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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-01-29 MINUTES OF COUNCIL JANUARY 29, 2019 The Batesville City Council met in regular session on January 29th at 5:30 pm at the Municipal Building. Mayor Rick Elumbaugh presided over the meeting. Utility Office Manager Nick Baxter gave the invocation. Upon roll call, the following Councilmembers answered present; Tommy Bryant, Scott Fredricks, Julie Hinkle, Paige Hubbard, Fred Krug, Doug Matthews and Chris Poole. Also present were the City Clerk Denise Johnston and City Attorney Tim Meitzen. Councilmember Ronda Bryant was absent. Councilmember T. Bryant moved to approve the minutes from the previous meeting. Councilmember Hinkle seconded and all voted for. Councilmember T. Bryant moved to approve the prepared agenda. Councilmember Hinkle seconded and all voted for. CITIZENS COMMENTS None UNFINISHED BUSINESS A) THIRD AND FINAL READING OF AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND THE RESIDENTIAL CURBSIDE WASTE PICKUP ORDINANCE Mayor Elumbaugh said this is the third and final reading for an ordinance to amend ordinance number 90-10-01 regarding residential curbside waste pickup. Councilmember T. Bryant moved to read the ordinance by title only. Councilmember Fredricks seconded and the electronic roll call count was 8 for and 0 against. Mr. Meitzen read the ordinance by title only. Mayor Elumbaugh opened the floor for discussion. Councilmember Matthews said he was concerned about penalizing citizens and charging fees for too many bags of trash. He said maybe we should offer multiple sizes to accommodate households trash needs. Dr. Matthews was told that the ordinance being considered only addressed procedures on where and how to place you trash container and when the container should be placed and removed from the property. This ordinance is to set up good procedures and is not meant to be restrictive. Although the ordinance does assess a fine for being in violation of the requirements, the City is going to give the citizens ample time to adjust to the new containers and will only asses fines to habitual offenders. Councilmember T. Bryant moved to adopt the ordinance. Councilmember Fredricks seconded and the electronic vote was 7 for and 0 against. The ordinance was given #2019-01-03. NEW BUSINESS A) PRESENTATION FROM THE BATESVILLE MONTESSORI SCHOOL Ms. Monica St. John representing the Batesville Montessori School addressed the council regarding the schools benefit Glow Run last December. Ms. St. John said they had 320 participants for the run and being their first event, she was very pleased with the turnout. She thanked the City for allowing the run to go through Riverside Park with the beautiful Christmas lights and also thanked the fire department, police department and Johnny Abbott and his crew for making the run a complete success. Ms. St. John presented the Mayor with a check for$1,000.00 to be used the best way the Mayor saw fit. Mayor Elumbaugh thanked Ms. St. John for the donation and said he hoped they would make the event an annual run and he would be sure to participate next year. B) HEAR A REPORT FROM THE SALARY COMMITTEE Committee Chairman Tommy Bryant said the Salary Committee, consisting of himself, Councilmembers Paige Hubbard and Julie Hinkle met last week to consider salary increases for the City's elected officials, Mayor, City Clerk/Treasurer and City Attorney. Mr. Bryant said it had been two years since the officials have had a pay increase. He said with the help of the Municipal League's Salary Survey Report, one of their observations was that very few cities with a population over 10,000 had a Clerk/Treasurer position. Larger cities have a City Clerk with an addition position of a Finance Director. He noted that our City Clerk also serves as Treasurer. That being said, he said our officials are in line with similar salaries. Mr. Bryant said the committee was recommended the following; Mayor-$75,000.00, City Clerk/Treasurer-$58,000.00 and City Attorney-$35,000.00. C) CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND ORDINANCE NO. 2017-03-01 ESTABLISHING THE ANNUAL SALARIES FOR ELECTED OFFICIALS Councilmember T. Bryant introduced an ordinance to amend ordinance No. 2017- 03-01 to establish the annual salaries for the elected officials. The salaries being previously recommended and discussed, Councilmember T. Bryant moved the ordinance be read by title only. Councilmember Poole seconded and the electronic roll call count was 7 for and 0 against. Mr. Meitzen read the ordinance by title only. Councilmember T. Bryant moved to further suspend the rules and waive the second and third readings. Councilmember Hinkle seconded and the electronic roll count was 7 for and 0 against. Councilmember T. Bryant moved to adopt the ordinance and Councilmember Hinkle seconded. The electronic roll call count was 7 for and 0 against. The ordinance was given #2019-01-04. Mr. Meitzen read the emergency clause and Councilmember T. Bryant moved to adopt. Councilmember Fredricks seconded and the electronic roll call count was 7 for and 0 against. MAYOR COMMENTS Mayor Elumbaugh asked Utility Billing Manager Nick Baxter to address the council regarding a requested water meter outside the city limits. Mr. Baxter said Ms. Katherine S. Crawford has requested a water meter at 468 Dry Run Circle. Ms. Crawford has signed a letter to petition to be annexed if her property ever becomes contiguous to Batesville's city limits. Councilmember T. Bryant moved to approve the water meter. Councilmember Poole seconded and all voted for. Mayor Elumbaugh then asked Mr. Johnny Abbott to address the council regarding last years Christmas lights. Mr. Abbott said every year the Christmas lights are visited by thousands of people and 2018 was no exception. 43,700 cars making for approximately 174,000 people went through Riverside Park to look at the City's light display. Mr. Abbott said the display has grown to approximately 1.5 million lights. 19 businesses contributed $18,925.00 for the purchase of new individual scenes that now total 85. The new train that the council approved earlier this year brought in $23,826.00. With the train rides being $5.00 per person, over 4,700 people took a ride through the park on the train. Other revenues include $25,410.00 in drive-by donations and $5,110.00 in concessions consisting of hot chocolate and popcorn. Mr. Abbott said even factoring in 9 bad weather days, the Christmas lights were a great success. The Mayor said he has a scheduling conflict with the next council meeting. He asked if moving the February 12th meeting to Monday the 11th would fit everyone's schedule. Councilmember Fredricks moved to move the meeting from February 12th to the 11th. Councilmember T. Bryant seconded and all voted for. Mayor Elumbaugh asked the council to look at their calendars to schedule a council retreat. The council decided on February 28th from 6-9 pm at the Bryant farm located north of town. The Mayor said his Mayor's Meetings were starting back up after the winter break. The first meeting will be February 7t" at The Best Dam Steakhouse, formally Josie's, with Beth Christian, the restaurants new owner. The Mayor reminded the council that the meetings are the first Thursday's of the month at 5:30 pm and said he already has some great speakers scheduled for several of the meetings. LIAISON REPORTS Councilmember T. Bryant said the A&P Commission met and will have a recommendation soon to fill a vacancy on the commission. COUNCIL COMMENTS Councilmember Hinkle said she received a request for a street light for the city block including 103 E. Cherry. Mayor Elumbaugh said he would have City Engineer Damon Johnson look at the location and see if it fell within the city's requirements for placing street lights. ADJOURNMENT There being no more business, Councilmember Matthews moved that the meeting be adjourned. Councilmember T. Bryant seconded and all voted for. RICK ELUMBAUGH, MAYOR DENISE M. JOHNSTON, CITY CLERK