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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-02-14 MINUTES OF COUNCIL February 14, 2023 The Batesville City Council met in regular session on February 14, 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; Brittany Bennett, Tommy Bryant, Scott Fredricks, Julie Hinkle, Paige Hubbard, Fred Krug, and Doug Matthew. Also present were the Admin Asst. Jennifer Corter and City Attorney Tim Meitzen. Councilmember Chris Poole and City Clerk Denise Johnston were absent. Councilmember Hubbard moved to approve the minutes from the previous meeting. Councilmember Hinkle seconded and all voted for. Councilmember Hinkle moved to approve the prepared agenda as amended. Councilmember Hubbard seconded and all voted for. CITIZENS COMMENTS None UNFINISHED BUSINESS None NEW BUSINESS A) Police Department Report Police Chief Alan Cockrill addressed the council with his monthly department report. Chief Cockrill reported that accidents are down, and his department made 9 arrests in January. Chief Cockrill spoke with the representative from Applied Concepts and the new radar signs will be shipped by the end of the month. Someone will then come and do onsite training. Chief Cockrill also reported that a donation from Operation Underground Railroad, a nonprofit organization, specializing in human trafficking made roughly a thirteen-thousand-dollar donation to the department this month. This donation was for the purchase of equipment that will allow investigators to extract evidence from a suspects’ phone. B) ENGINEER’S REPORT City Engineer Damon Johnson addressed the council with his monthly report. Mr. Johnson reported that we had excess of five inches of rain last week with only minor problems. The ponds at Wastewater are full but there are no other significant issues. The Water Treatment plant project is ready for the 60% plan review. Mr. Johnson reminded the council that he is working with the contractors to ensure that we get the best value for the price. He also reported on Contract Section III. All pipes have been installed and there is still quite a bit of work left. The two tunnels are near completion and there are two more to be done under the railroad. Both of these were delayed due to waiting on a right of entry from the railroad. Mr. Johnson also wanted to note that some of the way-finding signs in town are needing repair. He has been working with some different sign companies but the availability of materials is making the process very slow. C) FIRE DEPARTMENT REPORT Mayor Elumbaugh introduced Mr. Mark McCollum as the new Fire Chief. Chief McCollum has worked for Batesville Fire Department for more than 20 years and th was chosen to fill the vacancy at the January 10 Council meeting. Mayor Elumbaugh commented that Chief McCollum has already “hit the ground running”. Chief McCollum thanked the Council for the opportunity to serve in this capacity. He reported the department had 164 Training hours, 50 runs (fire, rescue, assist, false alarms, etc.) and did 100 fire inspections for the month of January. They also helped out with the boat dock last week during the excessive amount of rain. He reported the rescue truck was down for a few days but is back in service now. Work is still being done to repair the ice damage from last month’s ice storm. Most of the damages have been minimal compared to first thoughts. The building’s sprinkler system is about the only thing still needing repaired. Councilmember Fredricks asked Chief McCollum if the number of runs for last month was about normal for the department. Chief McCollum said yes, that is a pretty typical number of runs for a month. D) CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE FOR THE APPROVAL OF AN APPLICATION FOR PRIVATE CLUB PERMIT FOR BATESVILLE FINE DINING, INC. D/B/A BRUNO’S PIZZARIA Councilmember Bryant introduced an ordinance for the approval of an application for private club permit for Batesville Fine dining, Inc. d/b/a/ Bruno’s Pizzaria. Councilmember Matthews moved to read the ordinance by title only. Councilmember Bennett seconded and the electronic roll call count was 7 for and 0 against. Mr. Meitzen read the ordinance by title only. Councilmember Fredricks made a motion to further suspend the rules and waive the second and third readings. Councilmember Bennett seconded and the electronic roll call was 7 for and 0 against. Councilmember Bryant moved to adopt the ordinance and Councilmember Matthews seconded. The electronic roll call count was 7 for and 0 against. The ordinance was given #2023-02-01. Mr. Meitzen read the emergency clause. Councilmember Bryant moved to adopt the emergency clause. Councilmember Bennett seconded and the electronic roll call count was 7 for and 0 against. E) CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND THE BATESVILLE ZONING DISTRICTS MAP; AND OTHER PURPOSES Councilmember Bryant introduced an ordinance to amend the Batesville Zoning Districts Map to rezone part of Lot 1 and part of Lot 25 of the Timbers Subdivision from R1 to C1. Councilmember Matthews moved to read the ordinance by title only. Councilmember Bryant seconded and the electronic roll call was 7 for and 0 against. Mr. Meitzen read the ordinance by title only. Councilmember Fredricks moved to further suspend the rules and waive the second and third readings. Councilmember Bryant seconded and the electronic roll call count was 7 for and 0 against. Councilmember Bryant moved to adopt the ordinance and Councilmember Fredricks seconded. The electronic roll call was 7 for and 0 against. The ordinance was given #2023-02-02. F) MS. CRYSTAL JOHNSON WITH A QUARTERLY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND A&P REPORT Ms. Crystal Johnson addressed the council with quarterly Economic Development and A&P reports. She began with the Economic Development and updated on Business and Industrial Development projects. She discussed available housing and land, infrastructure and lack of incentives as being recruitment challenges but said that workforce training is where we are strongest. At this time the majority of the work is spent on expansions of existing businesses and industry. She discussed the short, mid and long-term goals that are currently in progress, and reported on restaurant and retail development projects that are in the works and several more that are in the planning stages. Moving on to the A&P report, Ms. Johnson said the Batesville Area Chamber now has a new website that has integrated not only the Chamber’s information but links to Economic Development Alliance, Experience Independence and IMPACT Independence County. This helps website visitors to navigate easily between each. She said the A& P Commission graciously afforded the Chamber with Placer.ai, which is a location intelligence and foot traffic data software. This tool has been a great help in analyzing statists of things such as visits to the website, marketing, influencer marketing and lodging tax collection trends. She was very excited to report that 2022 had more than 8,000 more hotel stays than 2021. Mayor Elumbaugh thanked Ms. Johnson for the job she and her team are doing and how they are utilizing this tool to the fullest. G) FINANCIAL REPORT The council was given a copy of the January 2023 financial report for review. MAYOR COMMENTS Mayor Elumbaugh reminded the council that due to a scheduling conflict the thth February 28 meeting was canceled and the next meeting would be on March 14. Mayor Elumbaugh said he would be at the National League of Cities conference the th week of March 28 so he would like to cancel that meeting as well. Councilmember Bryant made a motion to cancel the second in March. Councilmember Fredricks seconded and all voted for. Mayor Elumbaugh said that according to Sanitation Supervisor Jason Jones, the new front loader is in and seems to be extremely efficient. The new grapple truck should be about 30 days out, the Beast mulcher will be coming in soon and they have a new side arm on order. Steel for the new shop office building was delivered this week and the steel for the maintenance building will be arriving soon. LIAISON REPORTS None COUNCIL COMMENTS None AJOURNEMENT There being no further business, Councilmember Fredricks moved that the meeting be adjourned. Councilmember Hinkle seconded and all voted for. The meeting was adjourned at 6:13 p.m. RICK ELUMBAUGH, MAYOR JENNIFER CORTER, ADMIN ASSISTANT