LAPEL TOWN COUNCIL MEETING
JANUARY 18, 2024

In attendance: Chad Blake, Brian Robertson, Lindsey Washmuth and Roger Fouse, Teresa
Retherford, Clerk-Treasurer, Dax Norton, Consultant and Evan McMullen, Legal counsel.

7pm meeting called to order.

Blake informs everyone there is now a sound system at the meetings.

Blake opens the floor for Public Comment:

Jim Bauer, President of the Fire Territory, monies are very difficult get right now. Still workin •
under the 2011 property tax. Tax rates for the Town of Lapel cannot be raised. There will stil
be a fire department. They will have to eliminate the Lapel Stoney Creek Township Fire
Territory and make it Stony Creek Township Fire Department. Trying to get property tax
asset evaluation to present. Right now, it's at the 2011 level. Cut $40,000.00 out of last
year's budget. Long term is to get full-time employees on the Fire Department.

Scheduled presentation: Water Project Update

Project is past its original due date. Struggles with the company putting new pipes in the
ground. Granted company multiple extensions to which they have let expire. The progress
map is updated to what has been completed.

Blake entertains the motion to table the water update and pay applications, Motion made
by Fouse, 2nd by Washmuth. All in favor.

Clerk-Treasurer Report: Next Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Teresa Retherford will be out
of the office for classes in Daleville. Jury Duty on Monday. Mike will be in the office with Lis
helping. Working on getting year end stuff done, W-2s, and close out the year in Keystone.
Everyone has new claims in front of them. Blake explains the claims. Retherford lets
everyone know the payment on the claims to First Merchants is for $108,000.00 is for the
Water Bond.

Approval of meeting minutes: We do not have any currently. Lisa is working on them.

No Public Hearings

Unfinished Business: Expenditure of over $5,000.00. Quote for water meters. Gary spoke
about 144 meters on order. $39,600.00 for these meters. The money is in the water fund.
Motion to approve water meter purchase made by Shuck, 2nd by Washmuth. All in favor.

New Business: Salery Ordinance, noncompliant. Elected officials get paid through all
different departments in the fund. Additional ve rbiage added to ordinance.

Robertson makes motion to approve 1-2024 salary ordinance, 2nd by Washmuth. All in
favor.

Motion to suspend the rules and approve salary ordinance on first reading made by
Robertson, 2nd by Blake. All in favor.

Resolution 1-2024: Town mileage reimbursement rate of 67 cents per mile. IRS and state
require this. Motion made by Washmuth, 2nd by Robertson. All in favor.

Town council met Tuesday at a workshop for town council policy and procedure manual.
The manual has been put together by town manager/consultant Norton. Norton talks about
changes to the policy and procedures.

Blake makes motion to table the consideration of the town council policy and procedures
manual to the next regular scheduled meeting, 2nd by Robertson. All in favor.

Contract renewal for MS Consultants: Norton explains about renewing the contract as
there is no contract right now. Talks about hiring and the cost of hiring someone for the
town manager.

Shuck speaks about the lighting at the utility building. It has older fluorescent lights in the building. Theres a quote for updating with LED lights. Also replacing the sodium light at the wastewater treatment plant with LED lights. There are enough funds to upgrade the lights.
Shuck makes motion to approve the quote to purchase the lights, 2nd by Blake. All in favor.
Utility Planning: Norton talks about looking at the planning of the sewage system. There are
still grants out there to get. Norton suggests having a meeting in the next week about
getting these grants and working with the l&I issues. Last project done for the sewer plant
was in 2007 according to Shuck.

Installation of fire hydrant meter: John Nikoloff speaks about getting a meter to know where
the water is going, there's been problems tracking where some of the water is going.
Estimate for a hydrant meter is around $5,000.00. Blake recommends getting quotes for
this meter and a quote for installation.

Retherford investigated the Lapel Lion's Club for future meetings. $50.00 each meeting and
there will be nothing else going on at the club during the meetings so it will be quieter. All
town meetings for every organization will be moved there.

Blake makes a motion to keep same meeting schedule but change the location to The
Lapel Lions Club pending signed contract, 2nd by Washmuth. All in favor.

Discuss a board and commissions information and application gateway: Norton talks
about the application process, vacancies, and keeping the public notified.

Department Reports: Chief Naselroad asks if there's a decision made at the last council
meeting about the solar eclipse. December was a slow month. A reserve officer resigned in
January for personal reasons. Reserve officer released from FPO. Officer Booker is now
filling shifts. Responded to 397 calls at the end of the year making total calls at 4,300.
Reserves worked 76 hours this month. There were 12 arrests in December. An agreement
has been made with the school for the SRO. The legal team has approved it, need a special
meeting to approve it.

Planning: Robertson states there was an election of officers last week. Matt Wood stayed
President and Andrea Baldwin is now Vice-President. There were two public hearings: One
for the town to rezone a piece of property it has from Residential 2 to Institutional to put
fiber hut for internet on it. Another for Lapel Industrial Park. Ground they rezoned a couple
years ago had issues with the drainage. Wanting to rezone from agricultural to light and
general industrial to where the legal drainage is. It will be held in front of the council next
month. Discussion of raising fees for anything that is associated with planning such as
rezoning is going to be happening.

Utilities: Nikoloff states both wells went down this weekend. Called Duke Energy, not on
them. We had to call in an electrician, they determined Duke Energy needed to fix the
problem. Duke Energy came out with 3 engineers, and never did anything. Norton and
Nikoloff got together to get things figured out with Duke Energy. Shuck showed up to get the
generator running. Getting quotes for new installations for pumps. Midco Diving got a hold I
of Nikoloff to clean our tower. They will be here the first or second week in March to clean it.
Atlas got the customer's water pressure fixed on Walnut St. Still finding a spot where water
pressure is being lost. Nikoloff asked about talking about gentleman who put application
in, Shuck said it will be discussed at next week's meeting. Brandon and Teague got the
snowplows ready. Brandon had to unwinterized the vac truck today due to a service line
leak. Blake states we did declare an emergency with the polar vortex with the extra cold
temperatures. The town purchased gas in advance and locked it in at just a little under
$20.00 a MCF. We locked the gas in at $57,000 to prevent any large gas bills. Any gas not
used will be sold and we will be able to recoup some money back.

Parks: They had their election of officers: Katie Hutchinson is President, Olivia is Vice President, Roger's position needed to be filled this year and that spot is still open. Meetings
are still the 3rd Tuesday of every month at 7pm, except for February. They are moving that
meeting to February 12th at 7pm at the Town Hall. US Fish and Wildlife has donated
$2,605.00 to put towards the seed cost for the Brookside restoration project. We still need
approximately $13,000.00 to finish the planting, the path signage and enough to finish
phase 2 for the trees and bushes.

Redevelopment Commission: No updates, no meeting

Chief Naselroad informs that the Lapel Eagles donated $2,000.00 to the police department.

Office Administration: Retherford has nothing currently.

Council members' comments and concerns: Fouse wants to look at the phone call
company that we use for the on-call calls. There was a complaint made that it took over an
hour and a half before the answering service called the on-call person for the problem.

Approval of Claims: No questions or concerns

Motion to approve the claims as presented for January 2024 made by Shuck, 2nd by Robertson. All in favor.

Motion to adjourn made by Blake, 2nd by Robertson. All in favor.

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