Town Council

Rocky Ripple Town Council Meeting May 9, 2023 Rocky Ripple Town Board Chair, Mandy Redmond, called the meeting to order at 7:33 pm. Town board members Megan Hulland and Randy Sanders were present. Julie Smith, clerk treasurer, and Mike Kiefer, town marshal were also present. Welcome Community! Town board chair welcomed and thanked those who were present at town hall as well as those who are joining us for tonight’s meeting via Zoom. Clerk Treasurer Reports Minutes – April minutes were presented. Randy made a motion to accept the minutes, Megan seconded. All were in favor, motion unanimously passed. Treasurer Report for April 2023 – In addition to routine expenses, we paid an invoice for AED batteries and finally straightened out the Town Web bill. The new snow plow truck was delivered so we have officially used up all of our ARPA funds. Town marshal anticipates another $500+ for outfitting the truck with a salt spreader, lights, and decals. Ending bank balance for 04/30/2023 was $152,114.44. Megan motioned to accept the Treasurer’s report and Randy seconded the motion. All were in favor, motion unanimously passed. ARPA Funds Annual Report – Submitted. Mowing – Parks have already been mowed a few times. Property tax bill for 4900 Riverview – Inquired about tax bill received for tax exempt property. The assessor’s office investigated and agreed that the bill was created in error. No taxes owed. Resolution for CCMG town representative – Signed by all board members and attested by clerk treasurer. Old Business Rocky Ripple Flood Protection: DPW Updates, ILA; town hall brainstorming sessions: Floodwall Poll Fact Sheet Committee – Mandy met with Shannon Killian on May 1st. DPW is still working on the designs, tweaking details. DPW will not be sharing 100% final design until the Northside Floodwall is FEMA accredited. DPW submitted their response on March 31st. FEMA has 90 days to accept or come back with more questions. Once accepted by FEMA, there is a 90 day public comment period prior to issuing revised flood plain maps. The rationale for placing the Rocky Ripple floodwall design completion on hold is that they would like to eliminate having to go back and redo anything on our project so they trying to learn from what needed to be redone on the Northside Floodwall project in order for it to be accredited. November 2022 Rocky Ripple floodwall drawings have been updated and corrected. The board has not seen them, but Shannon will post them on DPW’s floodwall project website. No FAQ’s page has been posted by DPW either. Work has not stopped. Appraisals are still going on. Appraisals are valid for 6 months. The appraisals are required to be completed in order to develop the final cost estimates for the project. Jim Polito has posted the FEMA letter for the Northside/Warfleigh floodwall on NextDoor for anyone that wants to review the specifics. DPW has not completed their review of the revised interlocal agreement submitted by the Rocky Ripple Town Council. Per DPW, their legal counsel is spread thin, and our Interlocal Agreement is not priority at this time. Best case scenario is that FEMA will approve the Northside Floodwall project by end of year and can get back to working to getting our designs to 100%. Mike Massonne is now working part-time. Technical team is still working on finalizing design details. No interior drainage project update. The majority of the town board voted to move forward with this project in 2022 to receive the final project design and a final draft of the interlocal agreement so that an informed vote on proceeding with the floodwall could be made. It is now a year later and we have not yet received this information. DPW is prioritizing appraisals of land with structures. After they are done, then land with no structures will be appraised. They anticipate being done with appraisals by the end of July. Two town hall appraisals were received. One of the appraisals compared the town hall to other residential properties along the river. This was the higher of the two appraisals. The other appraisal compared the town hall to other businesses on the northside. Appraisals came in at $320,000 and $295,000 respectively. The town hall is 5 lots. At least two different companies are doing appraisals. No clear understanding of what the owner will receive as payment for their home. The homes designated for demolition will be included in Phase 3 of the CEG STEP (Septic Tank Elimination) project. Acquisition of homes will not take place until there is a signed ILA in place. The board will send a letter to DPW requesting information since it has been 12 months and people with homes slated for demolition have been in a state of limbo and want answers. There is no timeline at this point. Until the Northside Floodwall project is accredited, the board expects no new developments. John Byrne received a name from Rick Hohlt for legal representation if we were interested. A discussion ensued as to what legal representation would do for the town at this point. Mandy suggested an offline meeting to discuss further and there was interest among those present. No meeting to discuss the idea of moving the town hall to Hohlt Park has been scheduled with those who live around Hohlt Park because of the uncertainty of the project. The board will send out an update regarding the results of the survey about the location of the new town hall to those who participated. They will explain the reasons for no further discussion at this time. Our website is a great resource for updates if currently not subscribed to email blasts from the Town Board. CEG STEP Program Update – Work has begun on Phase 1. Some folks have been contacted, others have not been but CEG says they are on track with the project. The board discussed the CEG right of ways as required by the STEP project and all were in agreement in giving permission to do that. It involves right of ways in grassy areas but also in the middle of the road which they will repair. Redesign of town website (Town Web) – The board has a list of items they want redesigned and are ready to submit it to Town Web. The previous rental form for the pavilion listed a price for half day and a price for all day. Randy suggested we have one price, $75, plus $50 deposit and they can have it for however long they desire. Randy added ‘no non-biodegradable confetti’ to both the town hall and pavilion rental form. The town hall rental form fees stayed the same. They select number of hours at $30/hour, deposit amount of $50, so it is very clear what they owe. Randy can have the forms ready whenever we want them added to our website. Payment system is still being worked on. Randy will write up clear instructions. Discussed having some form of signage put up so that other people who are at the park know pavilion is rented. Possibly even a QR code that would link them to calendar. Trash policy will stay the same, which is trash in/trash out. $75 tent fee. Rental forms once filled out online and submitted will be sent to our individual .gov emails. We will soon be able to access the email subscriber list on Town Web. Mandy will forward links, photos, edits, and everything all at once to Town Web. Megan inquired with Butler Tarkington Neighborhood Association, and they utilize WIX which costs them $380 a year. Definitely something to look into if Town Web becomes too expensive for what they provide us. Town Hall Maintenance/Repairs – The air conditioner now works. The town manager took the unit apart to knock the bearings loose since it had seized up. We might have more problems later this summer. Appraisals of town hall was very detailed with inside and outside photos and other information. American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Funds – New Truck/Snowplow Update – Used all the remaining funds with the acquisition of the new truck. We can now sell old truck but need to put notice in newspaper 15 days prior to auction. Mid-June is the earliest we would do this based on everyone’s availability. Does it make sense to wait and sell in the fall? Will determine date later but in the meantime, Randy will gather needed information for notice and auction of old truck. Whether or not to sell tractor and bushhog will be discussed later. Randy made a motion to budget up to $600 to buy decals, lights, and mount for salt spreader. Megan seconded. All in favor, motion passed. INDOT ADA and Title 6 Compliance Plan – No discussion. Town Manager/Marshal’s Report - 2023 Road Paving Grant Application – No reports. Paving grant done. Will request sealed bids and open at next month’s meeting. Will need to be more selective this year. Bids for this grant need to be very detailed and break out costs. Tree limb down between Patterson and Riverview on 51st Street. Mayor’s Action Line was called, but they said it was not a DPW issue. Randy made a motion to spend up to $300 for tree removal on 51st Street. Megan seconded. All in favor, motion passed. Randy mentioned that other cities and towns have ordinances that deal with leaning/tilting trees, and we might want to consider doing the same. We have an ordinance regarding dead trees, but not for trees that are dangerously leaning into the street. Insurance is done for another year. Cleared up the accident that was not related to us. Community Association Updates – Plant exchange on Saturday, May 13th. Elections will be held at the next meeting for Vice President and Treasurer. The secretary position is still open. New Business Clerk Treasurer position – Indiana Code 36-5-6-9 deals with the absence of an elected clerk treasurer. The town has a few options. You can hire somebody. One of the board members can take over the duties. Another town’s clerk treasurer could assist and help with the duties. A topic for further discussion. Frank’s Livery board meeting – Megan attended last week. Pretty large board with many environmental nonprofit groups represented. Soft launch happened a week ago. Full launch in early June. Rocky Ripple is a put-in location for the shorter trip. Art Center to Rocky Ripple is one route with the other route being longer and takes out at the Indy Parks Alliance building. Another meeting scheduled for June. Then every other month after that with the season ending in November. Community Concerns Randy made a motion to adjourn, Megan seconded. All in favor. Meeting adjourned at 9:34 pm. Respectfully submitted, Julie Smith