Zionsville Town Council

Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 ZIONSVILLE TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES FOR MONDAY, MAY 1, 2023 AT 7:00 P.M. EST ONSITE MEETING This meeting was conducted onsite. All Councilors participated in person. Council Members Present: Jason Plunkett, President; Brad Burk, Vice-President; Alex Choi, Joe Culp, Josh Garrett, Craig Melton, and Bryan Traylor Also Present: Heather Harris, Town Council Attorney; Mia Riley, Deputy Director of Finance & Records; Rebecca Zakowski, Crowe; Jarod Logsdon, Superintendent of Parks & Recreation; Janice Stevanovic, Planning Manager, Department of Community & Economic Development; Amy Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator; and other Town Department Staff OPENING A. Call meeting to order B. Pledge of Allegiance Plunkett Good evening. I will now call to order the Monday, May 1st Regular Town Council meeting. If you would please, stand and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. All Pledge of Allegiance. Plunkett It sounds good to have a lot of people doing the Pledge of Allegiance. Traylor Yes. APPROVAL OF THE MEMORANDUM OF THE APRIL 10, 2023 REGULAR MEETING Plunkett Up first is the approval of the Memorandum of the April 10, 2023 regular meeting. A copy has been posted. Are there questions from Councilors? Garrett I make a motion to approve. Page 1 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 Melton Second. Plunkett First by Councilor Garrett, second by Councilor Traylor. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Traylor For the benefit of next month’s minutes, it was seconded by Melton. Plunkett Oh, sorry. Traylor No problem, just didn’t want to get next month’s minutes wrong. Plunkett So that was a first by Councilor Garrett and second by Councilor Melton. APPROVAL OF THE MEMORANDUM OF THE APRIL 17, 2023 REGULAR MEETING Plunkett Up next would be the approval of the Memorandum of the April 17th regular meeting. A copy of those have been posted. I do have, right after the opening, Amy, when we go to Claims. The title of that is approval of the April 10, 2023 Claims and those were for the 17th. Lacy Oh, okay. Plunkett So just, kind of a note there. Other than that, I would make a motion to approve the Memorandum. Burk Second. Plunkett Second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Page 2 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 APPROVAL OF THE MAY 1, 2023 CLAIMS Plunkett Up next on the agenda is the approval of May 1, 2023 Claims. Before we get into questions about claims, I would just point out I was notified this afternoon that the claims are incorrect. At the next meeting we will have two separate claims dockets. One will need to be approved and paid and the other one will need to be approved that have already been paid. So – Traylor I won’t vote to approve something that’s already been paid. Plunkett Well, it’ll be on the next meeting. Traylor All right. Plunkett So at this point, I would actually make a motion to deny these claims due to error and we will revisit that at the next meeting. Traylor So moved. Plunkett Second by Councilor Traylor. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. REQUEST TO SPEAK Plunkett Up next is a Request to Speak on Agenda Item. Amy, do we have any requests to speak? Lacy No, we do not. SPECIAL PRESENTATION – Lieutenant Casey Curtis Plunkett All right, moving on we have a special presentation from Lieutenant Casey Curtis. Good evening. Curtis Good evening Council President and Councilors. I’m humbled to be here yet again this evening. Well, sorry, to introduce myself – I’m Lieutenant Casey Curtis with the Zionsville Fire Department. I protect the west side of Zionsville at Station 293 on the A shift. We’re very proud of our area and our station and what we do out there. I was deployed last year in the United States Navy. I was a reservist. I recently stopped, after 15-1/2 years I decided it was time to part ways and focus more attention on my family but during that deployment, I had some wonderful Town employees that took care of me by, by reaching out to me, by taking care of my family, making sure everything was just copasetic so I can continue to be a Page 3 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 citizen sailor while forward deployed, continuing to weave that blanket of freedom that we all enjoy. So with that, I have Mr. Barney Hayes with the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve who’s gonna come up here and we have some Patriot awards to hand out. Hayes Thank you Casey. The Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve is – Plunkett I’m sorry. Would you – Hayes Okay. I’m an old artillery officer, I’m used to hollerin’. The Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve is a Department of Defense agency. Our purpose is to foster good relationships between employers and their employees who are members of the Guard and Reserve. Since 1972 when the draft ended, the Guard and Reserve have become an increasingly important part of our military structure. Today between 40 and 50% of our military strength is in the Reserve and National Guard. That means 1 out of every 2 solider, sailor, Marine, airman on active duty is a weekend warrior. When they go away, the ESGR’s purpose is to foster good relationships so that just like Casey said, his family is taken care of and he knows that, which makes him a more effective solider, sailor, Marine, airman, whatever. When they do a good job like that, Casey presents or nominates several people who supported him for an award. I’m here to present those awards tonight. There are several of them here and if we can, Casey, let’s just get this started and get it over with. Curtis Yes, sir. Fire Chief, James VanGorder, HR Director, Jo Kiel and the members that we currently do not have with us is Mayor Emily Styron, Assistant Fire Chief, Josh Frost, Division Chief of Training, Aaron Gibbons and Angie – Plunkett Josh is in the back. Curtis Oh, I apologize. Assistant Chief Josh Frost and Angie Eggers from Human Resources. Hayes Is that everybody we have? Curtis Yes sir, it is. Hayes Okay. Could I ask one of you – Burk We’ve got a pro coming up. Choi Can we have a round of applause? Curtis Again, thank you for the opportunity and again, thank you for being a wonderful employer. Traylor Thank you. Plunkett Thank you. Thank you, Lieutenant Curtis for your service and all those folks that supported him while he was in duty. That’s a pretty unique and really neat thing to see. Page 4 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 Hayes The National Guard Reserve used to be considered a strategic Reserve. Unfortunately, today they are a deployable asset. The old days of being, joining the Guard and Reserve for a weekend a month and two weeks at summertime is a thing of the past. If you go into the Guard or Reserve today, you’re going to be deployed – Kuwait, Bosnia Afghanistan, Iraq – Lord only knows where but it’s going to be more than two weeks in the summertime and a weekend a month. That’s why we need people like you to support your troops because that makes them a better troop. Thank you all very much and I appreciate your time. Thank you. Plunkett Thank you. Traylor Thank you, sir. MAYOR/ADMINISTRATION UPDATE Plunkett All right – up next would be the Mayor/Administration Update and we did not receive a Mayor/Administration update. TOWN COUNCIL UPDATE Plunkett We’ll move on to Council Update. Are there any questions from Councilors? Updates from Councilors I should say. I will say in communication with the Finance Department and you guys have seen this email and I’ll just kind of make this available to the public – we are shooting for a May 8th timeline or May 8th date to get available fund balances. Those should be reconciled likely, accurately reconciled within 8 to 12 weeks after that. So, I just wanted to make sure Council is aware of that communication. Traylor So just to be clear, the balances we’ll get May 8th will be as of the end of last year, right? Plunkett The balances that we should get on May 8th should be accurate balances. We just won’t have the actual bank statement with it. It should be an accurate balance. Traylor Okay, great. Choi I thought the communication was that on May 8th we would have the year-end ’22 balances. That’s kind of what I understood. Plunkett On, on May 8th we’ll have the annual financial report – Choi Right – Plunkett From the previous software system that will be able to be filed with the State of Indiana and the State Board of Accounts. In talking with Amy or with Cindy today, Cindy tells me that when they get those, that statement we will have fund balances and then to have the information uploaded into the new system so that the public could see the appropriations and everything is, is the 8 to 12-week mark. So, I just wanted to update you. Page 5 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 Choi Good to know. OLD BUSINESS Consideration a Resolution Regarding the Appropriation of Additional Funds (Parks-Fund 403) Resolution 2023-11 (Continued) Plunkett First item up on Old Business is a Consideration of a Resolution Regarding the Appropriation of Additional Funds. This was, this is Resolution 2023-11 and this was continued from the last Town Council meeting. Good evening, Jarod. Logsdon Good evening Councilors. Jarod Logsdon, Superintendent of Parks and Recreation. Before you is the request for an additional appropriation of $500,000 from Fund 403 Parks Non-Reverting Capital for the completion of the Big 4 Trail widening and expansion project. The project was funded in its entirety in the 2022 budget but failed to reappropriate or encumber funds within the 2023 budget process due to unintended omission. It is our hope that Council will grant this appropriation so the department may complete the project as originally proposed resulting in one single closure event for our community and a complete Rail Trail corridor by fall 2023. Should this request not be approved, the Parks and Recreation Department would remove the final portion of the widening project from Town Hall to Starkey Avenue from the scope of work of phase 2 to ensure adequate project funding remains for the quantity discrepancies, additional undercuts and unpredictable change orders that might occur along the widening from Mulberry tunnel to just north of Town Hall. I have provided a map of that section for your review prior to this. Additionally, last meeting there was the, besides what would be removed if it was not approved there was the request to explore other funding alternatives to completing the project without asking for this full amount. We took a look at the impact fees that were proposed for the trailhead project and did identify that we could fully utilize those impact fees in the, an additional amount of $117,955.80. So the impact fee program is a fee that is associated with every new roof in Zionsville and as developers create those new houses they pay a fee per resident – sorry, for, for each new roof – and then those funds are added to the Parks fund balance within the 2012 or 2022 impact fees for the development of our park system. So it’s truly allowing development to pay for development. It is a very specific plan and those items can only be used for certain amenities in our park system. So due to our previous strategy with those funds, we have a very healthy balance over $2 million and it is our priority to utilize the 2012 funds whenever we can to utilize those funds before we’ve replaced all the amenities and we wouldn’t be able to use them so. That request would come before you the next time we have an opportunity to post that public notice for those funds and with that we could also offset tonight’s request by $200,000 and reduce that to $300,000 for the completion of the project. So one scenario is the consideration of tonight’s proposal should that not be funded, we would remove a portion of the Rail Trail widening. Scenario two is Page 6 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 exploring the use of additional impact fees as well as a reduced ask tonight to complete the project as proposed. Plunkett Jarod, which, which account was the impact fee going to come from – 453 or 473? Logsdon 453. Plunkett And you say there’s over $2 million dollars in that account right now? Logsdon Yes. We’ve only used $80,000 in the history of my employment with Zionsville so that was north of $2.4 at the beginning of 2022. Plunkett Well, 453 is the new park impact fee. 473 is the old park impact fee. Logsdon Oh, then it will be the 2012. I apologize. Plunkett It’ll be the 2012? Logsdon It’ll be the 2012 impact fee fund. Plunkett So the old account? Logsdon Yes. Choi What’s the annual additional revenue to that impact fee? Logsdon That is completely dependent on the development in our community. So each new roof has a fee associated with it so as every development project is approved, the developer will pay that impact fee per roof in their project. So as Zionsville continues to grow, the project proposed at the last Plan Commission had over 280 roofs so just extrapolating that single-family, I believe, is around $1,200 per dwelling so it adds up quite exponentially quickly. Choi Okay. So this is a one-time impact fee assessed on each home? Logsdon Yes. So every five years we’re to update that. So there will be a 2027 impact fee which reevaluates the needs of the park system. So if we find out that we need a tennis court for every 20,000 people instead of every 40,000, that’s our opportunity to re-gauge that and then if we have a deficit, we can utilize those impact fees to get up to that ratio that we all agree on and there is a committee that reviews park impact fees at those times and all agree upon that ratio. Garrett So, part of this request is for overruns, unanticipated overruns, change orders, whatever that may be. How much of this request is for those overruns? Logsdon Approximately $100,000 of that $300,000 would go towards that. Garrett What happens if you don’t incur those overruns? Page 7 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 Logsdon Then they would go back to 403 for future use. Itold this Council in September when we discussed the budget that our plan was to focus on operations this year and just continue the projects we had and see those through and that’s still the promise today. Garrett So if I think about how, why you have to do budgeting. You have X amount of dollars and everything below that falls off the list. I noticed, and I appreciate you coming back with other ways to pay for it that is still cash out of pocket. Are there no other – is this, I guess, the least prioritized project given that you have not proposed cutting any other current projects that are in the budget? Logsdon All the other projects in the budget are actively underway as well so at this point if we were to pause the pickleball courts and not surface them, I mean, then we’d have a slab that’s just not complete and other capital funds are just for closing out Overley-Worman Park so it’s truly just trying to put a pin and a bow on these, these projects that are carrying over from last year. Garrett The pickleball court also wasn’t in the budget, right? That came to us for an additional appropriation a couple months ago. Logsdon Yes and no. So that was proposed but was also omitted. Garrett Well, I mean – Logsdon And that was, that was available in, last October as well. Garrett There were a lot of things proposed. Like it’s either in or it’s not in the budget, right? I guess I am – I’m not at the point that I’m comfortable with spending this money partly because the request I’ve already seen including the bond that’s coming up which I am supportive of and partly because I think our finance situation is still a, I can’t say this in the meeting but it’s not good. You know we’ve got claims being paid that we haven’t approved, I’ve got fund balances I don’t have figured out. Like part of this, I think Jarod, is a victim of timing. I don’t know how I can approve money when I don’t know definitively how much money we have. That’s just where I’m at – and it’s not you, it’s, I think it’s anyone coming in front of me right now wanting a pretty big check but I need to have a general sense of the finances before I sign that check. Traylor And that kind of goes to my comment at the last meeting which was, I think, in this 403 fund you had estimated or, or Cindy had estimated there was like a $900,000 balance and we were asking for $500,000 out of it – Logsdon Yes. Traylor That still sound accurate or reasonably? Logsdon Yes and this fund it’s only for capital projects so we kind of know what’s been going in and going out since utilizing it so we’re very fairly confident in that number. Page 8 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 Burk Jarod, you mentioned a few different options. What do you, what do you really need from us today to get it done? Logsdon So one strategy would be your consideration for the full amount today and then as we come before you in the future to utilize those impact fees, you could decrease this allocation by that amount if that would be more appropriate. Truly, we just want to complete the project at this time as originally scoped, disturbing the community one time and allowing us to prescriptively maintain the Rail Trail moving forward, all of it being within a year of age. Melton Is this, is this something that we could give you the initial portion – you said $130,000? Is that right? To finish this? Is this something that you would feel comfortable taking the $130,000 moving forward and then ask for more appropriations as – Logsdon As it’s – Melton As the problems occur, if, if there are problems? I guess in my mind as a contractor you gotta have some idea what you’re really going to have come, you know, be the problem. You’ve already been fixing the road, the pathway to the north and this last little bit of pathway here – I, Ijust don’t understand how we don’t know and we’re just asking for $500,000 just, just in case. Logsdon And it’s truly what we’ve experienced in phase 1 as well as the northern expansion. It’s just the undercuts. So you would’ve thought 100-year-old railbed would be pretty well compacted and we wouldn’t be having these issues but we’re still seeing subgrade that’s not passing the proof roll therefore requiring more stone and it’s 40 feet here, 160 feet here and that truly adds up. Melton But it’s because we’re widening it, right? It’s not because the actual railbed is in bad shape. It’s actually because we’re widening, widening the path. Logsdon It just depends on the segment. So we’ve discovered underground water sources that are weakening it and you can kind of see where it’s channeled and its history and it makes sense – Melton Okay. Logsdon Once you start digging. So we’re, it just, we’re at end of life of this trail and we’d rather do it right now so we can have a solid trail moving forward. Culp I guess why was this omitted? Logsdon The capital projects of the park system were omitted. They just weren’t presented to this Council. We were asked to prepare our budgets and provide them and it just never got presented to this group and I discovered that and it was just too late to include it in the DGLF so first thing this year we put it on the public notice to get it appropriated as an additional appropriation. Culp I guess that’s my problem, right? Page 9 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 Logsdon Yes – Culp Why are we hearing about this now and like when we approved the budget we just keep asking for more stuff. Traylor It’s really like the unfortunate, just never ending saga of the finance system and the baffle that the last three years has been. Plunkett Well and this is also a scenario where we requested capital projects be removed from the budget in an effort to balance the budget and – Traylor Yes. Plunkett If we’re in a spot where that was removed so the Parks budget would be balanced and now we’re asked to continue to spend money in excess, I mean, Jarod sent us an email a week or two weeks ago that talked about even additional requests coming down for, for later. So I mean, I’m, I’m with, I’m with Councilor Garrett from the perspective of – and I’ve said this to this Council, I’ve shared this with the Administration and I’ll share it with the public, I mean, it’s not just you Jarod, I mean, I don’t know – the Mayor and the budget process continue to equate public finance to personal finance and if you take that example if I don’t know how much money I have in my checking account, I don’t know how much money I can spend and if we’re going to continue to look at fund balances and the last updated fund balances, balance I have as of November 2022, I mean it does show this account having $1.2 million dollars but if you’re saying it’s $900,000, I don’t know what we spent the other, spent the rest of the money on and it’s not necessarily relevant but, Yes, I mean, from, from my perspective I think until we get, until we get fund balances – accurate, up-to-date fund balances I’m not comfortable approving appropriations above and beyond what was budgeted. Choi Just to comment on – I mean if at the end of November if it was $1.2 and we’re now at $900,000, I think it is relevant of what we spent that $300,000 on because if we’re spending down the reserves that quickly from $1.2, we just spent down 25% of the reserves in a very short period of time. I’d like – I mean I think we’d all like to know – Culp Do you know what it was spent on? Logsdon Yes, so $900,000 from this account was allocated last year -- $600,000 going towards the Rail Trail, $300,000 towards the pickleball courts. So just invoices received towards the end of the year going towards that. Choi Yes and that was my question on how does, how do all these funds get funded because, I mean, the purpose of the reserve is for capital projects in these times but to the degree that we spend down the reserves, that is a question that we have to deal with, right? What exactly are we spending it on? What are we comfortable taking the reserves down to? I think that fiscal policy is kind of missing from how we address all these questions as well so. Page 10 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 Burk Jarod, I’d be, I do believe you have the money to do it. It’s a question of is it the right spend at the right time. I don’t believe it’s going to pass today. I would, I would make a motion to see if it would but I don’t if that’s what you want. I would also consider making a motion to push it back until we see the final balances if that would help so I would maybe make a motion to continue it if you’re ready for a motion at any time. Otherwise, I could make a motion but I would be afraid it would fail. Plunkett Heather, can we continue to continue these or is this something – Harris You can. Plunkett That we have to – Harris For an additional appropriation you have to hold the public hearing on the date in which it was – Plunkett Which we’ve done – Harris Published and so that would be for tonight. You are allowed to continue it and you just can’t consider anything above the amount that was published without going back through the public notification and publishing process. Plunkett Does, does it have to go on the next meeting or can it just be – Harris It does not. Plunkett Continued until we get – Harris It can be continued – Plunkett The fund balances? Harris Yes, it can just be continued like any other matter until completion. There’s no definitive timeline. Plunkett Yes. Harris It’s really just a matter of, I think after some period of time it’s good to give the public notice again but technically the law doesn’t require it. Melton Is this something we can approve a lesser number? Harris You can definitely approve less than $500,000. I think the amount was $500,000 looking at Jarod – Logsdon Yes. Harris But you can’t go above it without going back and re-publishing – Melton So we don’t have to change this document? Page 11 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 Harris Right. You can do anything up to the $500,000. Choi Is there any reason this needs to be approved tonight? Logsdon We still have time before we switch over to phase 2 thanks to the weather so this, we would still be comfortable continuing this if that’s the desire of the Council. Burk Then I would move to continue to whenever. Harris Well, may I ask – did we actually open and close the public hearing? Did I miss it? Plunkett We’ve already had the public hearing. Harris Okay. Plunkett This is – Harris You did it so fast. Plunkett Yes we continued this – Harris Oh you did it last time. That’s right. Plunkett At the last meeting. So the public hearing was in the April meeting. Harris That’s right. Okay, yes, then you’re fine. Choi Second. Plunkett So we have a motion to continue from Councilor Burk. A second from Councilor Choi. All those in favor, in favor signify by saying aye. Choi, Culp, Aye. Plunkett, Burk, Traylor, Melton Plunkett All those opposed same sign. Garrett Aye. Plunkett Was that just one? Motion passes 6 in favor, 1 opposed. Thank you. Page 12 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 Consideration of an Ordinance Authorizing Bonds (Carpenter Nature Preserve) Ordinance 2023-09 (Second Reading) Plunkett Up next on Old Business is a Consideration of an Ordinance Authorizing Bonds. This is for the Carpenter Nature Preserve. This is Ordinance 2023-09. This is a second reading. Jarod – Logsdon Thank you all again, Council. Thanks for sitting through 46 slides of the Carpenter Nature Preserve last meeting. I’ll keep it a little more brief this evening. I’m just happy to answer any additional questions you may have. Again, this is a request for a bond not to exceed $5.5 million, $5 million of which would go towards the project which is the acquisition of the Carpenter Nature Preserve – that’s a 215-acre former golf course in Union Township and the other remaining funds would be towards the design and construction documents associated with phase 2.1 of construction, so the first phase of infrastructure. We have our bond counsel here tonight as well to answer any questions and happy to move forward. Garrett I know last meeting and it still is capped at 5% the expected was maybe in the high 3’s. Is there any anticipated change that’s happened in the last month that would change that where it’s at? Zakowski No. Garrett Okay. Plunkett I would just, just real quick – I mean I certainly appreciate the folks who have reached out on this project. Jarod, and maybe – I know John’s in the back of the room too. I mean I guess when this was first presented it was presented as, as acquisition and I had a conversation with the Parks Board President in March where he made the comment I wish you could just think of this as acquisition, right? And in the last meeting we went from acquisition and some other, some other things. I guess, I guess as we start thinking through, and this will go right back to finance for me because I’ve, I’ve heard from people in my district that say listen you’re right – we need, we need the, the trail down Oak Street, we need the restrooms in the Village. I’ve heard people say I like the idea of the park. I don’t know that we’ve been told over and over again we have money but we don’t know how much we have. I don’t know that I necessarily want a bond for it. Can we bond for some of it? Can we pay cash for some of it? When I went back and looked at the November 2022 balances, we had five park funds or, or four park funds I should say at the end of 2022 that totaled over $6.5 million dollars in cash. Many of those averaged $2.5 million dollars a month, $1.5 million dollars a month, some of them were never touched, right? I mean you talk about 403, it wasn’t touched all year last year. The, the parks fee – the old, the old parks fee account in November had over $2.5 million dollars in it, the capital fund had over $2.1 million dollars in it. You know, we’ve got ARPA money that was never touched, the general account’s got about $5.5 million bucks in it, again, as of November. I mean that’s $15, $18 million dollars and I guess my question is did, did we ever consider cash because if it’s, if we’re, if Page 13 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 it’s cash then we can really just get it for the acquisition just for the purchase price and then we can allow fundraising efforts to work itself out. I know that’s been a big part of it. You may need the reserve – the $19 million dollars’ worth of bonding capacity that could maybe escalate the project. Iguess from, from my perspective it kind of goes back from a financial discussion of do we want to burn an extra million bucks or $750,000, whatever it is, to service the bond when we can, if we have cash available, we can just pay cash for it. Logsdon Yes and I, I’m happy to speak to that. So as we were forming the strategy of how, how do we make this happen with what we have – we looked at all those funds and some of those do have limitations like the impact fees which are some of our largest funds where they can only fund a restroom or a multi-use court and we actually looked in the 2022 plan for impact fees and we can fund up to 31 acres of acquisition in our park system but after that that’s all the more impact fees could be utilized so we did explore all of those options and ultimately the bond was chosen as the best tool in our toolbelt because we have 500 acres today in our park system and it’s our responsibility not to drain all of our resources into one, any one amenity so we have to look at how can we continue to grow while still maintaining what we have. Your brand’s only as good as not only what’s new and shiny but also your history and how you take care of things. So truly knowing that we have capital funds available in our cash reserves should a piece of infrastructure go out and we need to prioritize a bridge unexpectedly or a playground that’s no longer safe that needs rehabbed or simply just paving asphalt. These, these improvements are never going to stop. There’s always maintenance on parkland so we chose the bond strategy knowing that we wouldn’t utilize that full capacity, we could accomplish this and still look to the future should there be other opportunities while still having cash reserves so we can execute the next 5-year Master Plan as well as any unanticipated maintenance along the way. Plunkett Yes, I appreciate that. I guess it would’ve been nice to have that dialogue to see maybe we take a million bucks from the general account, maybe we take a million bucks from ARPA, maybe we take $2.5 from the, one of the other four accounts and then we don’t have to worry about the debt to service the debt and increase in taxes as, as minimal as it is, but that conversation never took place so I just wanted to get some clarity there. Logsdon And I can speak to the ARPA as well – so we did explore that. One of Councilor Garrett’s concerns is how can we accomplish this as cheaply as possible for our community and we did explore ARPA funding and were, were told that that would be in conflict with the Next Level Conservation Trust, that $3 million dollar grant, so we didn’t want to open up that can of worms and lose out on future monies because of the strategy we chose early on. Choi Can you clarify how that is in conflict? What was the reason that they brought forward? Logsdon So the Next Level Conservation Trust Program is repackaged, reutilized state ARPA funds so the DNR when, when, when discussing that they didn’t feel comfortable with local ARPA funds paying for it and then those being Page 14 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 reimbursed with state ARPA funds. So to avoid that conflict they strongly recommended not going down that. Choi Thank you for that. Logsdon Yep. Burk I do believe you could probably find the cash to do it. You do miss out on a $3 million dollar opportunity that you would, you wouldn’t have to bond but you’re also getting that as as a nice supplement and if we worked, even if we acquire it would still have, we still have plans on how we want to utilize the park and that would then have to come at some other point and/or come from general funds that we would have to dig, dig up in the next couple of years so. For me I thought it was, it was a gamechanger when, when that grant became available because it does relieve even longer term spend on the front end. It’s a hard deal to walk away from. I don’t know what the absolute bear minimum you have to have to bond is to do that. I don’t know if it’s the full, the full ask. It’s close probably. I think I’m, I mean I’m certainly in favor of, of this. We need to acquire this. If there’s another way to do it that’s more efficient, I’m willing to listen to that but that $3 million dollars is a big darn incentive sitting in front of us. Garrett And also the Carpenters generously on the last, last evening meeting also said they would seed the Parks Foundation with $500,000 on top of that. On top of the other two, I think, grants we could get so. I appreciate your line of thinking for sure. I’m, now that I know what the bond rates are, how low they are, I think that’s an easier path but I liked, I like, we should’ve had that conversation sooner. Plunkett Yes I mean I think from, again, from my perspective, there’s a lot of cash apparently that we’re sitting on and we don’t know, right, the accuracy of it but if it’s close to that it’s like, it just seems like that dialogue should’ve taken place to find out what we thought would’ve been the best option, the Parks Board thought would’ve been the best option and come to some type of resolution so. Melton Moving forward Ido have a question about the proposed ordinance that’ll be the bond counsel but before you leave, I just want to say I appreciate all the work that the Carpenters and you have put into this as well as the Administration. I’m actually a fan of having those healthy reserves as we expand our park systems almost by 50%. Is that, is that – Choi Yes. Melton Safe to say? So having these reserves as we move forward I think is very important to getting us to the goal line of actually that what I’m confused whether it’s phase 1 or phase 2 of this construction on that project, however, we can’t use it until there’s certain parameters met and I, I’m really, I strongly agree with actually holding back some of those reserves for the rest of the Town’s amenities but hopefully we can get those on the budget for next year in advance so we don’t have to keep having allocation requests throughout the year. Page 15 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 Back to my, my question to the bond counsel – on the Ordinance No. 9. If we go down to letter C, I just was confused on the verbiage there. It says the reasonably anticipated amount of qualified tax-exempt obligations and (including qualified 501(3)(c) obligations and tax-exempt leases but excluding other private activity bonds) which will be issued to the Town and all entities subordinate to the Town during 2023 does not exceed $10 million. So what does that $10 million represent? I’m just confused on that and then the next line item talks about it a little more Town anybody acting in the name of the Town as an entity subordinate to the Town have not designated and will not designate more than $10 million of qualified tax-exempt obligation during 2023. James Sure, so sorry for the confusion – hi, Heather James with Ice Miller. So there’s two kind of things that play here, right? There’s the tax exemption and then there’s the bank qualification and the language that you’re referencing in this entire section 2 is all about bank qualification. So banks can receive the full tax exemption on the investment meaning that the coupon payments are tax exempt and the bank can then also deduct the interest expense incurred but only if certain findings are made. And those findings are that the bonds must be issued by a “qualified small issuer” which is defined in the tax code, issued for a public purpose and then actually designated meaning that we have this language in the actual ordinance as a bank qualified obligation. So this is to allow the banks that might purchase these bonds to take advantage of that bank qualification. Melton So the $10 million – what does that represent? James So you, so in order to take advantage it would mean that the Town would be issuing less than $10 million dollars’ worth of those sorts of bonds in this calendar year and so the Crowe folks have found that they think that that’s likely so that’s why we’re asking that we put this representation in there so that the, so that the bonds are more attractive to potential purchasers and they realize that that’s a potential benefit for buying these bonds in addition to them being tax exempt. Melton Thank you. James Yes. Any, anything else for me? Melton I think that’s all I had for this. James Okay. Melton Thank you. Plunkett Any other questions from Councilors? Burk I guess I’m just curious, Mr. President, if knowing that we’re going to have more information coming on May 8th – I mean, is there something to explore in terms of a portion of this? We can obviously still approve the bond or its up to but is there, is there, assuming there may be more money in those accounts is that something you want to – just because the conversation didn’t happen doesn’t Page 16 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 mean even if we approve the bond we can’t still figure out if we don’t want to fully use the entire bond, right? Is that right? Plunkett Well, they’ll probably go to market with the bonds as soon as it’s approved. Logsdon That sounds like a reasonable thing that we could explore. Burk How quickly do you have to go to market with the bond? Logsdon I don’t believe there’s a requirement for how quickly? James No, it just depends on when you need the dollars. Logsdon Yes. Plunkett Yes, I mean listen – I, again from my perspective, and I’m sensitive to the fact that we all have our tolerance for reserves and debt and cash and that’s what makes this Council unique, right? I mean, I would prefer if we have cash available to find a way to pay for it with cash but I’m sensitive to the fact that others don’t and I don’t know that, I mean, if, if we continued it and got the funds and maybe the reality is we go through it and we find out that we’re not going to use cash still so. Melton I look at it a little differently. If it was a depreciating asset it’d be different but because this is a piece of land, it’s my take that this is a great investment opportunity now that we’ve had time to look at it through a bonding, through borrowing, moving in that direction, not spending the cash that we have because we know we’ll need cash as we move forward to create whatever the vision is that the Town creates. So with that said, that’s my position. I just want to kind of lead into that but I understand your perspective too. If we got cash, let’s spend it, however, we don’t know how much cash we have exactly. I mean we do have what $2 million in impact fees just sitting there but we cannot use impact fees so – Logsdon We could use up to 31 acres based on our population, 31 to 34 of the 215 so that would be a small slice of that pie that we couldn’t utilize in a different capacity later. Melton Okay. I still think that it’s an opportunity that at this point I feel that is a good opportunity for the Town. Plunkett Sure. Burk I just don’t think the door is closed on kind of a multi-pronged approach to funding even if we pass the bond if they’re willing to hold until balance, fund balances come in. You could have a quick conversation. If it’s not there, then you bond what you need. If it is there, you bond a lesser amount. Am I not? Garrett It’s so expensive to bond though, like the rate is less than 4%. It just seems like if you’re going to bond, bond, right? Like if you bond for half those fixed costs are Page 17 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 just spread across that lower amount. I appreciate sort of what’s trying to get done here but I thought rates were going to be 7, 8% – Traylor Yes. Garrett 3.75%, that’s cheap money. I’d lock that in and save that cash for future Councils to use. Traylor Take, take it now. Garrett Yes, exactly right. Traylor I’d make a motion to approve as presented. Culp Second. Plunkett We got a first by Councilor Traylor, second by Councilor Culp. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Choi, Culp, Aye. Burk, Garrett, Traylor, Melton Plunkett All those opposed same sign. Aye. Motion passes 6 in favor, 1 opposed. Logsdon Thank you. Culp Good job, Jarod. NEW BUSINESS Community Enrichment Grant Committee Presentation Plunkett Up next is first item on New Business Community Enrichment Grant Committee Presentation – Carol? Johnson Good evening Councilors. My name is Carol Johnson. I serve as staff support for the Community Enrichment Grant Committee and we have a video we’d like to share with you tonight. Video: Cross Hi, I’m Jennifer Cross. Williams I’m Allison Williams. Hernandez And, I’m Lauren Hernandez DeCrane. Cross: The Zionsville Enrichment Grant was launched in 2021 and is funded by the food and beverage tax. Any not-for-profit located in Boone County that serves Page 18 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 Zionsville can apply. To this date, we’ve received 49 grant applications and have funded 19 grants. Williams Applicants are welcome to apply throughout the year. We review the grants twice each year and every member of the committee reviews each application. We meet as a group to review and rate them for fairness and subjectivity. Hernandez We have seven organizations in line for grant awards this spring. Our projects range from infrastructure improvements, food and security, community events and more. This cycle, we’re giving nearly 50,000 dollars to these non-profits. Stepsis Hi, I’m Lisa Stepsis and I’m on the Board of Azionaqua Swim Club. Azionaqua opened its doors in the summer of 1960 with 500 charter members. In the summer of 2020, when we were all struggling to find a way to connect safely, the Board launched a summer concert series on the Azionaqua grounds adjacent to the pool. We have continued to grow these community events to include food trucks, local bands and music students. One challenge we have encountered is electricity access. Our amazing sound technician is able to work magic and get things going but our project would bring electricity to the field. We have dreams of more community events and this would be a big step in that direction. Thank you for considering our grant. Hines I’m Amanda Hines and I serve on the board of Indy Book Project as the finance director. Indy Book Project is a 100 percent volunteer-run non-profit organization founded in Zionsville in late 2018. Since our inception, we have distributed over 140,000 new and gently used books to children across Central Indiana with the sole purpose of getting books into the hands of all children. This wouldn’t be possible without the countless hours of volunteer efforts provided by our leadership team and a continually growing base of dedicated volunteers, many of whom are Zionsville residents. The sole purpose of our request is to build our volunteer capacity in order to increase the quantity of books we are able to distribute. As a 100 percent volunteer-run organization, we are in need of better scheduling, tracking and management of our rapidly increasing volunteer staff. Our current management is very manual. As we have grown over the past year, we have a recognized a need for a more efficient scheduling and tracking system. Specifically, we are in need of an automated way to recruit volunteers, gather volunteer information without manual data entry and schedule volunteers and track their hours. We have identified an online database volunteer management stem called Volgistics which will allow us to recruit volunteers, post volunteer opportunities and gather legal documentation for volunteers. It offers scheduling capabilities which will allow us to increase our volunteer opportunities, attend more events and distribute more books to children. We thank you for considering our request and please see a little thank you from some of our volunteers. Garvey Hi, this is Chris Garvey, Maplelawn Farmstead. Maplelawn is located at the northwest corner of Mulberry Fields. We’re a nonprofit 501C3, all volunteer organization. Our purpose is to create experiences that connect people to the rich rural history of a 1930s Great Depression era Indiana farm. We do this by preserving the farmstead, creating and running educational programs and events with the intent to inspire our visitors. We preserve, educate and inspire. The Page 19 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 Farmstead has a well-documented history that dates back to 1835. In 2003, it was sold to the Town of Zionsville to be developed into a park. Maplelawn is listed on the national register of historic places in 2011. Today, we have two projects of interest for you. The first project is to improve our main sidewalk that leads from the driveway and parking area to the farmhouse. This sidewalk is old, uneven and cracked. Sections have settled over the years and it’s now below ground level causing ankle-deep (inaudible) and it’s a serious hazard in rain, snow and ice. The farmhouse is the center of many of our major events and hosted over 2000 people in a year. This project will raise, level and repair the sidewalk. The second project will supports our efforts to safely remove and replace a dead Dutch Elm tree. This tree is well over 100 years old. We need a professional contractor to safely remove the tree. We replace trees whenever we can. Last year, we planted several new maples around the house. We planted ash, (inaudible) or maples and Indiana native trees like shagbark hickories and pawpaws in the future. A modest investment in trees today is an investment for the next 100 years. On behalf of Maplelawn Farmstead, I would like to thank you for considering us today and a special thank you to the Zionsville Parks Department for the past years of support. Thank you, again. Young Hi. I’m Cynthia Young, executive direction for the Sullivan-Munce Cultural Center. Our mission is to bring art, history and genealogy to our community in the form of programming and events which tell a story while also encouraging participation in history and the arts. Our Zionsville community enrichment grant proposal is for Ghost Walk. Ghost Walk is a 45-minute guided walking tour of the historic village of Zionsville. Guests stop at up to eight different vignettes to experience reenacted ghost stories from Zionsville’s past. Ghost Walk is a successful program for us as it engages the community in planning, participation and evaluation, and it combines art, history and genealogy, our three areas of focus. We engage the community to help write, perform and plan this event. The event has been part of our community for 21 years. Ghost Walk brings guests statewide to not only Sullivan-Munce Cultural Center but to our quaint town of Zionsville. The intended outcomes include community involvement and preserving and teaching the history of Zionsville in a fun, engaging way, community involvement in the arts, visual, literary and performing, exposure of our organization not familiar with us and we want to increase visitor attendance for Sullivan-Munce and Zionsville. We hope that you approve this proposal for Ghost Walk as it will increase safety for our visitors and enhance the Ghost Walk experience with some much-needed items. Thank you, and we hope to see you in October. October 6 and 7 is when Ghost Walk is this year. We hope to see you there. Thank you. Bye. Walters Hey, I’m Jordan Walters and I’m on the Board of Directors for the Shalom House. Shalom House is a non-profit and we’re focused specifically on food and security, that’s the only lane we stay in. We started the Kids’ Sack Lunch program in 2007. The Kids' Sack Lunch program, if you’re not familiar with it, is a program within Boone County facilitated by the Shalom House where kids who typically rely on free breakfast and lunch at school, when they’re home, home from school or on break, they don’t have anything, er, they don’t have enough to eat or sometimes, anything to eat. Um, Shalom put together this Kids' Sack Lunch program 16 years ago and have targeted food and secure families. In Zionsville, specifically, there are around 30, 30 sometimes, we expect this year Page 20 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 up to 40 kids who are going to be reliant on it 15 weeks a year. Simply put, we provide five breakfasts, five entries, five fruits and vegetables, five snacks and a book for the week. So, each kid gets 10 meals and five snacks and in an adjoining town, Lebanon, we give milk vouchers from Kroger. And, we distribute these meals 15 weeks a year. The grant that you generously awarded us, where’s it going to go? That’s because everybody wants to know where’s the money going to go. You’re providing say 30 kids times 15, you’re providing about 4500 meals to kids who need it. The distribution happens at the Rail which is almost adjoined to the building I’m in right now. Everybody at Shalom House would like to thank the Town Council for this generous grant. The grant is going to be used to support a year of the Kids' Sack Lunch program specific to Zionsville and it’s going to protect our community’s biggest and most promising resource and that’s our kids. So, thank you. Fitzpatrick Hello. I’m Christine Fitzpatrick. Maish I’m Casey Maish. Ulmer I’m Candace Ulmer. Schube And, I’m Susan Schube. And, we are members of the Board for the Zionsville Cultural District. Fitzpatrick Zionsville Cultural District was formed in 2013. Our mission is to enrich the lives of residents and visitors by promoting and elevating the arts, our history and culture. Our programs are designed to improve the quality of life for residents, to strengthen local business and to enrich the experiences of visitors to Zionsville. Now, free summer concerts in the heart of Zionsville have been one of our Town’s longest standing traditions dating back to the first summer concerts in Lincoln Park in 1994. In 2013, ZCD assumed leadership of the summer concert series and we’ve continued this important tradition since then thanks to our Board of Directors, our partners, our sponsors and our donors. Ulmer With this grant that we were awarded we will be able to support our 10th Anniversary Concert Series this summer which begins June 7 and runs continuously for 13 weeks to August 30. June and July, the concerts are in Lions Park and in August, the concerts are in Lincoln Park. Maish This grant will help us attract higher profile bands starting with our season opener on June 7, America’s most popular nostalgic rock ‘n roll show, Phi Dirt and the Dozers. Other bands this summer include country, reggae, R&B, New Wave and a children’s entertainer, Mr. Daniel. Fitzpatrick Our free weekly concerts will provide an enjoyable opportunity for the community to gather and celebrate summer. We’ll attract hundreds of visitors each week and we’ll provide a showcase for diverse musical tastes, our town and its businesses. So, thank you very much for your support and we hope to see you Wednesday evenings in Zionsville this summer. Van Zee Hello. My name is Andrew Van Zee, a board member with the Zionsville Little League. This year, Zionsville Little League is celebrating 70 years of providing Page 21 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 boys and girls the opportunity to learn, develop and compete in the sport of baseball and softball. This spring, we will have over 1350 youth ball players ranging from ages 4 through 13 that will practice and play games at Lions Park in Mulberry Fields. Every year, Zionsville Little League has operated a concession stand to provide ballplayers and their families snacks and refreshments. As the volume of transactions increases, there’s a need to provide stable internet to process credit cards. Our community enrichment project, Internet Access for Concessions and Security, will cover the upfront infrastructure costs for internet access at the Field 2 concession stand at Lions Park. Unfortunately, we’ve had several instances of petty theft and damages from break-ins. Having internet access at Zionsville Little League Field 2 concession stand will also allow us to install security cameras to decrease the potential for criminal threats and ensure the playing equipment is safely secured. This initial infrastructure funding will open the potential for future uses such as live game streaming and light automation. We’re excited that this grant will benefit the thousands of future ballplayers and families that make Zionsville Little League their home. Zionsville Little League looks forward to our continued partnership with the Town of Zionsville in providing quality youth sports activities for Zionsville families. Thank you. Traylor So the Shalom House would be specific to Zionsville students so that answered my only question after doing a little research on each organization I’m fully supportive. Now I, I’m correct me if I’m wrong, but these will show up on our, probably our next set of claims so we – I’m assuming that we don’t need to vote on these until they’re actually on our claims? I’m – Harris I’m guessing you need to approve them first because you’re approving the actual – Traylor Got it. Harris Approval of the grant applications which I think is what we’ve historically done and then you’ll come back when they actually send the payment out, it’ll show up on your claims. I don’t know when that will happen but typically – Garrett That’s the correct order too. Harris I think it’s a two-step process. Carol, are you shaking your head? Okay. I was looking for my assistant, I couldn’t find you. Did you see me standing? Plunkett Oh that’s funny. Traylor If nobody has any questions, I’ll make a motion to approve all of these grants. Burk Second. Plunkett First by Councilor Traylor, second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Page 22 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Traylor And actually before we move on, I’m glad we got to see that because it’s not very often we get some heartwarming things in these meetings so I appreciate everything you guys are doing out there and appreciate you using these dollars responsibly and for good reason. Thanks. Plunkett I like that you say you might kinda be the reason – you are the reason we’re hearing this. Traylor I am, I am and I’m okay with that. Plunkett That’s right, that’s right. Consideration of An Ordinance Amending the Town of Zionsville Zoning Ordinance (Petition No.2023-05-Z) Ordinance 2023-11 Plunkett Up next on New Business is a Consideration of an Ordinance Amending the Town of Zionsville Zoning Ordinance. This is Petition No. 2023-05-Z. This is Ordinance 2023-11 and we have Janice to present. Garrett You’re losing the crowd, Janice. Stevanovic That happened the last time I was here. Culp Not a lot of zoning fans, apparently, right? Yes. Stevanovic I guess not. Plunkett Oh that’s funny. Stevanovic Staff has provided the Town Council with a Memorandum outlining this request and the Ordinance for execution, if approved, a favorable Certification from the Plan Commission, a zoning location map and the petitioner materials. Please allow me to highlight a few points before the project’s representative, attorney Roger Burrus, presents the request. This is a petition for rezoning 3.42 acres from the Open Land Zoning District to the Urban Single-Family Residential or R-SF-2 Zoning District. The location is at 970 Starkey Road. The zoning map reflects the Open Land zoning to the north, south and east of the property but it also reflects the R-SF-2 zoning to the east, Special Use zoning to the north and Multi-Family to the west. This request is to provide for the construction of a single-family home under the R-SF-2 zoning requirements which is less restrictive than the Open Land requirements. Of note is that the Open Land District is not one that encourages single-family residential living though over the years many single-family residences have been constructed in the Open Land District. The Plan Commission did provide a Page 23 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 unanimous favorable recommendation to the Town Council for this rezone at its April 17, 2023 meeting. If there’s no questions for me, I will turn it over to Mr. Burrus for his presentation. Melton Janice, I have a question – does this kind of follow like what we’re going to be hit with with Form-Based Code as we move forward with how we rezone properties? Is there any connection here as to why this is so complicated I guess? Stevanovic In my mind this is completely separate. Melton Okay. Stevanovic What you have here is a petitioner requesting a rezone rather than going to the BZA for variances – Melton For a variance, okay. Stevanovic And in our experience it the past, we’ve had one petitioner go to the BZA for five different requests. I have another petitioner who’s returning their third time so that Open Land Zoning Ordinance is very restrictive in where and what you can do. Melton Okay. Stevanovic So rather than a lot of variances, they opted to do, petition for a rezone. Melton Fantastic. So one other question – I follow this, I attended that meeting. It seemed like they also made a commitment to only build one house on that property. Is that correct? Does that follow the land still? Stevanovic That is correct and I think Mr. Burrus will probably give you more detail on that. Melton Fantastic. Stevanovic My understanding is they have no intention of splitting the land at this point in time. They simply want to construct their single-family home, however, Mr. Burrus, as an attorney, is protecting his client and saying should down the road they desire to split the land, they will commit to no more than in half. Burk No more than what? Stevanovic They have two lots. Not specifically 50/50 but two different lots. Burk Okay, thank you. I just didn’t hear properly, I was like excuse me? Stevanovic All right? Burrus President Plunkett and members of the Town Council, my name is Roger Burrus. Office is at 410 West Oak Street in Zionsville and I’d like to first say I am not here asking for any money. I represent Phil and Etelka Froymovich who currently live in Carmel but they would really like to relocate to Zionsville. They Page 24 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 found a lot on Starkey Road. There was an existing home there that has been demolished but and Janice did a nice job of, of presenting kind of the background on this and it’s really not complicated other than the fact that we got this Open Land zoning in an area that’s 90% single-family residential, some 1-acre lots to 5-acre lots or more so the problem is and I think we could spent a lot of time talking about how we got here in terms of why we have this Open Land zoning in this area that’s all residential anyway but that might just be fruitless so let’s just consider the fact that with the Ordinance we have there’s, either you have to, a property owner has to seek multiple variances because the setbacks and the lot coverage and all that for Open Land are very restrictive. I mean, most of the existing homes on Starkey Road would not, don’t comply with the Open Land zoning so it just really doesn’t make any sense for that zoning to be there. Councilor Melton brings up a great point which I’ve also brought up that is the new Zoning Ordinance going to fix some of this and I don’t know that answer. I know what was presented to the Plan Commission back in November is that there’s going to be a new zoning classification for the Urban Open Land, the Rural Equestrian District, the Urban Rural Equestrian District and the Rural Ag District. Those are all going to be changed to Neighborhood Rural. So if that’s what ends up happening that’s, that’ll be for you to decide when that new Zoning Ordinance is presented, if and when it’s presented but I think everything’s going to change but my clients didn’t want to wait for something that may or may not happen. My clients just want to build one house. So they decided to seek a rezoning and to do that we first looked at what’s the predominant zoning for the neighbors or what’s the predominant use because we want to match the zoning to the use and actually some of the homes along Starkey Road were developed under the, R, under the Village zoning classification so they would have even more restrictive requirements but we didn’t ask for that. We asked for R-SF-2. The Plan Commission thought that made perfect sense so they unanimously approved it. I could talk more but I think based on what you’ve heard I’d rather just save any additional time, save your time and answer any specific questions that you may have. Thank you. Garrett Roger, it’s a, it’s a fairly wooded lot and I saw on Google Maps where the old home was. It seems based on the plan, the new home would be constructed similarly where that old home was. Should I assume, as is many of the other homes along that road that the front part will remain wooded outside of the driveway access and probably appealing to the homeowners to leave it that way too? Burrus Well the other thing is there’s a creek that goes through this property and there’s also a Zionsville sewer line that goes through this property at an angle – Garrett Got it. Burrus So the place to put the house is pretty limited and it’s in that back area. Garrett Okay and they prob – not going to clear cut the whole front I’m assuming? Burrus Oh no. Well, I have not asked my client that question but I don’t think so. I mean they want to build a nice, relatively large home but it’s not going to be a monster. Page 25 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 Garrett Yes. Burrus So, Yes, I think, they, they do things right. They want to have a nice home. They want to be welcomed to Zionsville and they don’t want to make their neighbors angry. Garrett Sure. Melton Roger, I just have a question – so, we talked about developments and developments paying a park impact fee. Does, does this property pay a park impact fee also? Burrus Anytime there’s a building permit that’s when the impact fee is assessed. I’m not sure if it’s when you’re replacing an existing home with another home whether that applies or not. I’ve never answered that question. Melton I’m getting a nod no so. Traylor Hmm. Melton From the back. Burrus Yes, Lance would probably know or Janice. Stevanovic Typically what happens if your single-family residence has already come in and paid that park impact fee the new home is not going to pay it. Melton Okay so if, if it was split again there would be a park impact fee likely for the next property? Stevanovic That’s correct. Melton Great. Plunkett Any other questions from Councilors? Traylor I’ll make a motion to approve. Melton Second. Plunkett We have a first by Councilor Traylor, a second by Councilor Melton. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Thank you Roger, Janice. Page 26 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 Consideration of an Ordinance Creating Fund 276 for READI Grant Funds Ordinance 2023-12 (First Reading) Plunkett Up next is a Consideration of an Ordinance Creating Fund 276 for READI Grant Funds. This is Ordinance 2023-12. This is a first reading and we have Corrie Meyer. Good evening. Sharp Good evening. Corrie Sharp. Plunkett Corrie Sharp. I’m sorry. Sharp Meyer. Corrie Sharp’s my happy name. Plunkett Sorry. Sharp Redevelopment Commission Director. I’ve been asked to give you an update and clearly I came on the wrong night for you to be creating a new fund. So – Traylor Not as long as you have a way to fund it, we’re good. Sharp I do have a way to fund it. So this is a line item. So hopefully in May when you get your new budget it will just be a new line item and – so, Zionsville received a $1.9 million dollar grant through the READI program that the Indiana Economic Development Commission issued and it is part of a $20 million dollar grant that was given to the White River Regional Opportunity Initiative. This grant was written to focus on the planning and engineering for the First Street road realignment in the Zionsville Gateway Area, so between the creek and Sycamore Street and so in order to continue to receive this funding from the state, we need to have a line item to put it in and that is what this request is for. Burk So you’re actually bringing us money? Sharp Yes. Burk Yes, thank you. Sharp Well, I’m not but – Burk No, Yes. Sharp You know. Plunkett So this is similar to like when we did the opioid and that kind of stuff. We’re just opening up an account, accepting the money and then I think I read in the Ordinance that there’s a line in there that talks about any funds that are distributed would be an appropriation through the Council. Sharp Yes sir. Plunkett Yes, perfect. All right, any questions for Councilors? Page 27 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 Garrett Is there any reason to do this all today, tonight? Plunkett Well, I mean, its, until we get funds we’re not going to send any money out of there anyway. Garrett I didn’t know if there were funds that were like sort of pending to be here any minute or something like that. Plunkett No, I mean – Harris No. Plunkett Is there, is there any relevance to doing it – Harris This is a State Board of Accounts requirement so they’re going to want, the state is going to want to see both with the READI fund application as well as the State Board of Accounts a separate fund designated because this grant funding can only be used for the purpose of which it was granted. Garrett Right. Harris So as part of the grant application for READI grants it requires that we actually put it in a separate account So as I understand this, it’s just creating the account to put the money into. Garrett Oh, I know I’m just wondering do we need to create the account tonight – Burk To move it through. Garrett If, if money is pending or if we do this over two meetings because it’s a first reading so it – Harris Oh, I see what you’re saying, okay. Garrett Yes. Plunkett I mean there’s, there’s no impact on a timeline, right? I mean – Sharp Yes. Plunkett Yes. Garrett Okay. Plunkett Yes. Questions from Councilors? All right, I would make a motion to approve Ordinance 2022-12 or 2023-12, I’m sorry. Choi Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Choi. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Page 28 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Thank you. OTHER MATTERS Plunkett Up next is Other Matters. Are there any questions or anything Councilors would like to bring up? Any other matters? Choi Yes, if I could just have a moment of time just to recognize that of obvious personal importance to me, but May is Mental Health Awareness month and posted on my website about kind of the significance around this as well. I want to make the Town aware of a resource available now online. I helped co-found a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We just got our designation in November but we’ve been working on it for two years. This is an effort by myself and my very dear friends, Amber Nunes and Carrie-Ann Jordan. We founded this organization to fill the gaps in mental health resources and provisions within the Town of Zionsville. The, it’s called the Zionsville Alliance for Mental Wellness and the website is zamwell.org. Z-A-M-W-E-L-L dot org. You can go to the site. If you are looking for assistance for yourself or a loved one, friend, please visit the website. We have a list of all the resources available in the Town as well as connections to national resources. We hope to provide an increasing level of services not, not therapy but services to help link people together to the correct providers as well so in this month where people are being, people are recognizing that this affects a lot of families, if it’s not yourself then somebody you know or love. So just want to point out that if instead of just Googling the internet you’ll be able to access a number of providers in the area number of resources in the area that could be helpful to you so. Thank you. Plunkett Anything else from Councilors? Burk I think everybody knows tomorrow is Election Day. Folks have been voting so maybe half the folks have already voted. Just be sure to exercise your right to vote. There are a number of people who put themselves out there on the ballot, many of them are in this room, and I just want to thank them for putting themselves out there and running their campaigns and I know what it feels like to be in it and be there tomorrow and just thank you all for doing that and good luck to everybody running. Plunkett Yes, it’s 6 to 6 tomorrow here so. Anything else from Councilors? ADJOURN Traylor I make a motion to adjourn. Garrett Second. Page 29 of 30 Zionsville Town Council May 1, 2023 Plunkett First by Councilor Traylor, second by Councilor Garrett. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. The next Regular Town Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 15, 2023 at 7:30 a.m. in the Zionsville Town Hall Council Chambers. Final notice will be posted in compliance with the Indiana Open Door Law. Thank you. Respectfully Submitted, Amelia Anne lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator Town of Zionsville Page 30 of 30