OurWeek The Grant County Record in Grant County · Regular meeting · 2025-05-06 · full transcript https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CewPYmOuAIQ Exported Fri, 14 Aug 2026 22:38:01 GMT Source: YouTube automatic captions. Copied into the combined index from the marion-city-council-indexed report; same text, key prefixed by body. These transcripts are machine-generated. They garble proper nouns badly — company and personal names especially. Watch the recording before repeating any name, number, or quotation. The video is the record. ============================================================================== Indexed at https://ourweek.in/grant-county/reports/grant-county-record 2:08 Good evening and welcome to the Marian City Council meeting. It is May 6, 2025. It is 7 p.m. in the Marian City 2:16 Council chambers and I welcome all of you uh and welcome to the Marian City Hall. We're going to get this meeting started with and call this meeting to 2:24 order. But first, we would like to have Pastor Chris Williams from Lake View Wesleyan Church come to the podium and lead us in our opening prayer. Thank 2:33 you, Pastor Chris Williams. Let's pray together. God, we're grateful for this 2:40 opportunity that we can assemble in this room tonight to conduct the business of our city. God, we pray for all of these individuals who serve on this council. 2:50 We thank you for their willingness to be public servants, to invest of their time and their energy to provide leadership and guidance to the affairs of our city. 3:01 God, we're praying that you would guide and direct them in all of the decisions that they make and the way that they 3:08 provide leadership to Marion. God, we're asking that you would give them wisdom and discernment. We thank you that 3:16 wherever we lack wisdom, all we have to do is ask of you and you will give it to us. So we pray for wisdom, we pray for 3:23 discernment. We pray God that for all of the decisions that they make, that they will be founded in what is just and in 3:30 what is right and in what is true. And God, we pray that you would help them to establish every part of Marian to be a 3:38 place where people can thrive, where where we can experience all of the blessings that you have intended for us 3:45 to experience in this life. And God, for this meeting tonight, we ask for guidance, for direction, for blessing. 3:53 We ask for your hand of favor to rest upon all that is done in these chambers tonight. And for all that you do, God, we will give you the thanks and praise. 4:02 And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. 4:05 Amen. Thank you, Pastor Williams. And we would like to invite the mayor's youth council up to lead us in the pledge of 4:19 allegiance. You come all the way up to the front if you'd like. 4:32 surprise. Here you are. 4:35 Okay. So, if you all want to in unison put your hands over your heart and then start leading us in the pledge. 4:44 Flags right behind you. There you go. 4:46 You can turn around for the picture after. There you go. Go ahead 4:54 of the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with 5:01 liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much. You stay right here. Actually, council members, they want to grab a 5:08 quick picture with all of us. So, youth council members, shift over, squeeze in. 5:14 The rest of the council is going to get in here with you. 5:36 right here. You guys ready? One, two, three. 5:48 Thank you guys. Appreciate it. 5:56 I'm sure we'll be seeing members of that youth council many more times in the future. I hope. And we're going to move into roll call. So, madame deputy clerk, go for it. Kain here. Marshall here. 6:10 Ford here. Brunner here. Klene here. Divine here. Whitten here. Calgill here. 6:16 McKinley here. and moving into tonight's community spotlight. Let's get this loaded here. 6:32 And all right, sorry, I have to get my viewers at home set up, too. 6:39 Okay. So, today's tonight's community spotlight is going to spotlight the Justice Intermediate Oral Presentation 6:47 Contest winners. So, I would like to invite Ki Persinger and Heather Rmple up and then they're going to introduce 6:55 those members uh from the Justice Intermediate Contest winners. 7:12 Hi, I'm Heather Rumple. I'm the principal at Justice Intermediate School. And you actually are not here to hear from me. And so I just wanted to 7:19 highlight um Mrs. Parsinger and what she does for our building. Um she dreams big for kids. She dreams big for the 7:26 community. And it's really because of her that you're going to listen to our students here tonight. Thank you for allowing them to have a voice. Um, thank 7:34 you for that opportunity for them to come and practice some skills. They are not nervous at all to do this. Um, they're actually very nervous, but 7:42 they're going to do great. Um, but again, I'm going to turn the rest of this over to Mrs. Pinger because we wouldn't be here having this without her. And if I could just ask you 7:50 students to come on up and come up and stand behind me. My name is Kari Persinger and I'm the librarian at Justice Intermediate School and I am 7:58 beyond proud of the six women that you are about ready to meet. We had an oral competition among our students and these 8:08 are our winners. They have ideas about Marion that they would like to share with you and I have not at all had any 8:17 say in what they were saying. This is all their ideas, all their concepts, all their thinking, what they feel is 8:24 important to Marion. So without further ado, I'll have our fifth graders go first and then introduce yourself and go 8:31 first and then our sixth graders will go next. So my name is Kalia Drake and I 8:41 will state my reasons on how we can make our community a better place. 8:47 So, my name is Kalia Drake and my partner and I are both 11 years old and we have lived in Mary, Indiana our whole 8:54 lives. We think that kids should have a say and that our voice should be heard. 8:58 So, we are going to state our we're going to write a essay on how we think we can make our community a better place. I think that we should have way 9:07 better public bathrooms because most of our public bathrooms and Mary Indiana are mostly portaotties. if there are bathrooms that are not representable and 9:16 not a good environment for us to take care of our business and get our business done. How we can help animals 9:22 and our environment. Also, I think we should help with animal awareness. We should try to decrease deforestation and 9:30 all the wildfires and the natural disasters. We should have people that go around and clean all our woods and clean 9:37 our forest and fields, too. how we can make our school a better place. Now, here will be my paragraph on how I think 9:45 we should make how we can make our school a better place and better learning environment. I think we should have better school lunches. Secondly, I 9:53 would remodel all our bathrooms. Then, I think we should have better security to prevent fights and threats at Mary 10:01 Community Schools. Now, I'll pass it on to my partner, Ma. 10:07 So, I'm 10:09 [Applause] 10:12 Marvel. So, I'm Malaya Marvel and I'm going to tell you how we can change our community. You may think a little change is not a big change, but the children, 10:19 it's a bunch. I think we should have parks around our city and not just our school districts because some students don't have access to a learning 10:27 environment or to have a park outside of school. And we can have a bus that can pick up the kids who don't have a ride. 10:35 We can take them to the parks and there can be a time matter 3:00 to 6 o'clock 10:42 and there can't be a guard there can be a garden art station and then we can drop them off at 6:00. But if we do 10:52 build parks I think there can be security at the gates and by the fences that can prevent 80% of kidnappings in our community or neighborhood. 11:01 On the news, all you might see is kidnappings or a lot of lives have been taken. Only 20% of the victims made it alive or 11:09 diseased. I think we should have a group community where boys and girls can pick up trash and recycle. It can save the 11:17 earth. Also, another group we can have is for boys and girls to gather roses and hand them out to the nursing homes. 11:23 Some people may not have any family that can celebrate birthdays and holidays with, so that can potentially put a smile on their face. I know I will love 11:32 that. I know parents need something, too. I think we should have open up a big daycare facility that parents only 11:39 have to pay $20 amount. But to people that's less fortunate, we can have a conversation and we can take it down. 11:48 Just depends. But the first time you sign up, you can get a free meal from one of your favorite restaurants. Ask 11:54 yourself when was the last time you had when you had a fun day without a kid on your hip. Before I am done, I have something to say. Good, better, best. 12:05 Never let it rest till our community gets better and our community gets 12:16 best. Mr. McKinley, I just was told that people in the back cannot hear. So, if 12:24 they can actually sit down in your seat and work that microphone would probably really help. 12:37 Hello. I am Blakeley Conrad and I'd like to ask you something. Has anyone ever 12:44 told you that recycling is the best way to help our planet environmentally? Well, that might not be the case. 12:53 The process to recycle is industrial and it releases fossil fuels into the atmosphere which is damaging towards the 13:00 environment. Reusing does not require any industrial processes. You simply need to take something you're not using for its original purpose like a can of 13:09 beans and make it into something else like a like a pencil. 13:15 Our idea is to engage the people of Marian in the idea of reusing by having a reusing festival in some place like 13:23 Matter Park every year. Alice will give you the details. I'm Alice Leonard and I would like to first bring up the art contest. 13:34 This would be the main event of the festival where people can bring in art projects they made out of reused material. They'll enter in a contest and 13:43 can win a prize. Ruby, this would help the environment and the community by engaging them in reusing and it would 13:50 give them a chance to show off their talents and there could be a prize at the end to keep them 13:57 motivated. Now, you might be wondering, how can we have a source of food that kind of goes along with our cause? And 14:05 my answer is a produce potluck where people can bring in like homegrown vegetables or fruits or things they made 14:12 themselves with like special recipes and bring them to share with everyone. Ruby, this would help because it would give 14:20 them like a chance to share healthier foods they've grown themselves and it would be less wasteful. 14:32 Additionally, we can have a creativity stand where people can bring things that they don't want anymore, like that are 14:38 old or they can't find a use for, and other people can take them and hopefully turn them into something new and better. 14:47 This would help because it would give people a chance to get rid of old trashy items and give other people a chance to 14:56 use them without putting them in landfills. 15:01 On top of all this, um, a way we can raise money for the festival is, uh, a fundraiser where people can donate money. 15:14 Um, and for every dollar or so donated, they could plant something and the funds 15:21 would go to help uh, keep the festival going for years to come. And the extra funds can go to help downtown Marian. 15:33 As said above, the fundraiser could help keeping keep the fundraiser going the festival going for years to come. The 15:42 plantings would help motivate people to donate because it would give them an opportunity to plant 15:53 something. A way to bring popularity to the festival is by in by we might be 16:00 able to invite the uh Marian community school bands to come and play in during the festival. Um and we can also have an 16:09 exchange which is like um a more social version of the creativity stand but people could meet every other month to trade off old items. 16:20 bands would help because obviously it would let more parents or guardians come and it would also support more 16:27 entertainment and the exchange would just be a much more social way to 16:35 reuse. These are our reasons. These are our ways to make Mary in a better place. Although we don't 16:43 know if they will take place in the future, we sincerely hope you will consider them because Marion deserves 16:50 better 16:55 [Applause] 17:01 things. I just want to say thank you to the city council and the mayor and everyone here tonight for coming. but also if it wasn't for your contribution. 17:10 This all stemmed from an author we're having come to the Marian community schools to justice in our four elementaryaries and his premise of his 17:19 book is what can kids do to help make their community better and this is where it all stem from and I'm sure impressed 17:27 with our six students. So, thank you 17:34 [Applause] 17:42 Not getting away yet. 18:02 You guys want to hold this ready? 18:24 Good job. Good job. 18:45 So, those uh the photos will be posted on Facebook on my Councilman Facebook page as 18:56 well. I'll give a moment to clear out. All right. 19:04 Okay, you're all welcome to stay. You don't have to leave 19:14 yet. Lots of exciting stuff coming up. If you want to watch this later, it will be on our YouTube page and you can 19:21 show the rest of your family. All right. Unique opportunity. 19:28 had to take that and I'm so glad they were able to come up and do their presentation. So, moving on to the city employee spotlight. 19:37 Amber, where you at, Amber? Come on up, Amber. 19:51 All the way. Come on up. All the way. You get to stand right here or here. 19:54 Either side. Okay. Probably didn't know your face was gonna be plastered all over, did you? No. Facebook's a funny thing, right? You can find anything 20:02 there. So, um, okay. So, tonight's city um um city employee spotlight, Amber 20:09 Meer Smith, um was recommended by police chief David Gilbert. And I'm going to read what he gave me. What's on the 20:17 screen behind me is just a couple snippets from it. So, I'm going to read the full uh email that he sent me. And 20:25 it says, "Amber Messer Smith came to Mariam Police Department from the Grant County Prosecutor's Office a little over a year ago. The department was faced 20:34 with a serious concern regarding the critical IDX NCI NCIC systems manager position as Amber's predecessor left Maran Police Department with no notice. 20:45 The IDAX NCIC component of our operation is essential to our ability to fight crime, investigate serious matters, 20:52 locate missing or wanted persons and children, coordinate with other public safety professionals, etc. And so the 20:58 situation was serious and dire. Amber presented a stellar interview on short notice and was given the job of keeping this essential part of our operation 21:07 running even as she had to learn the job without a trainer and mentor with no transition period and very little 21:15 guidance. Despite her unfamiliar unfamiliarity, Amber took charge, learned quickly, and found solutions. In 21:23 the time since, Amber has maintained the program and made improvements that we now know, having gotten to know what she is made of could have been expected. 21:32 Evidence of Amber's excellent work ethic and commitment does not just reside in my and my staff's general observation. Marian Police Department 21:40 recently stood for a rigorous on-site inspection of our NCIC IDX processes, records, and uh compliance. A failing 21:49 grade would have cost us a license to this vital tool. But as a result of Amber's fantastic work in the last few months, Marian Police Department 21:56 received a superior grade on the inspection. So even though Amber's contribution is not as public and noticeable to the cit citizens as a 22:05 uniformed police officers might be, her role here is absolutely essential for our success. And she has made and she 22:12 has more than met the challenge. In addition to her work here, Amber has also been active in the community with coaching, youth activities, and in 4. 22:21 And for all those reasons, I'm proud to nominate Amber Meersmith for the city council's employee spotlight award. 22:27 Congratulations, Amber. Would you like to say anything? 22:35 Oh, would I? 22:37 I'll give you the mic. Well, that was very kind. Thank you. Um, I am very honored for this 22:44 recognition. Um, and to be a small part of the Maran Police Department is a huge honor for me and I want to thank my work 22:51 family that are here and my husband who's here also. That's it. I was told to keep it short. That's okay. Yeah, 22:59 there's enough talking to the rest of us. So, uh, no, we really appreciate you. I mean, um, I I know how important Idex NCIC is. Uh, and for those of you 23:08 that don't really know, it's it's how you find out if somebody's wanted or there's a missing person. And um, uh, you know, every time a police officer 23:15 runs a license plate or runs information, it's going through IDAX NCI NCIC their their databases that hold all 23:23 that information. So, uh, and yeah, there's a lot of strict compliance um, involved with that. And so, we're just 23:30 blessed to have you. We appreciate you, um, coming over from the prosecutor's office. We're happy to keep you here. 23:36 So, you can't leave now that we've spotlighted you. You're stuck with us. 23:40 So, all right. We appreciate it. Let's get a photo real quick. Um, whoever else you want 24:32 That was his plan. 24:46 Thank you so much. 24:59 And thank you to Chief Gilbert for those kind words and recommendation. Uh I say this about every meeting, it never gets 25:08 old to be able to highlight people in our community and our city employees. Okay, continue on. We're 25:17 going to go to the consent agenda for the approval of minutes, uh, consideration of pre-approved claims and consideration of claims. And I would 25:26 like to, uh, hand it over to Vice President Gary Foris. I have one, uh, claim that, uh, I'm going to withhold on 25:34 this uh, set of claims. Um the reason being is because it's uh for Kaledan construction on the warehouse at Matter 25:43 Park and they have just started it and they sent a full complete bill for total payment and inadvertently Randy 25:52 submitted it and he didn't really realize that he had completely submitted it for complete approval. The amount is 26:01 $95,000 which is the total amount and um we're going to have it encumbered with the uh controllers's office to hold it 26:08 until the job's completed. Um check number is 58348 and 26:15 uh I have spoke to the controller and the department head on this and I believe they're both uh okay with that. 26:23 Is that true Dana? 26:28 Okay, that's it. So, if you wouldn't mind making a formal motion for that, I would make a motion to uh withhold the 26:37 uh check the Kaledan construction check number 58348 for 95,000 on the Matter Park Storage building. 26:46 And would you mind adding that motion to approve the rest the minutes and the other pre-approved claims and claims omitting that claim? I would vote to 26:54 approve the remainder of the consideration of pre-approved claims and the claims and the minutes. Correct. Yes. Okay. 27:02 Just make sure it's the record. Okay. So, we do have a motion on the floor. 27:07 Second by Councilman Klene. Any discussion? Madame Deputy Clerk. Roll call. Kane. I. Marshall. I. Forice. I. 27:21 Brunner. I. Klene. Yes. Divine. Yes. Whitten. Yes. Calgill. Hi. McKinley. 27:29 Yes. And we're more than happy to consider that claim again when the work has been completed. And moving into committee 27:37 reports. Do we have any committee reports tonight? 27:42 Councilman Calgill. Um earlier tonight before the council meeting, we held a uh public safety committee um on Second 27:51 Street. Since we are shutting down First Street for the River Rock project, we 27:58 are going to make um Second Street will be actually from Branson to Adam. Well, 28:07 it's one way now heading east, but from Branson to Adams, we're going to completely reverse that. And that's 28:15 going to be a oneway heading west in that oneb block area. And the reason being is that the um police, fire, and 28:23 the ambulance, all of our public safety needed a route, quick route to the hospital and from the hospital. And 28:31 since we vacated First Street for the River Rock project, that's the reason we're making that from that one block, 28:38 we're reversing the one way the other way in order to give them a quick route to the hospital as well. And we had a 28:46 favorable recommendation to take it to the council. So, it'll be with the council here shortly. 28:53 Thank you for that. Any other committee reports? Councilman Klein? Um, this is from the airport board that met last 29:01 Thursday. Uh, we heard from four secondyear students at the aviation academy out there and all four are 29:08 seniors at either Marian High School or Miss Sino. These are high school kids, by the way. Keep that in mind. One is preparing for his instrument license 29:17 test and he just earned his professional drone license. Another just earned his drone license. A third is wrapping up 29:25 his solo flight time. And the fourth is doing an internship at Nearpace in Upland. Um, for me that's impressive. I 29:34 couldn't have done that in high school or college or now. 29:39 Um, and the new approach lighting is approved by the FAA, so it's in business. In the rebidding for the fuel 29:46 farm out there, there was one bid this time, which was one more than they got the first time. The bid for the jet A 29:53 fuel was 15% above the expected amount and the bid for the 100 octane lowled 30:00 was 9% above what was expected. So the airport's working through uh funding 30:07 possibilities with the FAA. Uh the FAA has funding for the jet A part, but the 30:14 funding for the 100 lowled uh has to be all local and they are grateful for the four they are still grateful for the 30:23 $400,000 in ARPA money from the city that's going to help with that. And that's what I have. And thank you. Thank 30:30 you, Councilman Klein. Any other committee reports? Councilwoman Divine. 30:36 Um so we've had a couple weeks since last meeting. So, I've had a couple of committee meetings. Um, the board of 30:42 public works met and opened bids at the special meeting on the 25th for the splash park. Um, there were three bids 30:51 received uh RL Turner uh for 1.2 million precision construction for 972,000 and Hamilton Hunter builders for 790,000. 31:03 Um they had um the board of public works also met yesterday and I believe was considering that those um bids. Did they 31:11 end up awarding one mayor or did they take it further under consideration? Okay. I was unable to I 31:18 was out of town. Um but that's I know was all that was on their agenda yesterday. 31:24 Um the utility board met um the middle of April 31:31 after our last meeting and had a very quick meeting. They gave updates on a variety of different projects um such as 31:40 the next level trails project um where they're at on the meter project. They have about 7,000 of those meters left. 31:47 They have five contractors in town right now that are working on those replacement of those meters. So, if your water meter has not been replaced yet, 31:55 know that that's coming up pretty quickly this summer. Um, at the time of that meeting, the Meridian tank was 32:02 almost done and they were going to begin filling. So, I would imagine that project is complete and filled. Um, then 32:10 uh there was some requests regarding adjustments to bills that went to committee. 32:16 Um and then they talked about the Earth Day celebration which was on the 24th with which if you were not able to attend it was actually a gorgeous day 32:25 and a really nice event. They had a lot of great individuals out there with a lot of um information regarding 32:32 environmental and nature and um I got to see a spotted owl and um I think a hawk. 32:39 It was very a very cool event. Uh finally, the public works committee met um and gave a favorable recommendation 32:48 on the ordinance we're going to be considering under new business. 32:54 Great. Thank you so much. Any other committee reports? 32:58 Yes, Councilman Brener. We uh were unable to have a park board meeting this past week because of a lack of u 33:07 attendees, but the uh park board wanted me to remind everybody that the first uh 33:14 uh major weekend uh coming up on Memorial Day weekend, the splash house will be open. So, we're ready to go with 33:21 the splash house and uh look forward to a wonderful summer. Uh having a good time out there. 33:30 Thank you, Councilman Brener. Any other committee reports? I will add uh I'm on the redevelopment commission and I'm excited 33:38 that uh myself and several members of the redevelopment commission. Uh we'll be traveling to the ICSC conference in Las Vegas, uh May 18th through the 20th. 33:48 I will not be here for the next council meeting. Um so, Vice President Ford Ice will be running the next meeting. Um, but we campaigned and continue to to say 33:57 that Marian needs to be on the map and we need to be talking to people to come to Marion to develop. So that's exactly what we're going there for for a 34:04 convention to talk to developers and people looking to invest and bring jobs. 34:10 And so we're going to get in front of those people at that convention in Las Vegas. And so um, that's kind of a big highlight for the redevelopment 34:18 commission right now. That's it for committee reports. We're going to move into unfinished business beginning with additional appropriation 34:27 3-2025 city of Maran opioid settlement unrestrict second reading and public hearing. 34:34 An ordinance appropriating $30,000 to the opioid settlement for the use of combating the opioid epidemic. The 34:41 additional appropriation of $30,000 will afford us the opportunity to hire a consultant that would equip the city of Marian with the knowledge and strategies 34:49 needed to effectively allocate settlement funds to use for program support and community capacity building. 34:55 Speaking city controller Dana Gold, welcome. Good evening. 35:05 So, I let's see. I think I was here a month ago um asking for additional appropriation um to release some funds 35:14 for the from the opioid settlement to hire a consultant. And so, I'm here to um if anyone has any questions. 35:24 Great. Thank you. Any council members with questions before we go to a public hearing? 35:33 Councilman Fordise. 35:35 Dana, I know we've talked about this in your office and u you gave me some information on it on this uh consultant. 35:44 Um I believe it's going to be a contract with the consultant. Yes, sir. And I believe that we went over and you said it was going to be a monthto monthth. 35:51 Yes. With that contractor. Yes. And what's the term on that contract if we decide to go with the Well, it's a 35:59 monthto month, but the contract will be signed every year. So, it's going to be longer than a year. It can be. 36:07 And the $30,000 covers what? A year? A year? Yes, sir. And what what length of time are they putting in on that year? 36:16 So, let's see. 36:18 Do you have contract terms or I do there is a whole contract, but um let me see. 36:26 And I want to say it's 20 hours a week if I can. remember right at least 20 hours a week. 36:38 Yes. And what what's going to be the qualifications for the for the contractor? 36:46 I mean for the consultant I mean do you have required I do. So some of the I have like job 36:54 responsibilities but some of the qualifications would be someone that is qualified to um any combination of 37:03 training and work experience which uh indicates you know possession of the knowledge skills uh that's needed and abilities um for the position. So 37:12 someone that's knowledgeable in opioids and substance abuse and treatments um knowledgeable about you know proposal 37:20 submission and grants um and to study and understand different programs around the city 37:28 and are we still going to form a committee um throughout the administration and the council that they're going to report to and then 37:36 you're going to bring us their ideas and what the money is supposedly going to be spent for that is part of the job 37:43 responsibility is to um form the committee full with stakeholders in the community kind of build that stakeholder 37:51 engagement and um they'll develop strate strategies and bring it to the committee and the committee can um review the strategies and work together with the 37:59 strategies. Do you have any ideas on how you're going to form the committee yet on that? I do not. When the when the consultant is on board and then the 38:07 consultant should be able to have ideas Okay, thank you. That's all the questions that I have. 38:17 Any other questions before we go to a public hearing? 38:22 All right, great. Thank you, Dana. And we're going to go ahead and open up for the public hearing. If you would like to 38:30 speak on this particular appropriation, you can make your way to the microphone. 38:42 I'm not seeing anyone move towards the microphone. So, we're going to close the 38:49 public hearing. Okay. Any other council members with questions, discussion, questions, 38:57 comment? Vice President Port Ice, I I would just like to be able to um be able to see the the applicants and the 39:05 qualifications and I mean this opioid money. Obviously um we need to uh address this opioid addiction within our community and um get some results of it. 39:18 But, you know, I I truly believe that we should have uh some say in in who the consultant's going to be and um you 39:26 know, what their qualifications are definitely going to be, whether it be opioid addiction and and how to stop that addiction. and uh whether they've 39:35 got some type of law enforcement uh background on how to combat opioids and dealers and the source of the opioids 39:44 and and different various aspects of us. 39:50 I mean, the $30,000 just for a consultant, it's it's hard for me to swallow when we could use that $30,000 to help combat the opioid 39:58 addiction and use in our community. I would think that with the administration and the council that most everybody has 40:05 enough knowledge and and uh experience in in some of these fields that we could maybe utilize that $30,000 40:14 to help with the opioid addiction and combating it. Thank you. 40:22 Controller vault. Would you mind coming back? 40:35 Hopefully you remember, but uh can you refresh all of our memory what the total opioid settlement is if you have that and the restricted versus unrestricted? 40:44 Um I don't have that with me. I didn't bring the whole packet. 40:50 [Music] 40:51 Um I know it's over a million dollars. 40:57 Um so um I have in my in that packet that I sent you guys I have um the city of Maron received a total of 41:07 336,462 I don't have a page number and then unrestricted is 842,8741 and so over a million unrestricted. 41:17 Yeah. So over a million and you're asking for essentially $2,500 a month for a consultant, $7,500 towards 41:26 um some other request within what their responsibility is 41:33 totaling up to 30,000. Right? So, you're wanting to us to appropriate 30,000 not because we're going to cut a $30,000 41:40 check, but to appropriate it now so that if we do need a consultant monthto month to month, we have that money available 41:48 to pay them. Correct. Right. Okay. Just wanted to clarify that council and the public. 41:54 Um it's just my opinion that you know over a million dollars and I I respect what Vice President Ford says. 42:03 um spending 10 years in law enforcement, I probably know decent amount of addiction and things that you see, but I have no clue how to administer over a 42:12 million dollars on how to attack the opioid epidemic when there's a lot of community stakeholders, a lot of organizations and 42:21 nonprofits that are really going to want that money. And I feel more comfortable hiring a professional that has done 42:27 this, administered this money, and there's accountability, right? It's not like they're just going to go make all the choices, but kind of a somebody 42:37 to spearhead that that has recommendations that maybe won't will think about things that we haven't thought about. Um because we don't know 42:44 what we don't know. And so I think this is a a great investment. Um, and as a reminder, the council and the 42:52 taxpayers, this money didn't come from you. It came from the pharmaceutical 42:59 companies. So, this money um, while it still needs to be spent wisely, this was part of a large settlement from those 43:06 pharmaceutical companies. Um, not necessarily, this didn't come out of tax dollars. So, I just want to remind everyone of that. So, yes, Councilman 43:14 Klein. Hi. Thank you. Um, I think I was out with CO when this came around the first time. So, if I'm asking redundant 43:22 questions, forgive me. What conversations will the consultant or the 43:28 city or have have they had with say Radiant Health or Marian Health to get some synergy going or anything? 43:40 We have not hired a consultant. I was waiting for the council. Would that be in the works? So that's in the works. 43:46 Absolutely. And Radiant Health and all other agencies are part of the stakeholders in our community. So yeah. 43:56 Yeah. Councilman Kaine. Thank you, Mr. 44:00 President. I appreciate your your comments and your words. I think I totally agree with that that 44:07 uh hiring a consultant that is an expert in the opioid crisis is definitely would 44:17 be a plus um to spend when we have a million dollars to spend a 44:23 uh pittance of $30,000. I don't think any of us sitting on this council, I don't want to sell 44:31 anybody short, but I don't think that we have the expertise to 44:38 manage and put forth programs to manage uh the million 44:45 dollars as far as education and and how to fight the opioid crisis. So, I I would agree with Mr. McKinley on that. I 44:54 also think that as this city council, I think we have to be aware of of our 45:01 position and that we are not part of the administration that uh we should leave 45:08 that totally up to you um with the legislative 45:15 body. Period. And we need to turn that over to your administration, Mayor. uh 45:23 on who you deem capable of managing uh the million dollars and hiring that person as a consultant. Thank you. 45:35 Just for procedural information, so when those recommendations are made, they're going to have to come back and ask for the appropriation. Is that correct? 45:48 from the restricted and unrestricted funds. This so when recommendations for 45:55 the consultant position no I'm sorry consultant when we decide hey we want to spend money here or use this they still 46:02 have to come back and ask or you still have to come back and ask for us to appropriate that for them to spend it where they where the committee decides 46:10 correct yes okay I just wanted to I knew that I just wanted to clarify that get that out so there is still a level of oversight um money just isn't going to 46:18 be spent they still have to come back to us. We will have a opportunity to know where this money is going to get spent, what the plan is before we appropriate that. Am I correct on that? Yes. Okay. 46:29 Just wanted to be sure of that. And I concur on Councilman um Kaine's, you know, perception of the 46:38 legislative body and executive body. So, I don't have the time, I don't know about anyone else to administer or 46:47 um select whoever this person is. So, I fully support this request and the administration pursuing that hire. Any 46:56 other council members questions? All right. If nothing else, I would entertain a motion. 47:07 Mr. President, you ready? Uh, I'd like to uh suspend the rules for the additional appropriation number 32025. 47:19 Second motion from Councilman Cowgill to suspend the rules. Second by Councilman Kaine. Any discussion? 47:29 Madame Deputy Clerk, roll call. Kain, I. Marshall, I. Forice, no. Brunner, I. 47:37 Klein, yes. Divine, yes. Whitten, yes. 47:41 Calgill, I. Mckenley, yes. Rules have been suspended. I would entertain another motion. Mr. President, I'd like 47:47 to now make a motion that we pass the additional appropriation 32025. 47:54 Second. Motion by Councilman Calgill, a second by Councilman Kaine. Any discussion? 48:02 Madame Deputy Clerk, roll call. Kain, I. Marshall, I. Forice. I. Brunner. I. 48:10 Klene, yes. Divine. Yes. Whitten. Yes. Calgill. Hi. Mckenley. Yes. 48:16 Additional appropriation 3-2025 has passed. Thank you, Controller Gulp. And moving into new business, general 48:24 ordinance 10-2025, vacation of portion of public way, first reading. 48:31 An ordinance vacating a portion of the alley in the 1700 block of West 6th Street. Vincent Msovich petitions to 48:38 vacate a portion of Geneva Avenue alleyway in Marian, Indiana, citing various reasons. The petitioner Vinc Vincent Msovvich is the owner of 48:46 property at 1718 West 6th Street, Marian, Indiana. Msvich is seeking to vacate alleyway adjacent to lots number 48:55 4-2029 and lot number 34 in Parkersburg edition. Two property owners have not yet consented. The reason for the alley 49:03 vacation is that the alleyway is unnecessary for access to adjacent land owners, emergency vehicles, or utilities. The city will no longer 49:11 maintain the area transferring maintenance responsibilities to the petitioner and the alleyway does not contribute to neighborhood growth or 49:18 public benefit. Speaking attorney Joe Certain, 49:32 welcome. Now it is I'm Joe Certain. Uh, I think probably most of you know who I am for better or worse. Um, I'm 49:41 representing Vincent Muscoitz, the petitioner here, who owns all but I 49:47 believe five lots in this uh area uh surrounding the alley that he seeks to 49:55 vacate. Um, it appears that uh the alley is has never been improved. uh is simply 50:03 bare land along with uh a strip of land adjacent to Geneva Avenue just east on 50:10 the east side of Geneva Avenue uh adjacent to the alleyway. What was now the alleyway and he's asking that all of 50:17 this be vacated uh because it is never been improved. there's no reason to keep an alleyway uh on the books and 50:27 therefore he has it be improved as he as he enhances the his ability to utilize the land on either side of the alleyway 50:36 which the current alleyway thank you I am here also with Randall 50:43 Miller uh who did the survey and the drawing and is most familiar with this uh area 50:50 great appreciate that uh now we have pardon me. We have been I just want to point out we have been to the uh traffic 50:57 commission uh last week and was this proposal was unanimously approved. 51:04 Thank you. And I know it was approved out of the committee as well. Question though, so those that are visual, so I 51:11 have this on the screen behind me, can you kind of guide us and tell us where exactly this alley is? It's a little hard little hard to tell where it is. 51:20 I'm not sure. Is it under the trees? A good portion of it is I believe north of the house. Uh like it would be north of the house. Yes. Like right back here? 51:30 Yes, that would be it. There's there's an alley there. 51:35 Supposed to be. Okay. Gotcha. It looks more like a forest, but it is an alley. 51:43 And there's no maintenance there. The city doesn't go back there. Nobody maintains it. Apparently not. just a 51:51 lost piece of property. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I'm looking at the right property there. So, 51:59 okay. Anything else you add before we open for questions? Uh, no sir. Great. Thank you. Any council members? 52:05 Councilman Klein? Yeah. Hi, Joe. Just out of idle curiosity, do we know why Messers Brown and Weir haven't agreed or 52:15 what have they said? Mr. really contacted all the surrounding property owners and Mr. Brown uh was 52:23 particularly concerned uh but he did not say why other than things were I don't 52:30 care go get into uh Mr. Weir did not specify 52:38 either and I I might point out that neither Mr. Brown nor Mr. where's access to their property is in any way inhibited. 52:51 Any other council members? 52:54 One other couple things. I know that um one of the questions we asked was about um uh access if there were any utilities 53:03 or utility easement and that those rights would be continued. So if there were any utilities back there, they would still have their easement access 53:11 rights to those. That is correct. And then um I know if you're looking at it, basically there's two sets of lots. The 53:18 front set where you can see the house and then there's a second set behind it in those trees on the other side of the the alley that's being proposed to be 53:26 vacated. Uh my understanding is all of the lots on the other side of the alley are Mr. um Mscovich. 53:35 Mscovich's um down to the very very last lot adjacent to Park Avenue, lot three 53:41 is owned by Robert Weir. So um so the other ones are for the front other than 53:48 that one lot on the very end. Um he owns on both sides of the alley. That is correct. So the alley where I'm moving 53:56 this mouse is in here somewhere. And then Vincent, you own the lots behind it as well. And that alley is just in the 54:05 middle of the lots that you own and your property butts up to the Cardinal Greenway. Yes. 54:13 Okay. Any other questions, council members? 54:19 Thank you. Appreciate you. Thank you. 54:26 All right. If there's no other questions, I would entertain a motion. 54:29 Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion that we pass goner ordinance 10 2025 onto a second reading public hearing. 54:37 Second. Motion by Councilman Calgill, second by Councilman Kaine. Any discussion? Is there any way we can get 54:45 these two gentlemen to uh come to the meeting or in the next two weeks give us a yes or no on what they're what they're wanting? 54:56 I would say they were notified. They were notified. But if any council member, I don't know what district this is, whatever, whoever's district this 55:04 is, you're welcome to go. Or if you're at large, you're welcome to go knock on their door and I'd say you're welcome to go have that discussion with them. And 55:13 yeah, the public hearing is in two weeks. So any council member is welcome to go talk to the neighbors and do their own investigation if you'd like. But 55:20 yeah, they they were notified. Thank you. Yep. 55:25 All right. So, we got a motion and any other discussion? I already had it. Yeah. 55:31 Madame Deputy Clerk, roll call. Kain, I. 55:35 Marshall, I. Ford. I. Runner. I. Klene, yes. Divine. Yes. Whitten. Yes. Calgill. 55:43 I. McKinley. Yes. Agenda ordinance 10-2025. We'll move on to a 55:50 second second reading. Public hearing at the next council meeting and to wrap up a couple announcements. Um 55:58 groundbreaking for the Buck Family Sports Complex is May 7th. That is tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. at Mod Park. Uh if you don't know much about it, go to the city website. It's pretty exciting. 56:09 Splash house opening day May 24th. And the NIA Track and Field National Championships, which is a huge deal, is 56:18 being hosted again by Indiana Western University May 21st through the 23rd. Uh the best of the best track and field athletes from the NIA will be in Marian. 56:28 Draws sometimes up to 20,000 people to Marian. Um I have the honor of being the announcer for it, so I always enjoy 56:37 doing it. But if it's nice, I highly recommend you come out and check it out. 56:41 Especially the last day where the the finals are. It's super exciting to watch these athletes. I'm not competing. I'm 56:48 just sitting in a booth talking. That's what I do. Well, uh citywide cleanup May 17th. The next one is district two. So 56:57 district two, Councilman Klein, I saw he's been posting about it. uh is May 17th, 9:00 am to 2 pm. Again, a 57:05 reminder, curbside for district 2, but the rest of the city can still drop off their items at the citywide maintenance. 57:12 Of course, some exemptions, tires, uh paint, furniture. I'm missing anything. 57:18 Refrigerators, appliances. Yeah. TVs. 57:26 Yeah. Anything super toxic. I will tell everyone that the last time I had some tires and I learned that this is I'm not 57:35 getting paid to say this, but Tire Barn will take your old tires for $5 a piece. 57:40 So, if you got a lot of tires you want to get rid of, Tire Barn will take them for five bucks a piece. So, get rid of those nasty tires in your backyard. And the last one, it's not on here. It's the 57:49 Air Strip Attack. I forgot to put it on there. Super exciting. They're now coming twice this year. If you've not been to it or don't know anything about 57:56 it, these souped up Lamborghinis and high-end sports cars come out to the airport and drag strip out and it's the 58:05 funnest thing. If you've never seen a car go over 200 some miles an hour, you should go out. Again, it's May 17th or the 18th. So, anyone that says there's 58:13 nothing going on at Marian, um this is just the tip of the iceberg. So, um, they've now decided the Indie Airship 58:22 attack to come twice and they used to come just in August. Now they're coming now and again back in August. World record was set in May in Indiana. We're 58:30 on the map. So that's it for announcements. Any other announcements? 58:34 Council members. I take a motion to adjourn. 58:40 Second. I got a motion by Councilman Councilman Klein, a second by Councilman 58:47 Kaine. Any discussion? Madame Deputy Clerk, roll call. Kain, hi. Marshall, hi. Ford, hi. Runner, I. Klene, yes. 58:56 Divine. Yes. Whitten. Yes. Calgill. Hi. 58:59 McKinley. Yes. Meetings adjourned. Thank you everyone.