Town Council

Rocky Ripple Town Council Meeting September 12, 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, Mike Kiefer, town marshal, and Sarah Guffey, town attorney, via Zoom, 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. Special welcome to Michael Lofton, Butler University, who will be joining us tonight. Clerk Treasurer Reports Minutes – August minutes were presented, Randy made a motion to accept the minutes, Megan seconded. All were in favor, motion unanimously passed. Treasurer Report for August 2023 – Other than routine expenses, we had park toilet, mowing, town counsel fees, Zoom annual purchase invoices submitted for payment. INDOT funds for the CCMG paving grant have been deposited. Ending bank balance for 08/31/2023 was $132,288.11. Megan motioned to accept the Treasurer’s report and Randy seconded the motion. All were in favor, motion unanimously passed. Clerk Treasurer inquired with Paychex if they could reduce payroll fees and they offered a 35% reduction in base fee. 2024 Town of Rocky Ripple Budget – Reviewed the proposed budget. Randy made a motion to accept the 2024 budget as presented and to proceed with the next steps in Gateway. Megan seconded. All were in favor, motion unanimously passed. Adoption of the budget will occur during the October 10th monthly town board meeting. Old Business Speeding Cars in Rocky Ripple/Related Safety Concerns – Mandy did some research and priced some speed humps. They are not that expensive ($2500 for 4 humps and 8 signs) and are removable and come with a lifetime guarantee. Sarah said the Town of Rocky Ripple is within their rights to go forward if they want to install speed humps. Megan asked if the town would have any liability if a car incurred damages. Sarah said City of Indianapolis would do a traffic study to justify need for speed humps. Her opinion is that the benefits of installing speed humps would outweigh any liability issues. Randy suggested we check with our insurance. Would like to ask Butler University if they have extra speed humps that we could use. Due to the sewer project going on, it was decided to postpone this endeavor until spring of 2024. Community Association Updates – RR Festival, Downed tree in park – Friday set up. Tape is available for those who do not want cars parking on their property. Rachel ran through her checklist and feels good with what still needs to be done. Gravel has been dumped in front of the playground to be spread around. The gravel needs to stay lower than the roadway. There is another downed split tree in the park. The Rocky Ripple Town Board wants to take the whole area down because that clump of trees has been a constant cause of concerns with the numbers of branches/limbs that have dropped over the last two years. The RRTB would be more willing to contribute towards this effort versus only performing work when limbs fall. Quotes are forthcoming. Discussion to continue. Halloween parade is on, followed by a tentative bonfire at Town Hall. Rocky Ripple Flood Protection: DPW Updates, ILA – Mandy talked with both Brandon Herget and Shannon Killion and asked if there were any updates. No accreditation yet from FEMA on the Indianapolis North Flood Damage Reduction Project. The City of Indianapolis sent in another set of responses to FEMA questions at the end of June. Stay tuned. Until that project is accredited, DPW is in a holding pattern on our project. Flood maps will be finalized after FEMA accreditation, followed by public notification of the revised maps and a 90-day public appeal period. After completion of the appeal period, there is a 30 day processing period to make the revised flood maps effective. The board has not yet discussed the ILA they received from DPW in late July. CEG STEP Program Update – Phase 1 had 72% enrollment, phase 2 had 76% enrollment, and phase 3 had 67% enrollment. The Board expressed that there have been some businesses that have reached out pitching expensive and unnecessary fixes to plumbing. The Board reminded residents to check with CEG about plumbing adjustments needed before contacting any third parties. The board will ask CEG if a presentation could be held about how to deal with your grinder pump. New Truck/Snowplow Update/Sale of Old Equipment – Decals were installed on the new truck. The auction ended on August 31st and the old snowplow sold for $9,000. Govdeals.com has been a great site to work with in trying to sell the old police car and snowplow. Insurance was cancelled and refund will be forthcoming. Funds should be wired into our account this coming Friday from govdeals.com. INDOT ADA and Title 6 Compliance Plan – No update. Technically on hold but we are currently in compliance. Town Manager/Marshal’s Report - 2023 Road Paving – On August 15th in the 2030 hour in the 500 block of W. 54th Street there was a disturbance. No arrest was made. The marshal had no information on the car in the canal situation that occurred on Sept. 9th. On August 17th, the marshal met with CEG, TSW, and Baumgartner Paving about a paving timeline that works for everyone. They are looking at October. New Business Butler University Updates – Michael Lofton – The Gateway Initiative is underway. Butler University has sought a waiver for a height variance related to the construction of a University House that would serve as a gateway to the university. 1900+ new students for the 23-24 school year. Butler looking to build 400 new beds. Butler would like to create more affordable housing in the neighborhood. They currently work with 11 landlords in the neighborhood regarding that issue. Butler University is actively looking to purchase property within the Butler Tarkington neighborhood. Title IX investigation underway involving the women’s soccer team. The president of the university received a 3 year +1 extension to his contract. Butler University is also on hold regarding the floodwall project. Butler University has gone through the City of Indianapolis to help with their own speeding issue. Michael will pass along those names and numbers. Residents brought up usage of the athletic fields at night is creating traffic congestion in the neighborhood. The fields are rented out to other organizations. It was suggested that pickup be done across the canal in Holcomb Gardens. Michael will ask Officer Grimes to observe and then work up a possible solution going forward to help alleviate the congestion. Homecoming is October 28th. Butler is working with three medical partners to bring a clinic to the surrounding neighborhood as part of their Gateway Initiative. Butler University hopes to be approved on October 14th by the Higher Learning Commission for a nursing school. Town Web Email Migration – Town Web is migrating away from Rackspace hosting to Google. The state also uses Google. Randy feels that going with the state program would be cheaper because Town Web would charge an additional fee to manage. Decision must be made before end of year. Community Concerns Elections – Nobody will be on the Rocky Ripple ballot for Town Board and/or Clerk Treasurer. Marion County Election Board decided that if you are unopposed in your race that you will not be on the ballot, since you are automatically elected. Megan Hulland, Randy Sanders, and Rachel Hunter will be our next town board members. Nobody ran for Clerk Treasurer. Free Dirt – Scott McManus said we should consider that repairs to our existing levee may be needed since the new floodwall project is on hold. Scott was talking with one of the sewer workers and they are willing to drop dirt in resident yards if they spread a tarp out. This dirt could be used to make repairs, such as filling holes that animals make. Mandy said it was a good idea to do this and reinitiate other maintenance on the existing levee, such as cleaning out some honeysuckle and other invasive growth. ILA meeting – Will arrange to have a meeting to discuss with Sarah. Will post meeting when date is set. Frank’s Livery – Megan went to the August board meeting. There are a couple of filmmakers working on a documentary on the White River. Trash bingo is something they are considering. Looking for sponsors. Two river cleanups coming up this fall, one on Butterfly Island and the other on Fall Creek. They are also planning to expand and have a trip down Fall Creek. Randy made a motion to adjourn, Megan seconded. All in favor. Meeting adjourned at 9:16 pm. Respectfully submitted, Julie Smith