Town Council

Rocky Ripple Town Council Meeting January 14, 2025 Rocky Ripple Town Board member, Randy Sanders, called the meeting to order at 7:33 pm. Town board members Randy Sanders, Megan Hulland and Rachel Hunter, were present. Mary McCoin, clerk treasurer and Mike Kiefer, town marshal, were present. Town attorney Sarah Guffey was also present. Welcome Community! Town board member, Randy Sanders, 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 Swearing in of new Clerk-Treasurer – After much searching, the town is delighted to welcome Mary McCoin as our new Clerk-Treasurer. Randy nominated Mary McCoin to the Clerk-Treasurer position; Rachel seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. Welcome, Mary! Julie and Mary have begun transitioning the position; they have met to do several training sessions and Mary has been added to the Chase Bank account. Julie will work to figure out how to remove herself from the account, it appears Randy may need to send a formal communication to our contact at the bank. Julie is also going to work with payroll to make sure Mary is added as an administrator. Mary has been bonded. 100R form was submitted in the system on January 10. Sarah swore Mary in to her new position and collected her signature on critical paperwork; Sarah promised to file this before the end of the week. Minutes – December minutes were presented with no changes. Rachel made a motion to accept the minutes as written, Megan seconded. All were in favor, motion unanimously passed. Treasurer Report for November and December 2024 – Expenses for both November and December were presented. Megan asked about the park toilet expenses and Julie confirmed that these should be the final bills for the season. Randy mentioned that outstanding Tae Kwon Do expenses from Master Mike have been paid. Nothing non-routine presented for either month. Megan made a motion to accept the financial reports as written and Megan seconded. All were in favor, motion unanimously passed. Old Business Rocky Ripple Flood Protection: DPW Updates, ILA – No new updates this month. Megan reached out at the beginning of January to check in on the status of DPW’s response to FEMA’s CLOMR questions. Shannon Killion, DPW Stormwater Administrator, confirmed that replies had not yet been submitted and that DPW would keep Rocky Ripple in the loop when they sent their reply. Speeding Cars in Rocky Ripple/Related Safety Concerns – Megan and Randy met with Butler University representative Michael Lofton and Police Chief Conley on December 12. Bruce Arick, Vice President for Finance at Butler University, was unable to attend at the last minute. The meeting left many questions unanswered. Butler asked Rocky Ripple to reach back out to plan for summer traffic support in March, when the University should have a better idea of summer camp volume expected on the Butler fields. Butler confirmed they had only set aside $4000 to contribute to street paving in 2024; Michael asked Rocky Ripple to send estimates for 2025 road paving as soon as possible so Butler can allocate funds. Megan asked Sarah to look into possible templates for formalize an agreement on cost sharing for high traffic roads; Sarah shared this information and Megan will look into it before the next meeting. Megan mentioned wanting to connect again with Bruce Arick specifically before his retirement and to determine who our new paving point of contact should be moving forward. INDOT ADA and Title 6 Compliance Plan – Rachel confirmed formatting for these two additional items and it was decided that these did not need to follow the existing ordinance format. Rachel will integrate these two new appendix items and the board will plan to review everything next month. Randy mentioned that the ADA and Title 6 plans need also to be posted at town hall. Town Manager/Marshal’s Report – One report this month entailing an arrest and violation of a protective order on December 22. Marshal Mike discussed potential streets for paving as part of his 2025 Community Crossings Grant (CCG) application. Patterson Street (52 nd-54th) and Clarendon Road (51st-52nd) are under consideration for a total estimate of $67,415.89. Rocky Ripple would be responsible for 25% of these costs, or $16,853.97. Randy and Mike will work together to get these estimates sent along to Butler University for planning purposes. The grant application is due by the end of the month. Marshal Mike is going to review guidelines around MVH restricted funds to see if we might be able to purchase new street signs, as some of these are overdue. Marshal Mike also mentioned that we have depleted the Marathon gas cards designated for the snow plow due to all the snow recently. The board agreed that it made sense to get a second Marathon credit card for the snowplow, as the gas cards have been getting harder and harder to come by. Community Association Updates – All winter and spring dates have been added to the town calendar. Women’s self-defense class is underway and has been well attended. The next RRCA meeting will be on January 22 at 7:30pm. The RREM meeting will be immediately prior, at 7:00pm. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB) will be attending the meeting next week. RRCA brought up the groundskeeper position again and clarified the scope of the work, which will be limited to weeding, checking trees and generally light maintenance (no power tools). As such, Sarah confirmed that she did not believe this person would need to be bonded. RRCA will discuss next steps during their meeting next week. The flagpole at Peace Park cannot go half-mast; it was confirmed that it is more polite to continue to fly a flag at full mast in this situation. Art supplies swap is coming up and clothing exchange may continue to expand this spring. New Business Snow Plow Driver Salary – Plow wage has been $15/hour since at least 1996. Randy made a motion to increase plow driver compensation to $25/hour to be applied retroactively from January 1. Rachel seconded the motion, motion passed. Salt has been spread in the neighborhood in key areas, including the bridges and in critical intersections. Community Concerns None. Meeting adjourned at 8:38pm. Respectfully submitted, Megan Hulland