19  firefighters to um to become privates so finish their first year probation and are now officially on the I guess that's
   17:28  the right way to say that isn't it officially on the department um and then um Jerry fosnight
   17:35  gave a update on some of the unsafe that have been working that have been working on that the board of Works has given time to addition additionally work and
   17:44  it sounds like the majority of them are continuing to work even through the weather challenges and that's both
   17:51  boards thank you so much I'll add to the board of works the two firefighters that
   17:58  were sworn in Heisman skes and so I was there fortunately um Quinn is my stepson
   18:05  so quite proud of him and Heisman was one of the All-Star quarterbacks or All-Star running backs at um missall so
   18:15  um two excellent additions to the fire department so quite proud of both but exceptionally for one of those
   18:22  um yeah okay any other committee reports
   18:31  all right we'll move on to unfinished business resolution d225 a request to approve an economic
   18:40  development agreement between the city of Marin and Cafe Valley a resolution of the common Council for Maran Indiana approving an
   18:49  economic development agreement Cafe Val has advised the city that it desires to further expand its
   18:56  production capacity across its netork work investing not less than approximately
   19:03  $2,300 th000 completing the project which includes a substantial investment
   19:09  in new manufacturing equipment R&D equipment logistic distribution equipment and it equipment all to be
   19:18  located at current facility in Maran as a result of the project Cafe Valley will hire approximately an additional 100
   19:28  full-time employed by 2026 at an average salary of not less than approximately $19 per hour
   19:37  to induce Cafe Valley to complete the project the city desires to provide Cafe Valley with a 12-year personal property
   19:45  tax abatement among other rights and obligations of Cafe Valley in the city all is more particularly defined in that
   19:55  certain Economic Development agreement speaking mayor morale Chris grle and Joe
   20:06  Murphy welcome good evening counselors great to be back for you guys um yeah I'll provide a brief summary and then I
   20:14  really want to open it up to make sure that all of our questions have been answered so we were here before you at the first meeting of the year in January
   20:22  and had a a fruitful discussion about this topic and ultimately this group decided that there were still some questions there were was some sentiment
   20:30  that we needed to think about this a little bit more and contemplate the financials the numbers understand them a little bit more kicked it out to our
   20:37  development committee I'm sure that um councilor for I provided that report at the last meeting but um we had a really great productive discussion later that
   20:45  same week with that group um ultimately I believe it was unanimously voted out of committee back to this group um for
   20:53  approval um we missed the January meeting I want to be clear on that that wasn't because we weren't prepared that was because for for resolution number 2
   20:59  2025 and all these are tied together we had to have a public hearing and we were inside of that hearing date so um we could not get the notices out in time to
   21:07  actually comply with the public hearing law so that's why we're back before you here today again we're looking to approve a 12year 100% abatement for Cafe
   21:15  Valley in exchange they're going to be investing $2.3 million adding 100 new jobs their total employment to above 800
   21:24  employees for the duration of their um 12year abatement they'll also be those 100 new jobs will be at an average of
   21:31  $19 an hour um and we're very very excited about project and we've spoken at length I don't want to get into it
   21:39  without responding to a question but there is a very unique tax structure and debt structure associated with this
   21:45  project um which makes it necessary for this larger more substantial abatement um which goes beyond what might
   21:53  traditionally be considered for this type of project um so before you have three resolutions today the one that was just read aloud is the economic development agreement that's the one
   22:01  that covers the details of the project it covers Cafe Valley's commitments which we've already highlighted the jobs the capital investment the hourly rate
   22:10  that they're going to be offering those new jobs and then the long-term 800 job commitment over the course it also includes a Clause allows for the city to
   22:19  negotiate um and refinance the bonds that are outstanding on both their side and our side to hopefully lower those
   22:27  rates lower those overall payments payments as we talked about last time we were here both Cafe Valley and the City of Maran are paying substantial
   22:34  shortfall payments on those bonds right now because of the way that original deal was structured and so we're hopeful that as part of this Economic
   22:42  Development agreement we'll be able to take control of that refinancing process save both Cafe Valley and the city a little bit of money resolution number
   22:50  two is a waiver of non-compliance this is acknowledging on your part that the traditional abatement process was not followed
   22:59  this was due to kind of normal operations of business Cafe Valley received a commitment from a client of theirs to produce a new product at their
   23:08  Maran facility and they could not wait for this abatement process to proceed um and so they had to go ahead and make some of that capital investment upfront
   23:15  in the 2024 year um this waiver of non-compliance again acknowledges that the process was not followed but we still wish to capture all of that
   23:23  investment as part of the abatement process and then finally resolution number three is kind of the statutory required document that you need to
   23:31  approve to establish the economic development area and then proceed with the abatement process that one kind of has a sister document that if passed
   23:40  will U this so this is the um the declaratory resolution and then there will be a confirmatory resolution that would follow that would close that
   23:49  abatement process and and kind of make it officially passed so um with that I would open it up to any question that uh
   23:56  remain out there about this project all right thank you Joe appreciate
   24:03  that and also uh did you want to mention who yeah so we have here today virtually Jacob Everett Jacob represents Cafe
   24:11  Valley on the steel and then we also have Chris Grell the attorney who's been working on the resolutions for us as
   24:18  well as Andy Mouser from Baker Tilly ran all the financial projections for us for this deal so we have all the experts in
   24:26  the house ready to answer questions for you all right so spefically to resolution
   24:34  1-22 council members have any further
   24:43  questions I just wanted to make just a a public statement I talked to Joe earlier about it um just about the 100 jobs with
   24:51  the $19 an hour uh average um
   24:59  I I know people that work there and I work on different shifts um and currently the people that work there introductory pay from my
   25:07  understanding is below the 19 so um you know my hope is that cafe
   25:15  will increase the pay so that it does average the my understanding is that first shift is at $15 an hour second is
   25:23  around 16 third shift is around 17 um obviously there's other type typ of specialty positions that probably
   25:30  would make more than that um but that's the information that I got so to get to the average of $19 an hour um I just
   25:40  wanted it to be on the record that that's currently what we what I know to be the the wages there or at least
   25:47  starting um and so my expectation is when we review this every year and the
   25:53  cf1 form to review the that we do get those answers and make make sure that this uh the hund full-time employees and
   26:02  the $19 average is actually met um as promised in this so just wanted to make that public
   26:11  statement um just for the record anybody have questions anything else on resolution
   26:20  one all right if we don't have anything else that one just requires U one hearing there's no public ing on that
   26:28  one and I would entertain a motion Mr I'd make a motion to pass
   26:36  resolution 01 d202 I have a motion by vice president
   26:44  foris a second by councilman kleene any other discussion Madame clerk roll call Kane I
   26:54  Marshall I flise I Brunner I kleene yes
   27:01  Divine yes Whitten yes cgill I
   27:06  McKinley yes resolution 1-22 has passed excuse me moving into resolution 2-202 a
   27:14  request to approve a resolution regarding waiver of non-compliance for Cafe Valley and a public
   27:22  hearing and Joe you want to say anything more I know you've kind of already explained that yeah I I would just re
   27:28  stated that um this is not uncommon practice um it it is a required additional step because we are factoring
   27:37  in money that's already been spent but um if you think about the way you run a business if you've ever been part of a business or or an owner of a business this is you have an order that you have
   27:45  to fill and you can't necessarily wait for local government to proceed their action so Cafe Valley did what was prudent and made the investment ahead of
   27:53  time and and are now asking that we essentially that noncompliance as it states here and understand that and move
   28:01  forward with the abatement process as if all of that would be captured after the abatement so or after the approval of the final abatement so I I think it's um
   28:10  we we've said enough at this point yeah great thank you so much any council members with questions before we go to the public
   28:20  hearing okay thank you Joe we'll go go ahead and open the public hearing to this so if you would like to to speak
   28:29  you would have three minutes and you have to state your name and address you can make your way up to the podium
   28:37  now welcome if you could just state your name and address and you have three minutes uh good evening everybody my
   28:45  name is Ryan Howell uh I live at 2909 South Branson Street in Maran Indiana as a hardworking taxpayer of
   28:55  Marian I just want to thank every one of you for removing barriers for private Enterprise of the city of Maran rather
   29:03  than putting them in place for rather than putting them in place uh thank you I Yi I yield back thank you so much
   29:11  appreciate that I must say it's always nice to hear
   29:20  some uh some positivity and um so we appreciate you uh coming up the podium
   29:26  for that anybody else for the public
   29:34  hearing okay I don't see anyone else making way to the podium so we'll go ahead and close the public hearing if any other council members
   29:43  have more questions you're more than welcome to ask otherwise if you don't I would entertain a
   29:54  motion Mr President I'd make a motion to pass resolution ution 02
   30:02  d225 second motion by vice president for second by councilman Whitten any other
   30:10  discussion Madame clerk roll call Kane I
   30:15  Marshall I for I I Brunner I Klein yes
   30:22  Divine yes Wht yes cgill I McKinley
   30:31  yes resolution 2-202 has passed and we're going to move into resolution
   30:38  3-22 a request to approve a declaratory resolution designating property as an economic revitalization
   30:46  area and authorizing abatement for Cafe Valley again I think Joe's stated uh
   30:53  yeah as much as he could yeah this is again um the economic devel agreement which you passed first kind of has thees of the actual agreement between the city
   31:02  and Cafe Valley this is more just its statutory cousin that needs to be required passed you have to establish an
   31:09  economic revitalisation area before you can pass an abatement so this would do that and then like I said there would be a following document that would come back to you at the next meeting where we
   31:18  would actually confirm it would be a confirmatory resolution which then closes that abatement process and is the final approval so this is kind of the
   31:26  opening of that process great thank you any questions from the council
   31:37  members thank you Joe appreciate that with no questions I would entertain a
   31:48  motion Mr President I make a motion to pass resolution 03-
   31:55  2025 I have a motion by vice president ice a second by councilman Klein any other
   32:05  discussion Madam clerk roll call Kane I
   32:09  Mar I for I I Brunner I kleene yes line
   32:17  yes Wht yes cgill I mckenley yes resolution 32025 has
   32:26  passed and then the at the next meeting we will have a public hearing for the confirmatory
   32:33  resolution and moving into General ordinance 32025 and ordinance amending General ordinance
   32:42  25-22 second reading and public hearing an ordinance amending General ordinance
   32:49  25-22 salary ordinance for appointed officers and employees of the city of Maran Indiana for the year 2025
   32:58  by adding a horticulturist position in the parks department the city of Maran Parks and Recreation feature 13 parks with over
   33:07  150 acres our goal is to enhance the quality of life and Community Pride in maintaining safe accessible and
   33:16  affordable beautiful Parks the parks department is pleased to add a horiculture position this will contribute to the
   33:24  beautification of the city of Marian speaking Randy
   33:41  hayatt good evening and welcome Randy good
   33:49  evening anything you'd like to add that we haven't already spoke at the last meeting the no sir all all right great
   33:58  any council members with questions vice president for I Randy on this position um and I spoke to the
   34:06  mayor about it this position for this horic culturist um they are actually a working person that is going to be out
   34:14  in the field working on the parks yes sir not just an advisory but an actual physical working person yes sir and
   34:23  they're going to take over uh planners downtown and the hanging baskets that part I'm not sure
   34:29  about I think that's be honest that's what me and the mayor discussed that that was going to alleviate some cost
   34:36  from downtown oh you're talking about the the big baskets on the Square sure yes yeah because we're right now we're
   34:45  paying to have that taken care of I believe um yes sir and that'll eliminate that also so there's going to be some savings to this yes sir with the
   34:54  addition thank you and that includes the hanging plants as
   35:01  well or is that what you're talking about vice president for ice yes councilman Bruner Randy will this be
   35:10  a a 12mon 365 day a year job yes sir so even in the winter snow whatever it you
   35:19  there'll still be things for them to do yes sir that's when they plant all their new Gardens they make the new designs for the beds things of that nature thank
   35:27  you and the Order of the flower sir yeah Council mclin yeah thank you
   35:36  you the the position idea is a great one and I think it's a wise one and I had originally contacted you and talked to
   35:44  the mayor about you know the qualifications you know having Master Gardener certification because they know they
   35:52  know not only about planting and growing and the soil and this and that they have teaching but after talking to some folks um
   36:00  hiring a Master Gardener might be easier said than done I learned and so if this
   36:07  if the new horticulturist isn't a Master Gardener can I expect that this person's going to have appropriate
   36:15  degrees um and experience yes sir for that yes sir okay the the difference is
   36:24  is this person will have that degree a master Garder has to earn as it yeah they volunteer their hours then it adds up that's how they get that status okay
   36:32  so if it's not what my my first thought was then it'll still be something with an appropriate and related degree and
   36:41  experience to be the horticulturist right yes sir okay I feel better thank
   36:49  you councilwoman Divine remind me um and this doesn't require any additional appropriation that this is going to be
   36:57  funded through what we've already passed budget wise the parks department yes
   37:09  okay any other council members quick question
   37:18  um we've had this position in the past correct correct and what happened why did we get rid of
   37:25  it they left because a previous management so I'm not being critical when I say this so they they left
   37:34  whoever was in that position I'm just curious though why didn't why wasn't the position open to hire someone
   37:43  else previous management to be honest with you so this they went a different route this happened more than a year and
   37:50  a half ago or yes okay okay absolutely okay I was just trying to put the Gap in there of like why we bringing it back
   37:58  now what happened previously so okay and when they didn't bring it back that's kind of how we lost our signature status so that's our purpose is to bring
   38:07  all that back perfect I had an idea but I just wanted the public to hear that to hear the story and and
   38:15  that wasn't necessarily desired to lose this position because if anyone's been to Moder
   38:21  Park um then if you know anything or just a little bit about flowers or plants which I know very little it's
   38:30  overwhelming there's so much out there and there's so much I don't even know how to say it ecology and biology and
   38:38  and all that that goes into this that without a trained horticulturalist it's really it's like me showing up the Lowe's and oh that
   38:46  looks good and I hav't any idea what bugs TRS so um so we haven't had anyone
   38:53  with these qualifications for quite some time several years yes sir okay okay well I just want to say whoever was filling in did a great job the park
   39:02  still looked good but I understand this desire and I appreciate answering the questions councilman Brunner another
   39:09  question Randy if if this passes how soon do you think you can get someone hired hopefully within a couple
   39:16  weeks thank you okay any other council members
   39:27  okay we're going to go ahead and move it into the public hearing So Randy thank you if you want to just hang out to the side for a minute we're going to open the public
   39:35  hearing if you'd like to speak on this you can make your way to the podium and you'll have three minutes and you can state your name and your
   39:43  address go ahead again welcome state your name and your and you have three minutes note
   39:53  going to the red button all right my name is Howell live at 2909 South Branson Street in Marian
   40:06  Indiana um I don't think uh hiring a horticulturist is a good idea
   40:14  um uh metaphorically speaking uh I'm this isn't a question about how much will this cost the Maran taxpayer so we
   40:21  can be transparent with the community um I think the city of mar will be better off Outsourcing of this
   40:29  job to private Enterprise so we can decrease the size of government I would see if this could be
   40:37  a job for wesling University or possibly the work Crews of the county jail or community
   40:45  service um Progressive policy is expanding the size of government and conservative policy and conservative
   40:53  policy should be decreasing in the size of government uh I'd like to thank each and every one of you for putting a Maran taxpayer and
   41:02  a hardworking uh men and women am Maran at the head of the table um and uh thank you for your
   41:11  service to your community I uh thank you I yield back thank you Mr how appreciate
   41:20  it public hearing is still open if you'd like to speak make your way to the podium
   41:31  not seeing anybody move towards the podium last chance still nobody we're going to go
   41:40  and close the public hearing Randy if you want to come
   41:49  back uh Randy if you can answer the question uh what's the I see it here but I want you to say it but what is what are we requesting to appropriate as far
   41:58  as dollar amount say I don't have that paper one second I'll answer it for you it's 50,000 yeah um so the additional
   42:07  appropriation um not oh no sorry I don't believe it's 50 sir I'm looking at the wrong one I've got it right here I believe
   42:16  it's closer to 45 yeah it's yeah let me get through back
   42:24  through these attachments
   42:43  sorry we went over this uh yeah I think that's right the last meeting so I'm pulling it back up I think that's right Mr President
   42:51  1730 bi-weekly yes yes thank you very much 26 PID I think it's about
   42:58  $45,000 yeah $13.77 perfect uh by weekly so uh the
   43:05  math almost I would say gets to the 45,000 area so um great that's what I wanted to
   43:14  answer on that um any other council members with questions and just as a reminder this
   43:23  position we had how long did we have this position previous before it got eliminated how long was Doug here approximately 10 years 12
   43:32  years 14 14 okay it started with I don't know familiar with Doug Dara he brought that
   43:41  position in and then when Doug left in previous administrations decided not to renew that position and it just became a
   43:49  regular worker great thank you appreciate that
   43:57  okay if no other council members have questions I would entertain a motion Mr President I'd like to uh make a motion
   44:06  that spin the rules on General ordinance 3 2025 second a motion to suspend the rules by
   44:14  councilman Cowgill a second by councilman Kane any
   44:20  discussion Madam clerk roll call Kane I Marshall I for I I
   44:27  Brunner hi kleene yes Divine yes yes
   44:34  cgill hi McKinley yes the rules have been suspended I would entertain another motion Mr President like to now make a
   44:43  motion that we pass General ordinance number three 2025 second motion by councilman calill
   44:52  second by councilman Kane to pass General ordinance 3225 any
   45:00  discussion Adam clerk roll call Kane I Marshall I for I I Brunner I Klein yes
   45:11  Divine yes wton yes cgill I McKinley yes
   45:18  General ordinance 32025 has passed thank you Randy appreciate thank you and we're moving into to new
   45:27  business additional appropriation 1-22 first reading an ordinance appropriating
   45:34  certain funds in the amount of $50,000 from the general fund to board of works for Maran Arts
   45:42  commission mayor Morel seeks to collaborate with the Maran Arts commission to establish a dedicated Arts
   45:49  District in Maran this initiative positions the city to access additional funding opportunities through state
   45:57  grants and other allocations aimed at enhancing the downtown area to qualify for these resources the city must
   46:04  partner with the nonprofit organization and Mac is prepared to take the lead in showcasing and elevating the art within
   46:13  the community this partnership underscores the city's commitment to cultural enrichment and economic
   46:21  development speaking mayor Ronald morale Jr good good evening everyone um it's an honor to to be here
   46:30  before the city council again and I'm very excited to um present what I would like to consider another economic driver
   46:38  for our city um this initiative is one of the uh part of the trilogy of the districts that we've
   46:47  established so we started with the riverfront district and the door district and in the same breath and the same kind of economic drive that those
   46:55  bring forth this Arts District presents the same opportunity so in order to achieve this we obviously have to
   47:01  partner with a nonprofit per the state uh requirements and this is under Indiana Arts commission and with the
   47:09  establishment of this District um not only will it highlight the already uh much investment we have in our in our
   47:17  downtown this will U curate and make us available for more Investments and um a
   47:25  destination if you will for or artists and what's going on in our city so um this proposal is seeking funding for
   47:35  our partnership with uh Mar Arts commission to be able to go forth and um do what is necessary to be able to start
   47:43  this um this uh the development of this Arts District and um the continue uh the
   47:50  continuation of investment and and growth that we're experiencing in our downtown corridor so this district will
   47:58  kind of overlay um what it within within the riverfront District um so that'll be the location
   48:06  so um without further Ado we have some of the the board members of Mayor Arts commission here tonight that I think um
   48:14  one somebody's prepared to share about some more information so if they would come forward at this time if you welcome them to come forward this time council
   48:22  president yeah goad okay before this time to share more about May Arts Commission in this
   48:31  proposal welcome thank you thank you mayor I'm Kevin plank I'm a board member with the
   48:39  Marian Arts commission and um think the mayor described the initiative fairly well I was going to give you a little
   48:46  background about us um we've been in business for four years um just annually
   48:53  we were working off a $112,000 budget a year um handy out grants to local artists to where they'll turn around and purchase their art supplies and then
   49:02  sell their art as income in the community and then you multiply that 12,000 or a thousand that's about $1,000 a month that's our budget we were
   49:11  supporting local artists um last spring we held our first Mac Gala at the Kennedy Art Center we
   49:19  were able to raise TW uh $25,000 um with local artists and investors that position to get our
   49:27  vision and our mission outside of our board and outside of the Kennedy Arts Cent overflowing into the community into
   49:36  Maran um we're still able with that money to Grant local artists money to make income but we're also now ready to
   49:45  move outside the Kennedy Art Center get into the city itself maybe partner with um the historic district SOS and
   49:53  starting to uh bring the arts and culture back into the city um we're at Cross Roads we're all volunteer board
   50:01  members um we're talented we're invested we we'll do what we need to do but we can't as a board Carri out this mission
   50:10  in the partnership with the city we're hoping to hire a director um that would be able to write the grants partner with
   50:17  the city to write the grants um and kind of take that off the board a little bit we are prepared to provide ongoing
   50:26  Data Tracking Financial reports whatever your comfort level is with that reporting I would like Mike Hallstead to
   50:34  be able to come up and talk a little bit about the vision if that's acceptable yeah yeah go ahead
   50:43  okay I stuck up on him well thank you mayor and uh thank you Kevin and thank you counselors for uh listening to our
   50:52  request tonight I'm Mike holstead holstead Architects at 402 to South Washington Street artists have a unique way of
   51:00  finding places in the city and making them cool we all know that right the place to go uh in many cases those are
   51:09  underdeveloped or even abandoned areas of a city why is that because they're Starving Artists that's the only place they can afford to go right uh but
   51:19  eventually artists attracts artists attract other Development I've been very fortunate that happen in Fountain
   51:27  Square uh over the last 26 years um that's a small commercial historic
   51:35  district on the Southeast side of Indianapolis you're probably familiar with that area maybe I know Eric's been there a few times I've seen Eric down
   51:43  there uh but Fountain Square was underdeveloped for the long time it was a theater district in the late 1800s and uh that's the reason why I
   51:52  bought my building there was because it was affordable it was underdeveloped it was a historic District it was the perfect spot and it started to attract
   52:00  the artists because of that same reason they could afford to live there they could afford to open galleries before you know it we had artists living there
   52:08  we had galleries popping up we had first Friday nights uh we had we started to attract the younger people uh to the
   52:16  area of Fountain Square and then you know all of a sudden we've got coffee shops we've got restaurants then we start to get Apartments it was named a Cultural Arts
   52:25  District it was the first section of the cultural Trail in Indianapolis and then it was also the first section of the red
   52:32  line which is the rapid Area Transit uh system in Indianapolis so really fountains
   52:40  developed because of the artist and and all the other things that they brought to that community so I think that can also happen in
   52:47  Maran and it's happening all around us this the Cultural Arts District there's one that's growing in W bash so not
   52:55  Maran we have everything here in our downtown we have the river we have great hospital we have the YMCA we have the
   53:02  city and county buildings we have three universities nearby we have it all we have the commercial uh historic
   53:09  district uh we have beautiful buildings so I think uh we're ripe for this kind of funding uh so we would really
   53:18  appreciate uh and consider your consideration of this resolution to strengthen our Collective vision for
   53:25  Cultural Arts District in downtown Maran and I'd like to ask next uh don't Don
   53:32  doesn't want to okay I thought Don was going to get up and speak Don Artemis who's also on our board and is a local artist who's received grants and uh we
   53:41  we hope that we can continue to support local artists and Grassroots Arts organizations not just uh the Mac uh
   53:50  board so thank you thank you so much um and that that
   53:56  concludes our our presentation part of it thank you mayor any council members with questions
   54:05  councilman Klein thank you you mentioned Fountain Square he's not paying
   54:11  attention you mentioned Fountain Square get us duck Pin bowling down up here um
   54:19  but seriously folks is is I I got to admit first read this and I had second thoughts about the
   54:28  city funding nonprofits um that can be a whole long discussion
   54:35  and I don't intend that so to I basically have two questions and I don't care who answers
   54:43  them um first one without any adjectives without any adverbs what kind of real numbers and
   54:51  expectations and results can we expect from this that's my first question success of success of this partnership
   55:00  is the establishment of the Arts District okay and how following up on that then
   55:08  how how does that art dis I mean what you got to have some idea of what this art district is going to do and granted
   55:18  my scholarship was in performing so I'm but what can we expect so um just like
   55:27  with anything there's no there's no guarantees but the this puts us on the path to be successful in in getting the RS district and then after the ARs
   55:35  distri district is established there's a there's funding through the state and believe federally as well for us to be
   55:42  able to access so it's it's the simplest form without the arts district we don't
   55:49  qualify so we can't even try without it um but with the RS District we it opens us up to a a funding funing streams of
   55:57  money coming from state and federal federals that we've never had access to before okay my second question is is
   56:04  this a request that comes back every year uh yes this this would be a um a
   56:12  yearly partnership and on on that I think where you're going not the partnership is the request for money monetary partnership yeah I was saying
   56:20  partnership but that's that's what I mean I mean we can be partners and I can keep my money in my pocket this no this would be this will be a monetary investment for the city
   56:28  and I um from from my office specifically uh the ask on this will be a um like we do when we work with the
   56:36  other nonprofit We fund which would be the growth Council it would be um monthly uh payments that can be cut off
   56:44  with 30-day notices and um there will be um anytime anybody wants to report as Mr plank stated they're they're prepared to
   56:52  be able to share with any of us what they're doing and how they're working towards being successful in this uh Endeavor so not necessarily in
   57:01  perpetuity then um no this would have to be um asked for specifically by the council um every year okay and that was
   57:08  one of the things I wanted to say Mike in an answer to your sort of qualitative quantitative question is our goal is to
   57:16  hire an exe executive director who can help the city go out and get some of these grants and I would hope within the two or threee period that executive
   57:25  director is bringing enough money to pay their salaries and so that maybe after three years this this grant sunsets so
   57:33  you don't have to keep you know paying us in pretu or supporting us because that is the job of that executive director is to go out and find funding
   57:42  to to justify their position quite frankly
   57:49  yeah any other council members vice president oh just just just to follow can you turn your mic
   57:57  on just to follow up with you Mr Klein um I did have a conversation with uh the president of the mac and that was our
   58:06  discussion about uh eventually being self-funding and you know so this is
   58:12  this is starter money startup money so uh the payoff on this could be great for
   58:20  downtown so I'm excited for this and I you know I think everybody is not not you're not um but but I am certainly excited for
   58:29  this and the and this the great potential for Arts to explode in
   58:36  downtown Maran thank you vice president for I I'm I'm going
   58:42  to expand more on um Mike's question and and uh I appreciate what councilman
   58:50  uh David David said uh just wondering what the uh what the is going to be on
   58:57  what we are going to accomplish and what the the grants are going to bring in to the community and then just break down the uh and I've had discussions with the
   59:06  mayor um break down what the 50,000 is going to go for um yes so um 35,000 of that is um
   59:17  going towards assisting Arts commission and hiring a director and the other 15,000 is going towards um
   59:26  helping support grants for local artists to be um uh local artists in in Maring
   59:33  that's the total of 15 of 50,000 and on on helping local artists I mean me and you discussed this is this
   59:42  is this going to assist them getting grants for the artist or the 15,000 what's that for is it a match or the um
   59:51  you can you yeah I can I can answer that question the U so the 35,000 that goes for for an executive director that's not enough pay for an executive director so
   59:59  it's the max responsibility to match whatever it takes to get the right executive director but second the $15,000 that goes to artist those go
 1:00:08  directly to the artist to create exhibits or works of art like tashima Davis it's paid for a mural there have been some other artists we have a a new
 1:00:17  opening that's coming in late February through April with Samuel Levi Jones who's an internationally recognized artist who was born and raised in Maran
 1:00:26  went to Taylor University so it pays for the artist to do exhibits General we used to have this funding last year we
 1:00:35  didn't make the cut off to come to the council for the funding and so really we're going back to some funding we had before in the prior
 1:00:46  Administration any other council members maybe one or a couple question
 1:00:56  questions um you just mentioned prior funding previous
 1:01:03  administration why wasn't this position created sooner had
 1:01:10  previous funding I guess why why now why hadn't this been done in the past the
 1:01:16  previous funding was only the $15,000 for the grants to artists not the money for executive
 1:01:24  director yeah have you has this idea been brought up in the
 1:01:31  past or is this a brand new idea I'm I'm not sure as far as um if the idea was circulated in the previous
 1:01:38  administration but I approached this specific nonprofit to create this district and that's where we started the development of this IDE and the
 1:01:46  partnership so it might have been idea before I'm not sure but this was um a brain child that I wanted to develop in corresponding with the other two
 1:01:54  districts that we um established and one of the Cities so if you go on Indiana Arts commission's website you'll see all the cities that have them obviously W
 1:02:02  bash Fort wi Etc um fisers has a really good example of it there's this called the Nickel Plate District where they have um two of the three running
 1:02:11  together where they have I believe the Dora and the um the arts district and it's a really successful space and so I think that we're going to be unique
 1:02:19  where we have all three at the same time whether it's the Dora Riverfront district and the arts district all in the same spot that's uh in the same
 1:02:28  location quite frankly our organization keeps growing three two to three years
 1:02:34  ago we didn't have the bandwidth to about hiring an executive director we're very lucky that Wendy puffer really does
 1:02:42  so much work volunteer wise Chris Kennedy you know basically paid to have the Arts Center there so there's we're just now getting to the point where
 1:02:51  we're capable of uh asking for funding for an executive director with obviously the mayor's bigger idea and bigger
 1:02:59  picture uh we're just trying to fold into that now now that and we were quite frankly surprised when we had the first M Gallow we raised $25,000 I mean that
 1:03:08  was more than our annual budget in one event so I I think we've been encouraged lately just by our ability to do things
 1:03:18  that we weren't expecting we would be able to do so great thank you and mayor you'd mentioned other cities are
 1:03:26  that they have this but are other cities funding this position or helping fund it yeah one one city specifically down
 1:03:34  south is Madison Indiana which is a beautiful place if you ever get a chance to visit in that city um they pay they
 1:03:42  actually fund their Main Street and their um um art and I think they give them both 50,000 each so they pay over
 1:03:50  100,000 and if you go check out their downtown I mean it's an amazing experience so yes the all cities are
 1:03:58  involved um in this partnership and by partnership I mean financially and just for clarity the
 1:04:07  position would be interviewed hired and managed by a board the board correct
 1:04:14  okay so this the city this is really more of a grant we're we're not managing
 1:04:22  anything we're just saying here you go make something out of it correct okay just want to be clear I don't have any
 1:04:31  questions any other council members vice president for I I just what got one more comment is is there any way that the the
 1:04:38  the city Administration or or the council or anybody's going to have any oversight on this because this was this what there was an Arts commission before
 1:04:47  downtown and as a matter of fact I sat on it but um they had a small budget they didn't do any fundraisers and then
 1:04:56  all Z ended up doing is painting uh murals on the side of buildings but that never went before you know any uh
 1:05:04  commission or Council or board or they just decided that downtown and then they paid the artist some of it was volunteer
 1:05:11  but um for the materials and stuff I'm just wondering before we start painting the side of buildings and stuff again
 1:05:18  that if some of the buildings were owned by some of the people that were on the commission others were volunteered but
 1:05:26  before that happens are we going to see any oversight I mean there was some stuff that was done that were like you know what the heck you painting the side
 1:05:33  of the building for I mean you know because you decided to I mean right on Main Street or something but that's my only question I'd like to have some
 1:05:40  input in you know if we're going to put a stat great big statue in the middle of the city or something that what it is
 1:05:47  and what it's going to cost or to that effect well I was working on a design for councilman forite statue right as
 1:05:54  soon as you pull into the city um but no I think that I think I think that is a a fair um point that hasn't
 1:06:03  been brought up yet is if we're going to invest in this we should have some say so on the board and I'm sure that we can negotiate that with the Maring Arts commission where there's a city
 1:06:10  representative on on the board thank you yeah to expand a little bit on that
 1:06:18  then is this the only request we're going to get this year do we anticipate any other requests for the Arts
 1:06:26  commission or anything else U no nothing has came across my desk for that yet and if if it if it does we'll go we'll take
 1:06:33  it as it comes but as of now no this is the only thing great thank you any other council members council member Runner mayor
 1:06:42  would you consider maybe even Consulting maryan high school with their art department or Indiana Wesley and the Taylor with their art Department I'm
 1:06:51  getting a bobbing head back here that there would possibly be even more help there with the the universities and with
 1:06:58  the high school yes I think I think we can use all of our Partnerships um here locally to make this as successful as
 1:07:05  possible so from Marian High School to um all of our educational institutions around that have thriving our departments thank
 1:07:16  you any other council members great thank you mayor thank you
 1:07:24  for all the information if no one has any other questions then I would entertain a motion Mr President
 1:07:32  I'd like to make a motion that we pass additional appropriation 2025 onto second reading public hearing second
 1:07:43  second whoa I have to go back and hit the replay on that one I did hear don't get that very often thank
 1:07:51  you that's exciting you know everyone's jumping up so I had have a mo by councilman calill I'll go with
 1:07:58  councilwoman Divine I did that one your voice stood out on that one um any
 1:08:05  discussion real quickly I will say I strongly encourage if anyone um would like to speak come to the public hearing
 1:08:14  I would like to hear um what the public has to say about it so uh if this does pass then it'll go to public hearing at
 1:08:20  next reading Madam clerk roll call Kane I Marshall I for I I Brunner I Klein yes
 1:08:30  Divine yes Whitten yes cgill hi mckenley yes this additional appropriation two-
 1:08:39  or 1-22 will go to Second reading public hearing at the next council meeting moving into additional
 1:08:48  appropriation 2-202 first reading an ordinance appropriating certain funds in the amount of
 1:08:57  $2,200,000 from the general fund to boorder works for Capital
 1:09:04  Improvement mayor Morel has introduced a capital Improvement plan aimed at driving significant enhancements across
 1:09:11  the city this strategic initiative focuses on addressing critical Improvement needs identified within each
 1:09:18  City dep Department developed through close collaboration with department heads the plan ensures that allocated
 1:09:26  funds are utilized effectively and efficiently to achieve the city's goals and priorities speaking mayor Ronald
 1:09:34  Morell Jr thank you um this when we were working through our budget for 20 in preparation for this
 1:09:43  year 2025 one of the things that I um did was we our goal was to pass a balanc budget and one of the ways we got to that goal
 1:09:52  was to cut out what I thought was some kind of were some slush um baked in expenditures that when
 1:10:01  this year came we were going to come back and ask for that uh money and prove what we needed as opposed to things being baked in and the reason for this
 1:10:09  is one obviously passing the balance budget but for two because uh transparency we want the public and everyone to know and three we have a
 1:10:17  really good working relationship with the administration and the council that I know if our department has need something and truly need it and the city
 1:10:24  needs it we can come in and ask and we'll be able to stand on what it is that we need and share what it is um how we move forward so all that to say this
 1:10:33  is where the the birth of the capital Improvement plan came from and so what you'll see in this $2.2 million ask are
 1:10:42  the needs presented um from the from our departments our department heads now some of this stuff would have already
 1:10:50  been baked into a budget but we what we wanted to do is come and ask for it um individually so it can be shown what it
 1:10:58  is that we what we feel like we need U what we do need to be able to improve the city so we've had our uh our budget
 1:11:05  um hearings and questions but we are myself and our our team is uh I would say most of the team is here to be able to answer any questions but I I can
 1:11:13  probably do a pretty good job feeling any questions you have again thank you for hearing this Capital Improvement plan and we're looking forward to um doing what we can to ensure that the um
 1:11:23  the city is um using the funds we have to improve in the best way
 1:11:32  possible thank you mayor appreciate that we go a and open it up for questions from Council Members if
 1:11:41  any I know we've had a excuse me budget committee meeting on this uh we've had a lot of discussions we had two of them
 1:11:50  yeah um any remaining question questions from Council
 1:11:59  Members yeah go ahead councilman cgo just really nothing do with that this more of a statement um I want to give kudos to Chief Gilbert
 1:12:08  on the document that he sent out on the kind of the year and review and what all happened with the police department one of the most most professional things
 1:12:16  I've ever seen and as a councilman that gives me a lot of knowledge and as people ask me what's going on this I mean great job J Chief honestly and
 1:12:26  truly thank you very much it helps do my job better and the Lord knows I need all the help I get
 1:12:35  so I refrain from comment on that one any either council
 1:12:43  members okay if no one has anything I would entertain a
 1:12:50  motion Mr chairman I move that we pass additional appropriation number 2 2025
 1:12:59  to Second reading and public hearing motion by councilman Kane the second by councilman Klein any other
 1:13:08  discussion Madam clerk roll call Kane I
 1:13:13  Marshall I for I Brunner I Klein yes