Zionsville Town Council

Zionsville Town Council March 17, 2025 ZIONSVILLE TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES FOR MARCH 17, 2025 AT 7:30 A.M. EST ONSITE MEETING 1100 West Oak Street This meeting was conducted onsite. All Councilors participated in person. Council Members Present: Jason Plunkett, President; Brad Burk, Vice-President; Craig Melton, Evan Norris, Sarah Esterline Sampson, and Joe Stein Absent: Tim McElderry Also Present: Heather Harris, Town Council Attorney; Mayor John Stehr; Deputy Mayor Justin Hage; Mike Dale, Director of Planning & Building Department; Lance Lantz, Director of DPW; Jon Oberlander, Town Attorney; Amy Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator and other Town staff OPENING A. Call meeting to order B. Pledge of Allegiance *This is where the audio started. Plunkett All right, I’ll give everybody else a second here for their mics to power up. All right Joe, if there’s something wrong up here just give me a head’s up all right? APPROVAL OF THE MEMORANDUM OF THE MARCH 3, 2025 REGULAR MEETING Plunkett Moving on to the first item of business is the approval of the March 3, 2025 Town Council Meeting Memoranda. A copy has been posted. Are there questions from Councilors? Otherwise, I would entertain a motion. I’ll make a motion to approve. Burk Second. Plunkett Second from Vice President Burk. All in favor signify by saying aye. Page 1 of 16 Zionsville Town Council March 17, 2025 All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. APPROVAL OF THE MARCH 17, 2025 CLAIMS Plunkett Up next is the approval of the March 17, 2025 claims. Are there questions from Councilors? Otherwise I would entertain a motion. Melton Motion to approve. Sampson Second. Plunkett First from Councilor Melton, second from Councilor Sampson. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett Those oppose same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. REQUEST TO SPEAK Plunkett Up next is Request to Speak on Agenda Item. Amy, I do not have any up here. Do you have any down there? Lacy No, we don’t have any. MAYOR/ADMININISTRATION UPDATE Plunkett All right, perfect so we will move along to the Mayor/Administration Update. Good morning Mayor Stehr. Sampson Good morning. Stehr Joe, I don’t think this is on. Norris It’s the power button. There’s another button just lower than that. Stehr All right, I think we’re good. Good morning Councilors, Happy St. Patrick’s Day. I just have a couple of quick notes to get through here. First of all, is the Comprehensive Planning process. That is moving forward. Still on target to wrap up by late summer or early fall. We have subcommittees doing their work right Page 2 of 16 Zionsville Town Council March 17, 2025 now and the public will have a chance to weigh in through a couple of community strategy open house meetings. They will be as it appears on your screen there – Wednesday, April 9th here at Town Hall from 4:30 to 6:30 and then Tuesday, April 15th at the library from 4:30 to 6:30 and we will make sure that this information is put out on our social media channels and that this is socialized around town. The next item I have is the wayfinding signs. After more than four years of planning, design and production, the wayfinding signs that were approved through a public process that began in 2020 and funded by the previous Town Council in 2022, will be installed over the next few months. In all, there will be 24 signs installed around town and four along the Big 4 Rail Trail. You may have seen a few of those up if you’re an astute observer, especially if you’re coming up Zionsville Road you’ve seen a couple of them there. Restrooms – we have achieved a temporary downtown restroom solution which is funded by the Redevelopment Commission. What we have is a high-quality trailer that will be accessible year-round and it is currently being built to our specifications at the factory. Site preparation has pretty much concluded in the parking lot just south of The Friendly and this will be in place by mid-April. The next item that I have is DORA and we do have the signage and the first round of cups that have been ordered. We’re still on track to begin DORA sales next month and I have a look at the signs that we’re going to place around town here. The things have been ordered as I said and these signs will begin to go up in preparation for a launch that will occur sometime in April or May. We’re not going to announce an official date but we’ll just start easing into it. In addition to the signage, this is the logo that we’re going to use. This is going to be on the cups and on the window clings and everything that relates to the outdoor refreshment area. And finally today, at the urging of Councilor Norris and President Plunkett, we’re going to take a few minutes to honor Zionsville resident, Kevin Gregory, who recently retired from a four-decade career _____ 5:50 no audio I’ve known Kevin for a long time, I guess a little over 30 years. We met through his father, Bob, who was a colleague of mine at WTHR and Kevin and I spent quite a few years as competitors and I can say that Kevin has always been a gentleman. Our competition while at times intense and the broadcasting business has changed a bit over the years but I can tell you 30 years ago it was very intense but he’s always been a gentleman, he’s always been friendly, even when after one strong readings month for us I accused him of being in the witness protection program over there at Channel 6. Not very nice of me but he took it, took it well. So broadcasting even today can be a very tough business and there aren’t very many people who not only survive but thrive for so long. So we wanted to recognize his retirement with a proclamation today so I’m gonna go ahead and read that. There are a lot of whereases and therefores but I’ll keep those out but – oh, got a new microphone. Is that better? So Whereas, WT – WRTV, excuse me, Indiana’s oldest licensed television station has served viewers in the Indianapolis market since May of 1949; and Page 3 of 16 Zionsville Town Council March 17, 2025 Whereas, Kevin Gregory joined WRTV’s weather team in 1989 after gaining experience at television stations in Lafayette, Indiana and Champaign, Illinois and since then Kevin has been a trusted and authoritative voice in weather reporting serving the greater Indianapolis region; and The second generation meteorologist, Kevin, followed in the footsteps of his father, Bob, who began forecasting in Central Indiana at WLWI, now WTHR, in 1972; and Whereas, from 1989 to 2000, Kevin engaged and educated viewers as the host of At the Zoo at WRTV reporting from locations such as Botswana, Kenya and the Galapagos Islands; and Whereas, Kevin has been a role model for multiple generations of television viewers by consistently demonstrating integrity, loyalty and compassion while maintaining a steadfast commitment to accuracy and clarity in his reporting; and Whereas, Kevin retired from his exemplary broadcasting career on February 28, 2025 after nearly 36 years of service to his viewers and community. Therefore, be it resolved, that today we proclaim March 17, 2025 as Kevin Gregory Day in recognition of his outstanding achievements and lasting impact on both the state and the Town of Zionsville and we encourage all residents to join in celebrating and honoring Kevin for his remarkable accomplishments and contributions. Council and those in attendance, Kevin Gregory. Gregory Thank you very much. I’m, I’m humbled by the honor. Proud to be a Zionsville resident and I need to say two things – 54 and sunny today, 71 and dry tomorrow. I won’t take anymore time. Thank you. Plunkett I like that 71 and sunny or dry, I guess. I’ll take it. MAIN STREET ZIONSVILLE PRESENTATION Plunkett All right, up next on the agenda we have a Main Street Zionsville presentation. With us this morning we have the President of the executive team, Erica Carpenter. It seems like, if needed, on the bench we have back there Tom Casalini and also member, Liz Esra. Carpenter That’s right, we do. Good morning Zionsville. Thank you very much for letting me be here today, Erica Carpenter. I am here to share the fantastic news that Main Street Zionsville, our nonprofit, applied to be an Indiana Main Street community and we received news of this designation earlier this month. Today I’m going to talk about the program and what it means for our community. So on the first slide I’m gonna give a little background about Indiana Main Street itself. It is a part of the Office of Community and Rural Affairs and Indiana Main Street encourages community-driven work in downtown areas in Indiana cities and towns. The people who make up the Main Street network are passionate advocates, dedicated volunteers, influential stakeholders and community Page 4 of 16 Zionsville Town Council March 17, 2025 organizers who work every day in their communities catalyzing reinvestment, creating jobs and fostering a pride of place. And then on the next slide we’re gonna, I’m not gonna read this one in detail but it talks a little bit about the Four Point Approach which are, is sort of the very specific strategy that Indiana Main Street and Main Street USA has their organizations use which is organization, promotion, design and economic vitality. These are the fundamentals of a Main Street organization and we have created our committee structure, work plans and goals around these tenets. Now on to a little bit about us with Main Street Zionsville. The background really involves the Zionsville Chamber of Commerce. We’ve been discussing Main Street Zionsville for many years but then seriously investigated post- COVID. Again, we regrouped to apply. We did further research and then put the Main Street Zionsville Board together in 2024 to apply for the designation. I will say not only do we receive promotion of Zionsville but we have access to the resources of Indiana Main Street, other Main Street organizations, the national organization and conferences, webinars, newsletters, resources for our businesses, or organization and for Zionsville. The application requirements included a 501(c)(3) status, evidence of historic fabric in the district, an active Board – we attended Main Street 101 which is put on by OCRA. We had a local public support meeting. Thank you so much to those of you who attended that meeting. We had to have detailed work plans around the four points and the ability to track key investment. We also received some great letters of support from merchants, from Mayor Stehr, from the Cultural District, the Farmers Market and the Zionsville Chamber of Commerce but it is with much, much thanks to the volunteer Board that allowed us to do this work and receive our designation on March 6th. Next is a list of those dedicated Board members. We were very strategic when we put the Board together. We wanted people who worked for other non or served on other nonprofits, who served the district or on complimentary groups. Each person on this serves on a committee or leads a committee and then we have a great group of committee volunteers. Some of those have started already. We started sort of pre-designation and some of those are in the process of being activated. And next I’ll tell you about some of the details that we have gathered as we’ve put this together. So over on the side you’ll see the actual boundaries of the district. It is very close to the DORA area with the exception of Creekside Corporate Park and that’s only because the Main Street requirements needed for it to be easily walkable historic district and so that kind of excluded that but we matched, matched up with the DORA as best we could. We have over 170 businesses in this area and over 50% of those are women-owned business. I will tell you the proof is in the concept. I received the day before our designation an email from Indiana Main Street asking for women-owned businesses, their pictures inside their businesses and, and the name of the business and so we were able to, at minus one day, give these to get state exposure for our businesses in the district and also for Zionsville and that was just, even before day one. We have over 1,100 full-time and part-time employees. A lot of the data we collect is Page 5 of 16 Zionsville Town Council March 17, 2025 on the assessed value, the number of parking spots, building and roof type and more. We’ve created a narrative of each property. We have building and business owner contact information and current and historic pictures. I do want to reiterate that this is not a membership organization. I think there was some concern early on that this would be kind of a repeat of the old Village Merchants Association and this is not that. If your business is in the district, then you are a part of Main Street Zionsville. And then next we’ll talk a little bit about what we’re planning to do now that we have the designation. We’ve already been working with our partners on some of the design aspects including the SullivanMunce, the Cultural District and Zionsville Parks. Under organization, our website is in process. It’s at mainstreetzionsville.org and we’re in the process of organizing some volunteers. We have a cleanup day scheduled in April that we’re gonna be hopefully utilizing some great volunteers to come join us. We have several events planned for promotion including an art walk on June 27th and a reactivation of Night on the Bricks. Economic vitality – we made a commitment to visit all 170 businesses twice per year. This is the volunteer Board doing this and those business visits will start this week. So we’re going to verify the data that we have, promote the wins and aid with their growth. Then finally here I want to say thank you, obviously, to the Town of Zionsville for everything that you do for the Main Street District. I think we’re already in such a great position because of all the things that go on there from planters to light post banners, all of the barricades, cones, parking signs and more that go into making the events in the district a success. I want to give a special thanks to Lance and the Street Department team. Without them we wouldn’t be able to do half the things or even less than half the things that we do down there so thank you, thank you to them. I wanted to invite you all to the Main Street Zionsville ribbon cutting which will be this Saturday at 9 a.m. at the corner of Main and Cedar Streets at the pocket park. I hope you can all make it and that’s to the community too, not just Town Council. We’d like to see you all there. One of the things that we hope to do with these economic vitality visits is learn what our businesses need so that we can help them grow. I think we are all in agreement that we want to keep our home- grown Zionsville businesses here in Zionsville. As far as the promotions go, you can obviously volunteer, we’d love to see you there and I’d ask that if when you guys are reviewing the fee schedule, I know you waive some special event fee, application fees for the Chamber and other groups that go down there if you could maybe consider adding us when you do that we’d appreciate it. We also plan to launch a downtown collaborative committee to discuss and share information as it pertains to what is happening in the district. We’re still finalizing the committee makeup but town representation is obviously a must. And then finally I just wanted to say thank you again for allowing me the chance to present today and I’d like to take this opportunity if I could to thank our partners with SullivanMunce, the Cultural District, the Farmers Market, Town of Page 6 of 16 Zionsville Town Council March 17, 2025 Zionsville and the Parks Department and the Zionsville Chamber. Anything I can answer or? Plunkett Erica, I just want to say thanks for this presentation. Certainly this business data is incredible. Just to understand what type of businesses we have in the Village and how valuable that economic impact is. I think our, our town is such a gem and Main Street is such a huge part of that and you and your team have done a really good job of working hard on this and, and this is an accomplishment that deserves to be celebrated so congratulations. Carpenter Thank you. I appreciate that. Sampson Thank you Erica. OLD BUSINESS Consideration of an Ordinance Regarding Park Rules Update Ordinance 2025-07 (Final Reading) Plunkett All right, we will move on to the first item of Old Business – this is a Consideration of an Ordinance Regarding Park Rules Update. This is Ordinance 2025-07. This is a final reading. If we have any questions we have Mayor Stehr here this this morning with us to present. Are there any questions or comments from Councilors? Norris No, I don’t think my microphone is working. Sampson Mine’s not either. Norris I just saw one discrepancy in the Park Board Rules under Section B4 under Section 98.01. I plan on making an amendment to state that a precursor that unless otherwise stated in these town Ordinances, no person shall operate any motorized vehicle or off-road vehicle except on the designated parking area, so on and so forth simply because we have what I believe to be a little bit of a discrepancy between town Ordinances about about some of these pathways so I’ll be making that amendment. Plunkett Anything else from Councilors? I would entertain a motion. Sorry Heather, you have something to add there? Harris I made a couple of non-substantive revisions so if you’ll consider that when adopting your motion to also include those non-substantive revisions that were posted. Plunkett I’m assuming Evan you can handle that one? Norris Yes. Sampson Yes mine turned off and back on. You have the green? Burk It’s good now, yes. Page 7 of 16 Zionsville Town Council March 17, 2025 Norris I’ll go ahead and use Sarah’s. I move to approve Ordinance 2024-07 with the following revisions: First that certain technical revisions be amended to reflect an accurate Ordinance and then second that Title 9, Chapter 98, Section 98.01 Section B, Section 4 be amended to read that “Unless otherwise stated in these town Ordinances, no person shall operate any motorized, motorized vehicle or off-road vehicle except town maintenance vehicles on any park property except on the designated parking areas.” Stein For the record, it’s 2025-07. Norris 2025-07. Thank you. Plunkett He doesn’t have to redo that does he Heather? Harris No. Plunkett Okay. Norris I hope not. Stein I’ll second. Plunkett I have a first from Councilor Norris. Was that a second from Councilor Stein? All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. Consideration of an Ordinance Amending the Crosswalk Ordinance Ordinance 2025-08 (Final Reading) Plunkett Up next is a Consideration of an Ordinance Amending the Crosswalk Ordinance. This is Ordinance 2025-08. This is also a final reading and we have DPW Director, Lance Lantz, here with us if there are any questions. Is there anything from Councilors? Otherwise, I would make a motion to approve Ordinance 2025- 08 on final reading. Melton Second. Plunkett Second from Councilor Melton. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Page 8 of 16 Zionsville Town Council March 17, 2025 All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. NEW BUSINESS Consideration of an Encroachment Appeal ( Dickerson – 6325 S 275 E) Plunkett Moving onto the first item of New Business is a Consideration of an Encroachment Appeal. This is for the Dickersons at 6325 South 275 East. We have Mike Dale, Director of Planning & Building and Jordin Dickerson here, perfect, if we need to and Lance can also offer some insight as well. Good morning Mike. Dale Good morning. Yes, Jordin Dickerson is here this morning to request an encroachment into a 40-foot rear yard setback and drainage easement for a property at 6325 South County Road 275 East which is south of 6 east and on the east side of County Road 275. The property is located within about a 12-acre, three-lot subdivision. She is the owner of Lot 2 within that subdivision. Within that subdivision there is as I mentioned, a 40-foot rear yard setback and drainage easement. She would like to place a barn, a pole barn, within that easement and so the problem is that with this easement she would not be permitted to locate that barn as close to the rear or east property line as she’d like to. So, as a result, she has asked for this encroachment from the Town Council to encroach into that 40-foot setback. She is also concurrently requesting a primary plat amendment in case the Town Council were not inclined to grant this encroachment then she can proceed to the Plan Commission and actually amend the plat to relocate that easement so that she can place the barn where she wants to. We have received a letter from the Department of Public Works. They are not opposed to this encroachment. Staff is not opposed to this encroachment either. Questions for me? Plunkett Mike, just so that I’m clear on the process here – Dale Yep. Plunkett And, and first of all, I appreciate you presenting this and Ms. Dickerson for your efforts and I’ve read the emails and the correspondence back and forth with Councilor Melton and I know there’s been a lot of heavy lifting going on here for quite some time. Just to be clear – if this is approved this morning she can withdraw the petition tonight at the Plan Commission, correct? Dale Entirely up to her. She could withdraw it at any time. Plunkett But it’s not necessary I guess my point – Page 9 of 16 Zionsville Town Council March 17, 2025 Dale That’s correct. Plunkett Is it’s not necessary. Dale Yes. Plunkett Okay. Dale Yes, it would not be necessary. She could accomplish her goal of locating the barn where she wishes to without having to amend the plat. Plunkett Yes, okay. Dale If the encroachment is granted. Plunkett Yes. Sampson So I was wondering if you were even wanting to do both because when I was reading through this, it, I got the impression that the easement was incorrectly done. Dale Yes, yes, in fact, it probably should not have been placed on the plat in the first place. Sampson So I would almost do both so that you’re just covered if something else comes up later. I don’t know if that would be – I mean I know that’s taking government time but it also is fixing something that you’re facing but I did read that and it was nice, it was good to see both the town and the easements from Lance saying that it wasn’t a problem with both of you so. Dale Yes. Yes, the downside I suppose to the encroachment is that there’s a standard of agreement where the owner agrees that if for some reason the town or other utility needs to access that easement then they could relocate or move that or remove the barn from its location as needed to get into that easement. So that’s, that’s a downside I suppose to amending the plat because encroaching means that it’s really, the town’s not absolving its ability to use that easement. Sampson So if we granted but it was still there then it could later have to remove the barn? Is that – Dale If there’s some reason that the town or a utility needed to get into that that easement. Sampson I would take that very seriously. Dale Yes. Dickerson ____ 26:02 off microphone Sampson Yes. Sorry. Page 10 of 16 Zionsville Town Council March 17, 2025 Dickerson Sorry. Sampson And you have no voice. Plunkett Jordin, if you would, when you get up here just state your name and address for the record please. Dickerson Jordin Dickerson. My address is 6325 South 275 East, Lebanon, Indiana 46052. The, like you said, if it is granted today can, should, you think I should still follow through with the other part too? Sampson I’m more of a person to make sure I’ve got all my bases covered. Dickerson Okay. Sampson But that’s up to you. Dickerson I currently have a permit for the incorrect way so we could even get on our pole barn builder’s schedule for this year so if it is granted this morning and it’s okay and I get the correct permit, I can still go or I can still do the second part of this? Sampson Mike Dale is shaking his head, shaking his head yes. Dickerson Okay, all right. That’s all. Does anybody need anything from me? Norris Procedurally, how do we do this? Plunkett Well we either approve the encroachment appeal or we don’t. Norris Got it. Plunkett We either make a motion to approve the appeal or we make a motion to deny the appeal and I think the job of this Council today is to consider an encroachment appeal and if she decides to do anything tonight at the Plan Commission or pull it then she certainly has the opportunity to do that. I know that’s gonna be a pretty big meeting tonight so I don’t know if you necessarily want to be on that agenda. Burk Hey Mike real quick – I don’t have a problem with this one. We, I’ve seen a number of these come through and it’s, it’s rare that we approve the appeal. I think we’ve done one in five years. In this case, but I’ve never seen Lance and, and your team actually agree that you agree with the appeal, but you are in this case and that’s because you believe that the town incorrectly placed this easement or this easement should not believe – Dale Right and, and the zoning, it would, the Zoning Code would require only a 5-foot setback instead of 40 feet so I think she intends to place the structure about 10 or 15 feet off her property line so there’s no violation into, into the Zoning Ordinance requirement for setbacks. Burk Okay, thank you. Page 11 of 16 Zionsville Town Council March 17, 2025 Melton Mike, it’s 5 or 15 foot – Dale Five (5). Melton Is the requirement? Dale Is the requirement, 5 is the requirement. I think she’s asking for, I think Public Works is also requesting a 15-foot easement instead of the 40 but the Zoning Code would only require 5. Plunkett Any other questions for Mr. Dale? Sampson I can’t remember – what was, what was your plan? Dickerson ____ 28:52 off microphone Sampson The back, so you were going into the 5? Dale No. Sampson Just into the 15? Dale Yes, yes. Just I guess 20 feet into the, into the easement. Sampson Twenty (20) feet into the 40? Dale Yes, right. Sampson Not the back 15? Dale Right, she – Sampson That’s what I just want to make sure we stated after we just said 15. We’re still gonna have the 15? Dale Stay clear of of the 15 foot. Sampson I’m good. Plunkett All right, any other questions from Councilors? Otherwise, I would entertain a motion. Sampson I’ll make a motion, if I can find it. I would motion to approve the encroachment appeal. Norris Second. Plunkett I got a first from Councilor Sampson, second from Councilor Norris. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Page 12 of 16 Zionsville Town Council March 17, 2025 All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. Consideration of an Ordinance Authorizing Bonds (Holliday Farms Project) Ordinance 2025-09 (First Reading) Plunkett Up next is a Consideration of an Ordinance Authorizing Bonds. This is for the Holliday Farms project. This is Ordinance 2025-09. This is a first reading. We have and I’m sorry if I get the names incorrect here – Jerimi Ullom, Maxwell Adams and counsel for the petitioner. Ullom Thank you, Jerimi Ullom. So close. Plunkett Ullom, close. Ullom Close. Thank you Mr. President and members of the Council. I’m Jerimi Ullom with Barnes & Thornburg. We represent The Club at Holliday Farms and Henke Development in this matter. Before you today is just the introduction of an ordinance. We’ll be attending the Redevelopment Commission meeting, I believe that’s on the calendar for next week, circling back to you all in April for a consideration of a final action on this ordinance. This relates to Holliday Farms which you’re very familiar with, obviously, through the years but when that development was first undertaken there was an economic development area formed which is kind of the basis for an allocation area to capture tax increment. At that time and to this date none of that increment has been used on the development. I think it was set up in anticipation of its use. We are following kind of those prior discussions here. We’re not asking for more or less than I think was discussed historically and the proceeds of this bond will be used for really infrastructure associated with the next phase of Holliday Farms which is 18 commercial outlots, some townhomes. I think you may all be familiar with that phase of the development. Henke Development, one of their entities will purchase the bonds. This is kind of one of those developer purchased bonds that’s somewhat self-contained and its sized in an amount that will cover the infrastructure for this additional phase but, again, in line I think with the historical thinking around this project, at least based on our knowledge, and this is introduction of the Bond Ordinance, kind of the first process in that step. Plunkett Any questions from Councilors? Stein Is there any kind of timeline on the project? I mean – Ullom That would be Doug Fleenor and, and Brad Henke who could speak to a little bit more about the project itself if you like. Henke Brad Henke, Henke Development Group, 781 Old Ashbury. Timing wise, there are different projects going. We’ve done a couple there. On the north side Traci Page 13 of 16 Zionsville Town Council March 17, 2025 Garontakos is just getting ready to start her building there. We have a medical, a dental user as well so a lot of different things starting to come to the area. Excuse me, my voice is going through the same thing. Plunkett Anything else from Councilors? This is a first reading so as mentioned, this would come back to us in April so. If there are no questions, I would entertain a motion. Stein I move to introduce Ordinance 2025-09 on first reading. Plunkett I’ll second that. So a first from Councilor Stein, second by President Plunkett. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. Ullom Much appreciated. Plunkett Thank you. Consideration of an Ordinance Establishing a Donation Fund for the Town of Zionsville Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council Ordinance 2025-10 (First Reading) Plunkett The last item of New Business is a Consideration of an Ordinance Establishing a Donation Fund for the Town of Zionsville Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council. This is Ordinance 2025-10. This is also a first reading and we have Deputy Mayor Justin Hage here to introduce. Hage Good morning Councilors. This is a relatively straightforward ordinance that just allows the town to hold money in an account for donations specifically earmarked for the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council. Again, the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council has accepted private donations and will continue to do so and in order to do so we need to have a separate fund created. Plunkett Justin, did you say that they have accepted funds? Hage Correct. Plunkett Is there any reason why we wouldn’t, I guess we can’t suspend the rules actually. I was gonna say suspend the rules but – Burk Tim’s not here. Plunkett Yes. Okay, any questions from Councilors? Page 14 of 16 Zionsville Town Council March 17, 2025 Burk Justin, I mean I don’t think anybody is gonna be opposed to it. Is, these wouldn’t be tax deductible donations – Hage No. Burk By any means and then what, what do you foresee the donations being used for? What, when you’re soliciting these are folks are giving and what’s the expectation that these will be used? Hage Very limited costs related to refreshments for meetings, there’s a book that’s being read by the group so purchasing those books so, again, just very limited costs related to the program. I think they’re gonna have some T-shirts for a cleanup day so, again, limited costs that are related to the Council. Burk Thank you. Sampson And to this group it’s a pretty dynamic group of kids and I’m actually participating in their fieldtrip down to the government offices next week so I think this is a really good initiative that Mayor Stehr has started for our town and I think it’s a great way to give our younger voice a line into thinking about government as a possible future career. So I’m good with it. Plunkett Anything else from Councilors? I would entertain a motion at this point. Melton Motion to approve Ordinance 2025-10. Sampson Second. Plunkett I have a first from Councilor Melton, a second from Councilor Sampson. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. OTHER MATTERS Plunkett Any other matters from Councilors? Sampson Yes, I just wanted to let everyone know the Disability Advisory Committee met for the first time this month and we’ve set up quarterly meetings and in 1987 in, I guess March of 1987, President Ronald Reagan issued his proclamation declaring March to be Developmental Disabilities Awareness month and urged awareness to be increased regarding the needs of individuals with developmental disabilities and I think that’s just something we should carry on in our own town, the Town of Zionsville. If we could all encourage residents to support organizations and individuals that work to increase independence for individuals with developmental disabilities, I think that would be a great improvement to our Page 15 of 16 Zionsville Town Council March 17, 2025 town. We have a lot of people who live with someone in their family with a disability and I just wanted to acknowledge the work that’s been started with this committee and I see great things coming. Plunkett Very good. Thank you for that. ADJOURN Plunkett Anything else from Councilors? At this point I would make a motion to adjourn. Norris Second. Plunkett Second from Councilor Norris. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. The next regular Town Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 21, 2025 at 7:30 a.m. in the Zionsville Town Hall Council Chambers. Please note there will be no April first Monday meeting. 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 16 of 16