Live stream not working in Chrome or Edge?

Transcript

Event transcript
Join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. 00:00:00
I pledge allegiance to the flag. 00:00:04
Of the United States of America. 00:00:06
To the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God. 00:00:09
Indivisible with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:13
All right, all. 00:00:17
Last month, Joint Commissioner. 00:00:18
Council meeting was canceled for lack of business. I think we're making up for that today and. 00:00:21
I think we've made the turn. 00:00:26
Towards. 00:00:28
Colder weather because I think the furnace has been turned on now so we can all be too hot for the next 6 months instead of. 00:00:30
Too cold. 00:00:36
Which is good. 00:00:38
Were there any? Does anyone sign up to speak to any agenda items? 00:00:40
And while that's being taken care of, I'll look for approval of the 8/26/25 joint meetings. 00:00:49
Meeting minutes. 00:00:55
2nd. 00:00:56
Have a motion and a second all in favor, aye? 00:00:57
Alright, I'll give you that for. 00:01:03
That will begin. Several of these items are County Council. 00:01:06
Directed. And so there's going to be a lot of fluidity just going back and forth, letting Danny run that part of it. 00:01:11
And we'll begin that with the the public hearing state actually. 00:01:18
Strike that I do have two items to add and possibly 1/3. 00:01:22
For the commissioners specifically, item 4 was not advertised and I would like to add that. 00:01:26
Most approved second resolution 20/25/21. 00:01:32
Approving the issuance of the general obligation bond. 00:01:38
It was not on the agenda itself. 00:01:40
When it was initially published. Is that correct? 00:01:44
OK, so is that OK to add to this even though? 00:01:47
So I have a motion, the second all in favor on that, Aye. And again, that's just Commissioner specific only. 00:01:50
And then also Commissioner specific only the Barnes and Thornburg engagement letter for the general obligation bond. 00:01:58
2025. 00:02:04
Motion approved. 00:02:06
Second, all in favor? 00:02:07
And then Commissioner Sharp had an informational item to add at the end of this. 00:02:10
Again, we're not going to take any action on this tonight. If you want to explain what that is, yeah, This is just a basic kind of 00:02:16
plan of what we're imagining. What? 00:02:20
An EMS system could look like. 00:02:25
Nothing set in stone. There's a lot of moving pieces left here so. But at least it's a working document for everybody to kind of 00:02:27
get an idea of what the. 00:02:31
Kind of looks like. 00:02:35
This will be presented by Mr. Dixon, our EMS consultant. 00:02:36
All right. And that would be added as item number 10. 00:02:39
If I can get a motion in a second for that so moved I'll second. 00:02:44
Is there a way to to bring that up in the agenda before we vote on number six and seven? 00:02:48
So that we understand what the plan is. 00:02:55
That's not a solid plan. It's just. 00:02:58
And ideas. A brief presentation we're looking at. There's nothing set in stone. Not a solid plan. So that would be. 00:03:00
I'd like to hear that before we vote on the 6:00 and 7:00. 00:03:07
You're not voting on six and seven, it's Commissioner. 00:03:10
Oh yeah, 6 is just information approval of the yeah. 00:03:13
Now 7 point public safety tax funding for emergency vehicle purchase agreement. 00:03:18
Yeah, I think that. 00:03:22
Anybody else to understand the plan? 00:03:25
Before we, I don't have any problem doing that. Like you said it's information alone way, so I don't. 00:03:28
I'm doing that. The only reason it was added at the end is because. 00:03:34
The presentation was. 00:03:38
Given to me this morning for the first time to look at and I thought it would be interesting to add it. So the agenda was created 00:03:40
before the presentation was. 00:03:44
I'm having a problem with that. Anyone else on the GR? 00:03:48
Have any heartburn on that? It was put on because I thought. 00:03:51
We might be getting to a late point in the meeting where people might need to leave and go elsewhere. 00:03:54
That's why but. 00:03:58
We'll see how how briskly we get through everything else. 00:04:00
He said. I'm not going to have any heartburn over that, so. 00:04:03
Danny with the public hearing on the. 00:04:08
Ordinance. Umm. 00:04:11
All right, County Council will now open a public hearing for Ordinance 2025-20, amending the Will Tax Ordinance OF2025-12. 00:04:14
An ordinance establishing the county. 00:04:22
Vehicle excise, surtax and county wheel tax. 00:04:24
So the public hearing is now open. We've got. 00:04:28
I think I'll sign up to speak twice on that. Yeah, Mr. Daleman, if you would. 00:04:33
Like to come up? 00:04:38
Dear man, small farmer in Georgetown, IN. 00:04:43
I've got a problem with the wheel tax. 00:04:47
They called a user fee. 00:04:48
If you read it, it's really called a user fee. 00:04:50
What I want to know? 00:04:53
Is why are you charging me a tax on the trailers that I don't even use? 00:04:55
I have to license them. 00:04:58
Tag them, did not even use them. I got a kettle car I used twice a year. 00:05:00
I got caught or I used in case one of the kids cars broke down. 00:05:04
I got a utility charter. I probably don't use hardly any. 00:05:08
And you're charging me the same amount of tax? 00:05:11
If you're charging on somebody using the trailer all the time. 00:05:13
And there's it doesn't tear up the road. I'm not on the road enough to tear up the roads. 00:05:16
The the wheel tax is charging me. 00:05:21
Money that I don't even use the trailer. It's already hard enough to keep tires on the trailer. 00:05:24
In tariffs on a lot of things that you don't use. 00:05:29
And also you got a motorhome for taxing motorhome, which it does. 00:05:32
Haven't used Motorola on a year. Last year I never used it all. 00:05:36
There's a lot of people got boat trailers. 00:05:39
Told about the late. 00:05:42
Once. Go get it once. That's twice a year. 00:05:43
Charging us the same amount of fees. 00:05:46
That you charge. 00:05:48
For some I using their trailers 24/7. I can use it every day and I don't think it's fair for a small farmer. 00:05:49
Or for citizens that have a vehicle that they don't use and so I have to pay this real time. 00:05:55
I think it should be in the exemption. 00:06:00
A farm should be an exemption. 00:06:01
On this stage, thank you. 00:06:03
Thank you. 00:06:07
That concludes our public comment. 00:06:09
Fortunately, we will now close the public hearing. 00:06:11
The next item of business is the 2025 Dash 20 ordinance. 00:06:14
That we just spoke of. 00:06:19
I will state that. 00:06:22
The 2025 Dash 20 version is. 00:06:24
$25 per. 00:06:29
Passenger vehicle. 00:06:30
And there's varying amounts for other. 00:06:32
Types of vehicles, but for the one that. 00:06:35
Most people are concerned about it. 00:06:39
It is set at $25 in this ordinance. 00:06:41
Is there a motion for 2025-20? 00:06:45
I'll make a motion to approve with unanimous consent. 00:06:49
2nd, we have a motion and a second, any discussion? 00:06:52
Yes. 00:06:56
Yeah, I have. 00:06:57
Discussion. Umm. 00:06:58
So. 00:06:59
Who put this back on the agenda? Because. 00:07:00
That we just had this on the agenda. 00:07:03
And it failed. 00:07:07
I mean. 00:07:09
It was the coordinates wasn't correct I guess. 00:07:11
And we missed the 2026 deadline. 00:07:15
So this will not go into effect until 2027. That's correct. 00:07:18
So I'm I'm a little. 00:07:22
Concerned that we are putting a tax in place now at the end of 2025 or in October. 00:07:25
Of 2025 that won't go into affected till 2027. 00:07:32
There is state legislature that. 00:07:36
Is coming up. That could change. 00:07:40
The way this looks and the way and maybe the way we need to look at. 00:07:43
Putting this tax in place. 00:07:47
I don't see a rush. 00:07:50
To do this, and I would personally like to. 00:07:51
Table this and. 00:07:56
Take this back up in the summer of next year, sometime around June. 00:07:58
When the. 00:08:03
Then the legislation has done any kind of new. 00:08:06
Rulings that they're going to have on will tax, which I understand there, there's a real strong possibility that it's going to 00:08:11
come up. 00:08:14
Again. 00:08:18
At the state level. 00:08:20
So my thought would be we table this until we need to act on it. 00:08:22
This is not a tax that we need to act on now and we shouldn't act on, in my opinion, until. 00:08:26
Late next summer. 00:08:33
Any further discussion? 00:08:35
Yeah, well, it's clear it's convenient for those who are running next year, so they don't have to be. 00:08:37
Approach with that issue when they're running for election. 00:08:42
But anyhow, I don't support this thing at all. I mean. 00:08:45
For one, this tax doesn't have to be this large to get the matching funds. 00:08:48
But I've also said all along. 00:08:52
That we did. That public safety tax last year was. 00:08:54
Way too big, no justification for everything. 00:08:58
Has never been spent. 00:09:00
And then for the taxpayer, we should be making a reduction. 00:09:02
In that public safety tax to offset whatever increase. 00:09:05
The taxpayer is going to see for this. 00:09:09
Mr. President, excuse me, I just like to say that I voiced my opposition. 00:09:13
The last time we voted, it's already on record and I'm not. 00:09:19
Going to reinstate that tonight so. 00:09:23
It's already there. 00:09:25
All right, any other discussion? 00:09:27
All right, we have a motion a second. All in favor say aye. 00:09:29
Aye, those opposed. 00:09:32
Aye. 00:09:34
That carries Please put that on the agenda for our next regular County Council meeting for the second reading. 00:09:35
All right. And I know it's a little bit of back and forth, but. 00:09:44
I think Chris, yeah. Chris Moore is here to discuss the revised Stormwater financial business plan. 00:09:47
Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for letting us come up and speak. Chris Moore, Floyd County Stormwater Director. 00:09:59
We are here to. 00:10:06
Provide information for a revised financial business plan. Again, this is just an informative session, so if you have any. 00:10:07
Questions or comments after the presentation? Please feel free to ask those. That's what we're here to do tonight, so. 00:10:14
Without any further ado. 00:10:21
I'd like to introduce you. 00:10:23
To Kristen Hughes with Stantec, she's a consultant that's been working on it with us and John Damigo with ERC, also a consultant 00:10:24
that's been working on this business plan with us. So let them come up and give us a. 00:10:30
The presentation. 00:10:37
Good afternoon. I'm Kristen Hughes with Stantec. 00:10:44
We have our brief BIOS here, but we were here a couple years ago before you all presenting the business plan. 00:10:47
Since that time, the board requested that we do an update. 00:10:54
So I'm going to just briefly go over the history of the utility and then I will hand it off to John d'amico with the RC to go 00:10:57
through. 00:11:02
The the updates to the business plan. 00:11:06
So the utility, the concept of the utility was started in 2004, so from 2004 to 2007. 00:11:09
The county worked with FMSM Engineers, which is now Stan Tech. 00:11:19
To create the stormwater. 00:11:23
Utility. 00:11:26
And the fee as well as the board. During that process, a Stormwater Citizens Advisory Committee was developed. So there was input 00:11:27
from the public and regular participation from the public and the development. 00:11:34
Of the utility between 2009 and 2012. A phased approach. 00:11:40
Was used to implement the fee so that it wasn't a shock. 00:11:45
To the citizen system. 00:11:50
So in 2012 was when the full. 00:11:52
Rate went into place for. 00:11:56
The non residential properties. So those are the properties that pay. 00:11:58
A fee based off the number of equivalent residential units, which is abbreviated ERS. 00:12:02
So since 2007 a single ERU has been $39.00, which is what residential pays. 00:12:09
Floyd County's ers. 00:12:16
The number of square feet for one eru is below. 00:12:19
The national average. 00:12:23
And then aerial imagery is used to calculate the ER use for. 00:12:26
The non presidential properties. 00:12:32
So I'm going to go ahead and turn it. Oh, and there currently are 16 credits. Most of those are for agriculture. 00:12:34
So Agri. 00:12:40
Culture can reduce their fee. 00:12:41
By meeting the requirements of 16 different credits. So I'm going to hand it over to John. 00:12:44
To do to provide an update on the plan. 00:12:49
Thank you, Kristen. Good afternoon. 00:12:56
As Kristen has mentioned, I'd like to begin the presentation with reviewing. 00:12:58
The uh, uh. 00:13:03
Business plan that we developed. 00:13:05
Back in 2223. 00:13:08
And then conclude the presentation with the revision. 00:13:10
That we made in 2025 that would go in effect in 2026. 00:13:14
Back in 2223, we developed nine rate scenarios. 00:13:20
Each were evaluated by the board and the commissioners and at that time they were all rejected. 00:13:24
The only recommendation that came out of that previous plan was. 00:13:29
To update and revise the plan in 2025. 00:13:33
To be in effect in 2026, which is the reason why we're here this evening. 00:13:37
I would want to mention both. 00:13:42
Today and back in 2223, the current rate of $39.00 per year you per year. 00:13:44
Doesn't meet. 00:13:49
The cost of inflation, so it does reduce. 00:13:50
The value of the program. 00:13:53
As you'll see, there's. 00:13:55
Currently minimal if. 00:13:56
Zero money available for the capital improvements. 00:13:58
And then in terms of the county growth? 00:14:01
In the analysis and I'll get in a little bit more detail later in the presentation, but. 00:14:04
We're using the cost of inflation at 3%. It's anywhere from 2.82 point 9 to 3%. So we just rounded it to 3%. 00:14:08
And on the revenue side? 00:14:15
For the ERU and for the growth in the county, we're using 1.9% and that's coming out of the. 00:14:17
Purdue University Center for Regional Development study that they performed for Floyd County back in December of 2020. 00:14:22
So what's the need for the revision this year as well as back in 2223? 00:14:32
Well, to address the increased incident of the flooding events. 00:14:37
The aging and failing stormwater infrastructure. 00:14:41
The ongoing stormwater operation and maintenance, sediment and controlled costs. 00:14:44
There's been no change in the. 00:14:49
Since 2007, the inception. 00:14:51
The state of Indiana now this this rate. 00:14:54
Is both for city and county but the the single family residential eru. 00:14:57
In the state of Indiana is $57.79 per ERU per year as compared to your current 39. 00:15:02
And then more specifically the average for the county. 00:15:10
Rate in Indiana is $51 per ERU per month as compared to the 39. 00:15:13
And I've got a slide later in the presentation, but. 00:15:19
Previous study we identified over $2,000,000 of capital projects that were needed. 00:15:21
It's up, it's up over 2.3 million and there's also about six or seven different projects that that still have to be determined 00:15:26
what the costs are going to be. So that $2.3 million will certainly. 00:15:31
Increase in the future. 00:15:37
The bottom note there says the watershed studies. Usually out of a watershed study, other projects are identified and other costs 00:15:38
are identified. 00:15:42
So that 2.3 million will certainly increase. 00:15:45
In the future. 00:15:49
So what, what are we here this or what is the revision for this For this year 2025, we've been asked by the storm water board to 00:15:53
look at two rate scenarios. 00:15:57
Obviously the current rate is $39.00 per year you per year. 00:16:02
We've been asked to look at $41.00 per ERU, so $2.00 increase. 00:16:05
And I would mention that the $2.00 if we go from 39 to 41. 00:16:10
That will. 00:16:15
Basically cover the conversion of the non resident treating the agricultural from non residential. 00:16:16
To residential. 00:16:21
And I've got a slide later to give you a little bit more information on that. 00:16:23
And then the second scenario was would increase the current rate by $6 up to $45 per year, you per year. 00:16:26
And that that also we included the assumption of converting the agriculture from. 00:16:32
Non residential to residential. 00:16:37
And that would result in $95,000. Again, I've got I have more slides to. 00:16:39
Or later slides to explain more of the information, I will mention some of the statistics that we're using. 00:16:44
Western Kentucky has been tracking storm water programs in the United States for about over 20 years, so they have a lot of good 00:16:49
information. 00:16:53
They go state by state. They have the specific Indiana information as well as it's all the other states in the United States. 00:16:57
So here's the the list of capital, both from the previous. 00:17:05
Business plan in 2223 as well as. 00:17:08
25. 00:17:11
This year's analysis you notice #12. 00:17:13
The preble. 00:17:16
Creatures Preble Creek is listed there, but the six listed below are yet to be determined. So those are some of the projects that 00:17:18
a watershed study would need to be done. 00:17:23
To identify what the projects are, what it would entail, and then. 00:17:28
Certainly will increase the cost, but we're. 00:17:31
Currently at $2.347 million. 00:17:34
For the. 00:17:37
Stormwater capital costs. 00:17:39
So again, we've been asked to look at 2 rates, $41.00 and $45. 00:17:43
For both analysis, everything is exactly the same of the assumptions. 00:17:48
For the 41 and 45. 00:17:53
We use the 3% increase. 00:17:55
For staff. 00:17:57
In labor only so any non labor line item was not inflated at all. We're just inflating the the staff, the staffing labor and we're 00:17:58
doing that because the county is increasing staffing by 3% in their salaries. So so inflation or no inflation the. 00:18:06
The labor will increase by 3% each year. 00:18:15
As I mentioned 0. 00:18:18
Excuse me 0. 00:18:19
Percent increase. 00:18:21
In non labor items 1.9% in the revenues. 00:18:22
For the ERU increase for the to account for the the growth. 00:18:27
And again we accounted for the agricultural switching from non residential. 00:18:31
To residential. 00:18:35
And then any funds that we identify. 00:18:37
At the end of the analysis, we're assuming we'll be used for capital improvements projects. 00:18:40
So the $41. 00:18:46
Scenario Uh. 00:18:48
There's as you see, there's four counts. First column was the title. So the annual rate 39 dollars. 00:18:49
The in 2025, so in 2026, you see the flat rate going from 39 to 41. That's obviously an increase in $2.00 per ERU per year. 00:18:55
That's a 5.13% increase in in the in the rate. 00:19:05
The revenue generated. 00:19:09
Would be 881,437. Expenses on the expense side would be 871,560. 00:19:11
So. 00:19:18
The $41.00 scenario in 2026. 00:19:20
You would net about $9800 for capital improvements. 00:19:23
And then if the rate is kept at 41 into 2027, obviously no increase in the rate? 00:19:28
Increase in the rate. 00:19:34
The revenue would increase 8 to 898,184. 00:19:36
The expenses would be 890-1692. 00:19:41
And you'd net about 6492. So each year you go out, you'll you'll decrease about $3000. 00:19:44
But we just wanted to show the perspective of the 2026 and 2027. 00:19:50
And again, that this does include the conversion of the agriculture. 00:19:55
$45.00 scenario. 00:19:59
Similarly, the agriculture is included. 00:20:00
In this in this scenario. 00:20:03
Jumping to 2026 there, so you have the $39.00 and 2025 to to the 45 the the increase of $6. 00:20:06
That's a 15.38% increase. 00:20:13
The revenue generated would be 967,430. 00:20:16
The expenses would be 870-1560. 00:20:20
And I mentioned earlier the 95,000 so if. 00:20:23
The $45.00 rate would would net capital improvements of almost 100,000. 00:20:26
And then if you look at the 2027 similarly, there's no increase. 00:20:31
Then the revenue would increase a little bit by 9 to up to 985,812. 00:20:36
Expenses 890-1692 and it drops about $1500 each year because of inflation. 00:20:42
So the net for capital will be. 00:20:50
$94,000 in. 00:20:52
2027. 00:20:54
So just to mention. 00:20:59
Stormwater utilities all across the country, there's over 2500 of them in. 00:21:01
Indiana. There's 10, including Floyd County. 00:21:06
Stormwater programs and there's more than 116 cities in Indiana that have the storm water fee. 00:21:09
The national average for the single family residential. 00:21:16
Per ERU, per year 7428. 00:21:19
The Indiana average, again, is 5779. 00:21:22
The county specifically is $51.00 as compared to the $39. 00:21:25
And that that information comes again from the Western. 00:21:31
Kentucky. 00:21:34
Survey SO. 00:21:36
Will entertain any questions that you may have. 00:21:39
Can you go back by three slides? Sure. 00:21:44
I don't know one more. 00:21:49
Yeah, go back another one. 00:21:53
Yeah. So on this slide, there's a watershed study. 00:21:55
Is it $500,000 for the study? 00:22:01
On #6 Yes. 00:22:07
Is that? 00:22:13
Well, a watershed study. 00:22:16
And that would be a countrywide watershed study, you say is it necessary? At a minimum, we would recommend that you would do a 00:22:18
pilot which would be a little bit less than the than the half $1,000,000 watershed studies again identified the storm water 00:22:23
problems. 00:22:27
And the stormwater fixes? 00:22:31
So that's why either a pilot and again the intent of that would be a county wide, you wouldn't necessarily have to do a county 00:22:33
wide. 00:22:36
But you would certainly want to do a pilot which would be probably 25 to 30% of that cost. 00:22:39
And then you would extrapolate, but you certainly even if you do the pilot. 00:22:45
You would want to do those meeting watershed studies all around the county if you don't do a county wide. 00:22:49
You know, all at one time. And again, you don't have to do it all at one time. 00:22:53
But certainly every. 00:22:56
Area would need to be studied at some point to identify the problems. It's both twofold. It's identify the problems and it's also 00:22:58
in some cases to fix the problem. 00:23:03
Is there a reason 6 comes after 9 here? 00:23:08
Oh, no, sorry, fine. 00:23:12
I mean, this list has been in flux. I mean, you know, because, you know, we've asked Chris. 00:23:16
Reprioritize it periodically. So it could be that that wasn't as his number six Once Upon a time. 00:23:20
But other priorities continue to bubble to the top on that so. 00:23:25
I mean. 00:23:30
Thank you for the presentation. We brought this forward tonight because, you know, a couple years ago we brought forward a plan 00:23:30
and the commissioners approved of it and it did not get through council and we continue to work with this to try to tweak it, but. 00:23:37
Um, this year, early this year. 00:23:45
The commissioners? Really. 00:23:48
Tried to push forward on this to. 00:23:49
Even out the agricultural component of it so. 00:23:51
Even so, it's it's kind of a hybrid, right? There's been no adjustment for inflation since 2007. This still doesn't take us up to 00:23:55
inflation and still. 00:23:59
Far below the average cost for most people in the county. So in the state of Indiana. 00:24:03
So again, treating. 00:24:08
All the agricultural owners on the same. 00:24:11
Playing field is the. 00:24:15
Residential owners, I think. 00:24:17
Is it is a nice matter of fairness? 00:24:19
That needed to have needed been addressed for a long time. 00:24:21
You know, personally I'm in favor of the $45.00 because it gives some room for us to attack this. 00:24:26
This list and if we if we don't. 00:24:31
Start off with the number one, we're never going to get to #10 And again, we tend to add a couple of these to each year, so. 00:24:34
There's really no action we need to take tonight, but storm water crews here if you have questions. I would look for this to be on 00:24:41
the commissioners agenda, the first meeting in November and and. 00:24:46
To be. 00:24:51
Passed at either a $45.00 or $41. 00:24:53
Level to be determined officially. 00:24:56
And then it'll come before the council for. 00:24:58
Final approval sometime before the end of the year. 00:25:01
So so I have I have a couple questions because you know, I always do. 00:25:04
If you go back to the $41. 00:25:10
Slide. 00:25:14
Yeah, does this looks to me like that? 00:25:16
If we don't put at least $41.00 in. 00:25:20
We're not going to have enough money to cover expenses. 00:25:23
With the $39.00 rate, is that true? 00:25:26
Yes, in again. 00:25:29
Is as long as you're worse. 00:25:31
In both scenarios, we're assuming that the conversion of the of the agricultural from from commercial. 00:25:34
To residential, but what I'm asking is if we do the conversion and we stay at 39. 00:25:41
Do we have enough? 00:25:46
Revenue coming in. 00:25:48
Under those that scenario. 00:25:50
39 and the farmers going to the residential rates. 00:25:53
To cover the expenses, no, we're saying that the 41. 00:25:57
You'll lose money. It's 40. It's it's approximately 48. That's that's the way I read this. I just wanted to make sure I was 00:26:01
reading it. Yeah, it's a $48,000 loss. So if it's not increased to 41, you'll lose 48,000 out of the company somewhere. 00:26:07
OK, OK. 00:26:13
The second question I have is 2 slides forward from here. 00:26:16
Where you say that? 00:26:20
Tent There's 10 Indiana counties, including Floyd. 00:26:24
Why only 10? 00:26:28
I I think we've addressed this before, but I can't remember the answer. 00:26:30
Why there's only 10 counties that have? 00:26:34
These stormwater fleas. 00:26:37
Through idem and. 00:26:42
EPA and IDEM, it's based on your population and how close you are to metropolitan areas. So these counties, the 10 are closer to 00:26:44
metropolitan in it. So statutorily we have to have a storm water. 00:26:50
OK. That's that was my question. 00:26:57
OK. And these statutorily are the counties that have to have it? 00:26:59
Based on the current statute. 00:27:04
Yes, and other counties or other counties and. 00:27:07
Towns are added all the time in like 5 year increments and when the since new census comes out every five years. 00:27:10
I know Charlestown was just that and Scottsburg was just added. Those are just some towns. 00:27:17
Harrison County is probably going to be in. 00:27:21
Into it the next year and then they're looking at probably Scott Washington. 00:27:25
Through that. So it's growing, yes, if you say it's by urban areas. 00:27:30
The Y in Marion County, all the dominant counties. 00:27:34
No water. Say that again. I'm sorry you said it it. 00:27:38
Based on urban areas, yes. 00:27:41
Why in Marion County and all the donut counties? 00:27:43
In that is what Marion County. 00:27:46
Is Indianapolis IN? Indianapolis is a phase one Ms. 4 community, so they have already been in it. We are a phase two and this is 00:27:50
dealing with Phase 2. 00:27:54
Anyone with over a million population, city and county like Vandenberg, Evansville. 00:28:00
Fort Wayne. 00:28:06
And Indianapolis, those three have already. 00:28:08
Had to have. 00:28:11
Done it in a phase one. They had to do it early 90s like 1994. 00:28:12
OK, so I have one more question. 00:28:16
What is the average increase per? 00:28:19
Household for. 00:28:23
Floyd County. 00:28:25
If we go to 41, well. 00:28:32
I mean, everyone's paying 39 now, 41 is. 00:28:34
One scenario. So that would be a $2.00 increase, just $2.00 and then 4-5 would be the $6 increase where the 45 would get you money 00:28:39
to. 00:28:43
On an annual basis it would only be $2.00 per household, yes. 00:28:47
After six dollars is $0.50 a month. 00:28:51
Important. The $6 increase would be $0.50 a month if you went to 40. Gotcha. 00:28:54
OK, just make sure I understand that there wasn't any. 00:29:00
Saying out. OK, all right, I had a question. 00:29:03
So it looks like. 00:29:07
You had the 41 and the 45 rate and then it's flat the following year. 00:29:08
Is that correct? 00:29:12
Into that, I mean, I'm just surprised why we don't. 00:29:13
Do something like the $41.00 rate and then build it at 3% in 27. Why? 00:29:16
That seemed like that would be more reasonable to me. 00:29:21
So you could keep the. 00:29:24
Up with the cost of inflation for salaries. 00:29:26
Well, actually we talked about that is doing the 45 and a 3% or whatever. 00:29:28
Or consume the price context. 00:29:34
OK. Well, I didn't see this 3% the following year on any options. No, and we've talked about it to your point that number is in 00:29:37
the labor. 00:29:40
Cost, the 3% raises and the labor cost each year. 00:29:44
The cost, but not the revenue, right? 00:29:48
Correct, right? 00:29:50
I'd like to do that, but it's it's a good. We were just asked to do 2 scenarios so. 00:29:51
Understand that's why I allowed to make the comment now since they haven't voted on themselves, right? 00:29:57
And then talking to. 00:30:02
Our lawyers, the stormwater board attorney and everything else Indiana does not allow you to just put in at 3% and you keep on 00:30:04
raising it year after year after year. You actually, if you do that, you got to come in front of the council every year and ask 00:30:09
for that. So in 2028. 00:30:14
2728 We'll probably look at it again in 27. 00:30:20
Possibly come back in 28 past four, whatever that increase could be in 20. Yeah, there's two ways to write it. I mean, when I was 00:30:24
in the City Council, we had a a sewage increase rate that was part of the ordinance and it was a CPI of of industry specific. 00:30:31
Index. 00:30:38
But the ordinance called for an automatic meeting every. 00:30:41
Two years at which a rate would be considered. 00:30:44
So we've not. 00:30:48
The ordinance hasn't been completed yet. We could put something like that in that or we could just. 00:30:50
Leave verbage that it will be considered or need to be considered every two years. 00:30:54
So but an automatic. 00:30:59
Flip is not. 00:31:03
Not possible. Not possible. Yeah, so. 00:31:04
So we're looking to have that on our agenda, first meeting in November. 00:31:08
Correct, Susannah and and then we'll get that to you. 00:31:13
Immediately thereafter. 00:31:17
So thank you very much, very much. 00:31:19
And we'll keep moving along. I think it's back to Mr. Short and the second reading on. 00:31:22
Go by. 00:31:29
Yeah. Item number 3 is County Council second reading of Ordinance 2025-19 and Ordinance of Wood County authorizing the issuance of 00:31:31
general obligation bonds. 00:31:35
Of the county for the purpose of providing funds to pay for the cost of certain capital improvements and equipping projects. 00:31:40
And incidental expenses in connection therewith and on account the issuance of the bonds appropriating the proceeds thereof. 00:31:46
And approving certain matters related thereto. 00:31:52
This is the second reading. 00:31:56
Of Jeff, her second. 00:31:58
We have a motion. 00:32:00
Any discussion? 00:32:01
Yeah. I just want to reiterate as I voted last time, I voted against it. I just. 00:32:03
It it is no different than the wheel tax. This is a. 00:32:07
Even though this is not a tax increase, it's a reduction the taxpayer would have received. I think we should be offsetting that 00:32:11
with our public safety tax, so. 00:32:15
Can't support if we're not going to do that. 00:32:20
And I'll I'll add to that that I agree with but. 00:32:23
Jim said and that. 00:32:27
I do want these capital projects done. They need to be done. 00:32:30
But. 00:32:33
We are. 00:32:34
Overburdening. 00:32:36
Our taxpayers. 00:32:37
Right now. 00:32:39
And what we need to do is to adjust that. 00:32:40
Public safety tax. 00:32:42
By the amount. 00:32:43
That that, that we're not reducing their taxes by here. 00:32:45
So it this. 00:32:49
This is only because we haven't addressed. 00:32:51
What I've asked to be addressed all year long, and that is the reduction of that public safety tax. 00:32:54
That was put in place for. 00:33:00
An exorbitant amount. 00:33:02
So I can't vote for this either. 00:33:03
Any further comments? 00:33:06
All in favor say aye aye those opposed. 00:33:09
Aye, aye. 00:33:12
That passes. 00:33:13
All right, Agenda item 4, Commissioners Resolution 2025-201-A Resolution of the Board of Commissioners, Floyd County, Indiana, 00:33:15
approving the issuance of general obligation bonds, the County and other authorizing other matters in connection therewith. 00:33:22
Look for a motion to approve. 00:33:30
So moved second. 00:33:33
Any discussion? 00:33:35
All in favor. 00:33:37
Aye. 00:33:38
Item 5 is again council item. 00:33:41
So item 5 is our engagement letter with Baker Tilly. 00:33:45
For work on the general obligation bond. 00:33:48
Move to approve. 00:33:53
2nd. 00:33:54
We have motion and 2nd any discussion or questions? 00:33:55
On the engagement letter. 00:33:59
All in favor say aye. 00:34:02
Aye, any opposed? 00:34:03
Aye. 00:34:05
That carries. 00:34:06
All right, and. 00:34:07
I'm going to go ahead and. 00:34:09
Item 9. 00:34:11
Forward. 00:34:13
For the Commissioners engagement letter from Barnes and Thornburg again relating to the general obligation bond of 2025. 00:34:16
Yeah, look for a motion to approve so. 00:34:26
2nd. 00:34:28
A motion to 2nd any discussion. 00:34:29
All in favor. 00:34:33
Aye. 00:34:34
All right. So now if I'm correct, we'll bring forward. 00:34:36
Presentation on EMS if we have that queued up and ready to go. 00:34:40
Before we would go to item 6:00 and 7:00. 00:34:45
Is that ready or? 00:34:52
So again, this is just the presentation that I put together, nothing is set in stone. This is just a vision that I was asked to do 00:34:58
as a consultant, a 25 year paramedic. 00:35:02
Board certified and five sub specialties on the 7th paramedic in the world to hold those five certifications. 00:35:08
I've worked for 15 years as a flight paramedic on a helicopter on their manager in an air medical base. 00:35:14
And I've been in EMS since 1999. 00:35:21
So this was a presentation that I put together kind of what. 00:35:23
A potential EMS would look like for Floyd count. 00:35:28
So first of all, it would be a separate EMS division within the fire territory. 00:35:32
So it is still fire based EMS. 00:35:37
But what it would be is a. 00:35:40
Fire based EMS system for the entire county. 00:35:41
The employees will be the EMS workers will be employees of the fire territory. 00:35:45
And they would report through. 00:35:50
Their own EMS administration to the Fire Chief of the fire territory. 00:35:51
Those two administrations would work together. 00:35:57
As far as trainings, operations and any communications. 00:35:59
It would be a single role service, meaning that EMS workers work the ambulance, firefighters work with the fire apparatus. There's 00:36:03
no intermingling of the two. It stabilizes EMS, it stabilizes the fire department. 00:36:09
This service delivery model is exactly identical to every single fire department based EMS service in the city of Lewis. 00:36:15
They're single only. 00:36:24
This is what an organizational chart of what the fire territory would look like with the addition of EMS. 00:36:27
It is a mirror image exactly of what the fireside would be. 00:36:34
So if you look over the second column from the right. 00:36:40
There would be a deputy chief of. 00:36:42
Or, I'm sorry, the bar column on the right deputy chief for the EMS division directly under them would be a major overseeing the 00:36:46
operations. 00:36:49
Under them would be a captain who overseas all EMS and medical training for all members of the fire territory, including the 00:36:54
firefighters. 00:36:57
Those are Allstate mandated, state required courses that we will be able to provide in house for free. 00:37:01
And then there would be 3 EMS lieutenants. 00:37:07
Field supervisors that were overseeing shift operations or after. 00:37:09
Business hours. 00:37:15
So the commissioners implemented a tax. 00:37:17
Fund this service. 00:37:21
So in my professional opinion, I think it needs to be overseen by the county. 00:37:23
So. 00:37:28
The EMS chief would be selected by the commissioners. 00:37:29
The medical director, which is a physician, which is required by state statute. 00:37:32
Would be chosen by the commissioners with assistance from the EMS chief. 00:37:37
The deputy chief. 00:37:41
Would then be chosen by the commissioners, the EMS chief and the medical director, who again is a physician. 00:37:42
Then the medical training officer would be chosen by the EMS administration with final approval from the Floyd County 00:37:49
Commissioners. 00:37:52
The three, the three bullet points here basically what the responsibilities of each the EMS chief, the deputy chief. 00:37:57
What their roles would be? 00:38:04
So day-to-day operations, adherence to medical protocols, there's a lot of liability. 00:38:06
Liability compliance to state, local and federal guidelines as far as DEA narcotic compliance operations. OSHA. 00:38:11
So each of those members will be available 24/7 on call to respond to calls for increased. 00:38:19
Increase run volume. 00:38:25
Large scale events and then they would also be available to staff shifts due to call offs, vacations, or any open positions that 00:38:27
existed within the agency if. 00:38:31
They were unable to be filled. 00:38:36
On board each ambulance or via power Rd. stretcher. Those are basically. 00:38:39
Exactly what they say. They're quickly becoming the industry standard they have been proven to. 00:38:43
Minimize the amount of workman's comp claims. 00:38:49
Those are very expensive so. 00:38:52
They're being EMOS transport ventilator on every ambulance, a mechanical CPR device on every ambulance. 00:38:55
An EMS transport IV pump on every ambulance. 00:39:01
And video origin scopes on every ambulance. Highlander recently bought IV pumps. They're a great thing, but that level of service 00:39:05
is not consistently being provided. 00:39:10
To everyone in this county. 00:39:15
So there's a couple advantages of the. 00:39:20
The delivery model, so with those mechanical CPR devices. 00:39:24
It memorizes CPR interruptions by approximately 70%. 00:39:27
Through the American Heart Association has been proven that interruptions. 00:39:32
With CPR. 00:39:36
Increase patient mortality. 00:39:38
More patients die. 00:39:40
When CPR is interrupted. 00:39:41
The transport ventilators on board those ambulances allows for guaranteed, uninterrupted ventilations being delivered to patients. 00:39:43
And interruptions or ineffective manual ventilations, but done by humans. 00:39:50
Have been shown to increase patient mortality. 00:39:54
So again, more patients die. 00:39:57
The IV pumps allow for precise medication administration, especially weight based medications. 00:39:59
And everything with weight based medications and EMS is based on kilograms. So we're converting pounds to kilograms. 00:40:05
And then dosing medications based on kilograms. 00:40:11
So this prevents medication errors. 00:40:14
The biggest benefit to this is. 00:40:17
Is all of those items. 00:40:19
Are going to minimize and decrease the incidences of where you take a. 00:40:20
Cardiac arrest patient to the hospital. You're taking two firefighters off of an engine. You're taking an engine out of service 00:40:24
for upwards of an hour. 00:40:27
While they ride in with EMS and then that engine is not available to respond to the next call for service, whether it be an EMS 00:40:31
car, whether it be a fire call. 00:40:34
Having the IV pumps, having the ventilators, now there's not a need to take two firefighters. 00:40:39
So sometimes you might have to take one. 00:40:43
Eventually, you know. 00:40:45
You get trained up enough on this equipment, you don't have to take any. 00:40:46
So again. 00:40:49
Fire stays in service, they're available to respond to the next emergency. 00:40:50
So the day-to-day operations, there'd be 3 platoons, AB and. 00:40:55
4 ambulances each. Advanced life support. 00:40:59
One paramedic supervisor per shift for oversight. 00:41:02
They would be available as an incident commander for any large scale event. 00:41:06
After hours until the chief of the deputy chief arrived on the scene to assume the role of medical. 00:41:10
Command that is in. 00:41:15
That is a. 00:41:17
Direct recommendation of FEMA. 00:41:18
So in order to achieve this. 00:41:21
Service delivery model. 00:41:23
We would basically need to hire 27 full time employees. 00:41:25
There'd be one EMS chief, one deputy EMS chief, one medical training officer and 24 full time ambulance personnel. 00:41:29
So the medical officer would be required to possess instructor certifications and at least. 00:41:37
House ACLS and CPR. 00:41:41
Powell's ACLS and CPR are required. 00:41:43
Every two years. 00:41:46
CPR class right now is about $200. 00:41:47
Powers and Acls are about 2:50. 00:41:50
So you're looking at about 700 to $800 per person? 00:41:53
And if you don't have that person who's capable of teaching that, then you're outsourcing that. 00:41:57
And paying someone else to teach it. 00:42:01
So the reporting part of EMS each month. 00:42:05
The EMS administration would be required to come before the council. 00:42:09
And before the commissioners to report operations, to report the financials. 00:42:13
The Commissioners would control the operations, the Council would control the money. 00:42:17
So with that. 00:42:22
The EMS administration will work with a medical director to establish a clinical quality dashboard. 00:42:24
That, uh. 00:42:29
Is set by a key performance indicators named by the physicians, so this is the standard that needs to be met. 00:42:31
That information will be made publicly available, shared to everyone. 00:42:37
And that return, it shows a return on investment and it shows how we're performing as a. 00:42:41
Agency for Floyd County. 00:42:46
So we would start mobile integrated health in the community paramedicine program. 00:42:49
So this service generally targets the elderly, the homebound and the underserved. 00:42:53
And the goal of MIH is to decrease hospital readmissions. 00:42:58
Readmissions and to connect patients with local outreach services. 00:43:01
At a minimum, the agency would ensure that at least three people were licensed and certified as a community paramedic while 00:43:06
performing this service. 00:43:10
If you're going to perform a service, you should probably be licensed and certified at. 00:43:14
So as the agency began operations, we it would. 00:43:20
Become certified as a training institute with. 00:43:23
The Indiana EMS Commission, which would allow them conduct. 00:43:25
EMR which is First responder, EMT, advanced EMT and Paramedic classes. 00:43:29
When that last bullet point? 00:43:34
Do you foresee that as a revenue source for it is a revenue source? 00:43:36
Yes, so. 00:43:40
Really the only two current right now are Harrison County, Indiana and Scott County, Indiana. 00:43:42
They they do pretty much. 00:43:47
About two EMT classes a year on a paramedic class about every 18 months. 00:43:49
Average cost for paramedic class right now is anywhere between 8000 and $10,000 per person. 00:43:53
So EMT classes were on about $1000 a person. Advanced EMT classes run somewhere between 1500 and $2000 a person. 00:43:58
Did you envision that would be? 00:44:08
Firehouse specific or. 00:44:10
You could also open that up, open it up to the public so you can bring in people from outside agencies. 00:44:13
Medical so you would advertise that on a cadence which is the state reporting site anyone who was. 00:44:19
Interested in coming down being part of this class. 00:44:24
They're welcome to sign up. 00:44:26
So it generates revenue for the county. 00:44:28
The big part with community engagement in this service would be is the agency can provide Stop the Bleed classes to any and all 00:44:33
local law enforcement agencies free of charge. There's no charge. 00:44:38
CPR and Stop the Bleed classes provided to all New Albany, Floyd County school teachers, Floyd County businesses and Floyd County 00:44:44
residents free of charge because they're already paying taxes for the service. 00:44:49
One ambulance, you can special mark that. 00:44:56
Avoid central colors, green, gold. 00:44:58
Make a green and gold. 00:45:00
That's your ambulance for your Friday Night Football games. 00:45:02
It's community involvement. 00:45:04
It's it's showing the community that that you're out, you're visible. 00:45:06
And it's changing the perception of what EMS is. 00:45:10
So it's not just about EMS, it's it's also about improving what is being done on the fire department. 00:45:15
So. 00:45:21
As part of this plan. 00:45:22
A mechanical CPR device would be placed on every single fire truck in the fire territory. 00:45:24
The benefit of that is is. 00:45:30
EMS shows up on scene, fire department already has this life saving device that's being utilized. You're not having to stop CPR 00:45:32
and say well here, let's put ours on. 00:45:36
You hand them yours, you take theirs. 00:45:40
That fire engine goes back in service. 00:45:42
They have that life saving piece of equipment on board. 00:45:44
And they're available to use it next. 00:45:47
This level service is not provided anywhere in this region. Southern Indiana. 00:45:50
Or Kentucky. 00:45:54
So. 00:45:56
It's really a chance to elevate day one and show what the service can be. 00:45:57
One of the benefits also would be putting making sure that all the AED's on board all fire apparatus are compatible with the EMS 00:46:04
monitors. 00:46:07
Or about 100 and he works between $130.00 for a set of pads. 00:46:11
EMS or fargets on scene puts pads on. EMS gets their rips those pads off, they put their pads on and then they get to the hospital 00:46:15
and hospital rips those pads often puts theirs on. 00:46:19
So there's about $400.00 worth of pads right there. 00:46:24
So when you had the same pieces of equipment that are all compatible with one another. 00:46:27
You use one set. 00:46:31
So it cuts down on costs. 00:46:33
Also this we could consider the use of advanced life support fire engines. 00:46:37
So you have advanced EMT's, paramedics that are working on the fire engines? 00:46:41
And they want to still provide advanced level life support care. They can do that. 00:46:44
This level service it's not being done anywhere else either. 00:46:50
So I think Saint Matthews is the only one that's doing. 00:46:52
Perfect. So why? 00:46:56
Why now? Why EMS so? 00:46:59
As was stated previously, EMS is the. 00:47:02
In a previous meeting I was in today. 00:47:05
EMS is the only emergency service that consistently generates its own. 00:47:07
In 2024, Harrison County, Indiana completed 4868 transports. 00:47:12
They generated $3.1 million, which is about $636 per net revenue per transport. 00:47:19
Scott County, Indiana, which is 66% Medicaid funded. 00:47:26
They transported about 3800. They generated 2.6 million. 00:47:30
So the revenue generated from EMS would largely pay for itself. 00:47:37
EMS will pay for itself if it's done right. 00:47:41
The initial cost for startup is. 00:47:45
Obviously going to be the most expensive, but. 00:47:48
As that subsidy. 00:47:50
Kicks in with that reimbursement. 00:47:52
And EMS begins to stand on their own 2 feet, then that subsidy requirement. 00:47:54
Can be decreased. 00:47:59
And basically EMS becomes self funded at that point. 00:48:01
So why now and? 00:48:05
2025 Indiana House Bill 351385 became law and eliminates balance billing for all patients. 00:48:07
So what that means is when EMS sends that patient a bill. 00:48:14
The insurance sends back. 00:48:17
$500.00 for a $1200 bill. 00:48:20
And the ambulance service by law has to say, hey, thanks and. 00:48:23
They write the rest of that bill off so the patients not getting. 00:48:27
Exorbitant amount of bill. 00:48:31
Being built after what the insurance pays. 00:48:35
So it accepts insurance payments, payments in full for the services provided. 00:48:37
So also in 2025, I believe it was July 1st, House Bill 1454 became law and now designates EMS in the state of Indiana as an 00:48:43
essential service just like. 00:48:47
Police and fire. 00:48:52
And in that law, it also states that the county commissioners announced that store product provide this essential service. 00:48:54
So due to the EMS division that would be likely receiving a subsidy from the county, the most efficient and transparent way for 00:49:00
EMS to operate. 00:49:04
Is to be directly overseen by the county. 00:49:08
Operations by the. 00:49:10
Overseen by the Commissioners. Financials overseen by the Council. 00:49:12
And then monthly that EMS service should be required to report monthly. 00:49:16
Back to. 00:49:21
Commissioners and the Council. 00:49:22
OK. Thank you. I know that was kind of impromptu. You were asked to do that maybe an hour ago. I have. 00:49:25
I don't want to get too far into the weeds with this, but Rick on. 00:49:31
On Bill 1385. That became law in 2025. 00:49:33
If you haven't already reviewed our Mayor Pro contract for 2026 to see if that has any ramifications for that, I don't know 00:49:39
whether. 00:49:43
That bill has anything to do with. 00:49:48
Privately contracted insurance or contracts in place or whatever, but. 00:49:50
I think we need to review that bill to see how it may or may not impact. 00:49:54
The contract that we have in place with the Mayor PRO through 2025. 00:49:58
So I don't know if you can negate a contract that's already in place or not like that or if the grandfather's that in or out, but 00:50:03
we'll need to look at that because it. 00:50:07
Be germane to our our, our citizens. So we'll look at that. 00:50:11
All right. 00:50:17
Any questions at this? 00:50:19
Point I did have one question. 00:50:21
Health program? Yes, Sir. 00:50:26
That's more employees, right? 00:50:28
More employees? No. 00:50:30
It's just an additional role that's taken on by employees that we are. 00:50:31
The 27 EMS workers. 00:50:35
Is that's included. 00:50:38
Those mobile integrated health is a newer thing. 00:50:40
It's a newer thing that kind of targets the underserved, so quite honestly. 00:50:43
There's not a huge following for it right now because it's still in its implementation. 00:50:47
Nationwide. 00:50:52
So you know. 00:50:53
There's about 3800 EMS calls for the county for Floyd County based on the numbers that I received from the CAD at dispatch. 00:50:55
So. 00:51:03
There's going to be enough time for, you know. 00:51:04
The administration to say, hey, we have a call at 10:10 AM to go have a meeting. 00:51:07
Meeting with. 00:51:12
Patient that's entering Hospice care. So you start working with home health, you start working with mental health, you start. 00:51:13
Kind of connecting them with rehab facilities. So it's a lot of. 00:51:22
Almost like social work. 00:51:27
But it is kind of a newer concept with EMS and it's just a, it's a team approach. 00:51:28
Thought I thought it also included like they look at. 00:51:33
Records to see if people are calling consistently, like 3 calls over the last three months. So that's where we need to go and look 00:51:39
at why this is happening and say if there's some kind of support. 00:51:45
That they need to put in place so that we don't go there and pick them up, though. And a lot of its education. The public doesn't 00:51:51
know someone comes home on their own. 00:51:55
Home ventilator or home oxygen, they don't understand how work. That's a lot. It's just. 00:51:59
Going in facility, working with maybe the elderly who are. 00:52:03
You know, have some questions about or they're not able to get their medications they. 00:52:07
Have questions about how to utilize their equipment so. 00:52:11
You know, Clarksville actually received a grant. 00:52:15
Two years ago for $495,000 to fund it. 00:52:18
For three years. 00:52:22
So there's a lot of grant money available. I've spoken to Doctor Yazel about that. 00:52:23
So. 00:52:28
That's another option to cut down on the costs. 00:52:29
I I did have one. 00:52:33
Question you said 4 ambulances I think I seen in your. 00:52:34
Is that yes? So you would run 424 seven? 00:52:39
OK, but you have to have a rotation. 00:52:43
So you can't run one ambulance 24/7 365 because of maintenance? 00:52:46
God forbid one gets wrecked. 00:52:51
You have to set up a truck rotation because if you don't, what happens is then in three years. 00:52:53
You're asked to buy five more at one time. Yeah. So Highlander has three. 00:52:58
So that five would be in addition to the three of highlighter, they have two and one coming. Is that correct? So I met with 00:53:02
Highlander last Thursday. When I told them was I said I don't believe in tearing service down to say. 00:53:08
That, uh. 00:53:14
We're going to build a service just to say that you built the service, I said. 00:53:14
So let's take what you've built. 00:53:18
Let's take it to the next level. 00:53:20
Love that. 00:53:22
So. So this is not this is a team effort. 00:53:23
This is so my I think my question then comes to something that's in the next. 00:53:26
One of the next agenda items, and that is. 00:53:32
I think there were five recommendation to buy 5 new. 00:53:35
And the reason is is so. 00:53:40
I spoke with every vendor who is authorized to sell ambulances in the state of Indiana. 00:53:41
The largest vendor had 12 ambulances available for calendar year 2026. That's it. Once they're gone, they're gone. 00:53:46
Yeah, so. 00:53:53
Osage ambulance, for instance, if you call them right now and said I want to build an ambulance 2028. 00:53:56
Well, so these are available next year. So what the commissioners did last year was basically. 00:54:01
They took 5 ambulances out of that 12 and they set them over here on the shelf to keep him from being sold to someone else. That 00:54:08
was it. 00:54:11
That way that gives 90 days. 00:54:14
For the powers that be to figure out what the path for my question is, we have 3. 00:54:17
And now you're going to buy 5. Now we got 8, but you just told me we needed. 00:54:24
You need 424 seven. 00:54:28
OK, you're required by law to have a. 00:54:30
An ambulance at a Friday Night Football game. There's 55. 00:54:33
If one gets wrecked. 00:54:36
Is down for maintenance for an oil change for tires because view joints fall out. 00:54:37
You at least have a rotation. 00:54:42
But then also what that does is that sets you up two or three years down the road, so you're only having to buy, say, one 00:54:43
ambulance every two or three years instead of. 00:54:48
Five. Yeah, but now I'm up. I hear you. Up to six and not 8. 00:54:52
I believe one of Highland, they would be spares. You have to have spare ambulances so. 00:54:57
Again, so you're not just running those ambulances non-stop. 00:55:02
OK, because that's what happened. I believe by the end of 26, one of Highlanders will be near the end of its useful life. So I was 00:55:06
up there last week. 1 has 29,000 miles, one has 15,000 miles, and they have another one coming in February. So the great thing 00:55:11
about that is you're only buying 5. 00:55:16
And now those 3 ambulances are two years apart. So now you set up that truck rotation so you don't have all of these ambulances 00:55:21
needing to be replaced at the same time. 00:55:26
Right, which spreads out the expense of. 00:55:30
OK, So what if what if? 00:55:35
I was just gonna say in the interest of time, I wanna get to that and then we can, you're not going anywhere. So we have questions 00:55:37
and. 00:55:40
Chief Barnes is here. And he did. 00:55:44
Signed up to speak. 00:55:46
To Highlander, which is not really an agenda item, but may. 00:55:47
Now would be a good time for you to speak if you wanted to or. 00:55:50
I was. I forgot to get on the agenda. 00:55:54
So, umm. 00:55:56
I was just going to brag. 00:55:56
Dragons so not not talk about this. So we just put me on the. 00:55:58
OK, drag on yourself. 00:56:02
Yeah. All right. 00:56:04
So. 00:56:06
Again. 00:56:07
Many moving parts. 00:56:09
Many different timelines being kind of. 00:56:11
Explored on the same time where different parallel paths here. 00:56:14
Item 6. 00:56:17
Is really informational we want. 00:56:19
You all to be aware of the fact that we have created a job description for a chief emergency. 00:56:21
Medical services director. 00:56:27
And that's included in the packet. 00:56:29
And I don't know if that requires. 00:56:32
Formal approval or not from the Council, but. 00:56:34
We certainly welcome your impact. These are all. 00:56:36
Kind of living documents, but this is going to be advertised and so. 00:56:40
So the other thing about these ambulances is these are type 1/4 wheel drive diesel ambulances. 00:56:45
And when I did the research on all of these ambulances. 00:56:51
For instance, and I'll just compare these ambulances directly to Highlanders, they're $26,000 a piece cheaper than what 00:56:54
Highlanders currently buy. 00:56:58
So, and they're made in Indiana. 00:57:02
That's not and then so item 7 again. 00:57:05
We can take. 00:57:09
Questions about 6 or 7 or all this in a broad discussion, but item 7 is. 00:57:10
You know again. 00:57:15
The public know for a second time that the commissioners did. 00:57:17
Sign a formal letter of intent. 00:57:21
To purchase ambulances at our last meeting. 00:57:23
But again, we're not obligated. 00:57:26
Within this 90 days to do that but. 00:57:27
They're on reserve and hold for us should this all gel and come together at this point in time. 00:57:30
And the cost associated with that is going to have to be borne somewhere and so. 00:57:35
We wanted to put it on the table for discussion for the public safety tax funding. 00:57:40
To be utilized in that manner. 00:57:45
So, yeah, Commissioner Sharp may have more detail than me on that. Yeah. So additionally, we're just, what we're trying to do is 00:57:48
trying to set the stage, you know, get everything in place. 00:57:52
You know if if this is. 00:57:56
To happen in the next 90 days, you know, obviously. 00:57:58
We're going to need somebody to come in. 00:58:01
You know, and get all this work going so. 00:58:03
We've kind of agreed on what we would need from that position. 00:58:05
You know that we would feel, but that's not going to be filled right now. That's just. 00:58:08
So all this goes well, and then of course. 00:58:12
You know, the ambulances, I think it would be appropriate to go ahead and set aside the funding for it just. 00:58:14
You know, in case that happens, you know, but you know, like. 00:58:19
That's up to the council's. 00:58:23
To decide what to do. 00:58:24
But I would also just like to add real quick that. 00:58:26
You know, dealing with the people of Highlander has been really great here. Or less. 00:58:28
Several weeks. We've had some really good discussions. 00:58:32
They seem very excited about some of the things that we've discussed. There's obviously a lot of negotiations. 00:58:35
Left to go. You know, we're just kind of starting to have those discussions we started. 00:58:40
Having discussions with the the territory today today. 00:58:45
Regarding the EMS as well, so there's a lot of moving parts here. 00:58:48
But setting the stage is going to be paramount to the success of this program. 00:58:52
And that's the thing at the end of these 90 days, if anytime during these 90 days something happens. 00:58:56
You walk away from it, there's no financial penalty, there's no financial obligations. 00:59:01
However, at the end of these 90 days of no, no decision is made. 00:59:05
They're going to take those angles, put them right back on the for sale. 00:59:08
A lot and they're going to sell them probably within a week. 00:59:12
But that's already a done deal. 00:59:14
You've already they've signed an option, they signed. They just signed the option to reserve them. There is no. 00:59:16
Legally binding agreement to purge. 00:59:22
Reserved the January 22nd. 00:59:24
OK, so. 00:59:27
I guess my. 00:59:31
I have a couple questions and and the first one is. 00:59:32
Have we put a dollar figure on? 00:59:35
This whole plan. 00:59:41
I know it this seems like it's come together pretty quickly. 00:59:43
So I have a list of capital purchases that I've created. 00:59:46
That does not include. 00:59:50
Highlanders assets and how acquisition of that were to take place that is. 00:59:52
I'm not Privy to that information. 00:59:57
Yeah. But I do have a list of capital assets that would be. 00:59:59
Needed for this service to operate. 01:00:03
Yes, I'll be happy to e-mail those to you. 01:00:06
So I, I mean, I'd like to see a whole, a complete financial plan including. 01:00:09
Capital, but also operations. 01:00:14
Cost and who's going to bear those operation cost it sounds like. So the operator, all the employees of the territory in the in 01:00:18
the fire territory, go ahead. 01:00:22
And what rate would that? 01:00:26
Require. 01:00:28
In order for them to be able to so the EMS is going to be subsidized by the county. 01:00:30
And that's so as generates its own revenue then that subsidy requirement. And I guess that's my point. So how much is the subsidy? 01:00:35
On an annual basis for the next five years. 01:00:43
Well, I know, but we need to put some numbers together so we understand what that subsidy might. 01:00:48
Look like we're working. 01:00:52
OK, OK. 01:00:55
A lot of things I know, I know. I just have one operational question. The lieutenants, will they be like Field? 01:00:57
Command, yes. 01:01:03
OK. And the? 01:01:05
I think Dale was trying to ask you this question. I've opened the words in your mouth, but that. 01:01:06
27 additional employees. Does that take account of our Adm? 01:01:10
Yes, personnel, we have already. 01:01:14
So because it's single role, basically some of those people that were hired. 01:01:16
Recently strictly to work the ambulances at a Highlander. 01:01:22
Would have the option either stay with fire, they come over to EMS so they were one of the other that would kind of lower the 01:01:25
numbers a little bit. OK, so the 20, yeah. So the the 27 is the total number that it would take. 01:01:30
For it to happen, that doesn't mean that's 27 additional people that you have to. 01:01:36
That's total staffing. 01:01:42
All right. 01:01:48
Sounds good. 01:01:49
Thank you. More to come. 01:01:50
Any other questions? 01:01:51
I have one more but I can't remember what it was. 01:01:53
Oh, the first step though, I think I want to understand. The first step really is to create the star territory. 01:01:55
Well, I mean, we have a fire territory, but we've got to get Highlander. 01:02:02
We don't create that, they have to. 01:02:07
OK, but that is the first step for this to become a reality. Well, not necessarily. I mean, you know. 01:02:09
We want that to happen. 01:02:16
You know, I think it's it's better off if everybody's underneath the same, but. 01:02:17
You know, if need be, we could still just fund the EMS operations through the territory. 01:02:21
If if we had to. 01:02:25
Like I said, everything with Highlanders going very, very well. 01:02:27
You know the discussions are going well. 01:02:30
They seem to be pretty excited. 01:02:33
I know they're going to be having some votes here in the near future on. 01:02:35
How they want to proceed but. 01:02:39
You know, worst case scenario the territory already exists, so. 01:02:41
All right. Thank you very much. 01:02:48
Susanna, would you mind reading into the record? 01:02:51
Item number. 01:02:54
8 on the Commissioners appointment. 01:02:56
Just just this. Yeah, that'd be fine, yeah. Or. 01:03:00
Yeah, unless you have a microphone over there. 01:03:04
Fine tube #8 is the RDA appointment. 01:03:08
And the recommendation is for Corey Cochran to be? 01:03:11
Replacement on that. 01:03:15
Yeah. And that that's. 01:03:17
Spot is vacated by. 01:03:19
Can Rush correct? He's been on there since the inception of the RDA, Yes. 01:03:20
And he highly. 01:03:25
Recommended. 01:03:26
Mr. Cochran So. 01:03:27
Accepting that if you all. 01:03:30
Yeah, he's you've already discussed that with him. 01:03:32
I have talked with me, OK. 01:03:35
I'm familiar with Corey. I'll make. 01:03:37
A motion to accept. 01:03:39
In OK. 01:03:41
We have a motion for appointment and. 01:03:43
OK, OK. And for the commissioners all in favor, aye. 01:03:45
All right, our next joint meeting will be Friday, November 21st, 2025 at 10 AM. 01:03:49
Anybody, any elected government officials in the. 01:03:56
Attendance who would like to make a comment tonight? 01:04:00
They're all up here. Yeah, everyone's up here, I think. Well, there are a couple who. 01:04:03
Sheriff was here. 01:04:07
Anybody from the public with any. 01:04:11
George and I signed up for Stormwater, but I guess you missed me. 01:04:18
No, I have you underneath wheel tax. 01:04:23
There's two. OK, storm water, OK. 01:04:27
We haven't voted on that, so feel feel free to speak. 01:04:30
Commissioners for finally recognizing agriculture. 01:04:34
Is not a contributor, but a taker of stormwater. 01:04:39
And I want it took me a long time to give an understanding. 01:04:42
But also I want y'all to understand that we were promised this when it very started. 01:04:46
And they're just now doing it in. 01:04:50
Anyway, I want to thank you for that. 01:04:53
OK. And another thing on the. 01:04:55
This service service. 01:04:58
I've asked. I would like to see. 01:05:00
A private company come in and bid for the same contract. 01:05:02
That we're talking about here. 01:05:06
Have the opportunity to bid on it and see dollars for dollar. Apples or apples. 01:05:07
And see what is we saving money which cost us more money. 01:05:11
Because it sounds like we're getting a Class A. 01:05:14
The best Cadillac of EMS service we can get. 01:05:17
Was the talk. She's a good. 01:05:20
But I would like to see. 01:05:22
We're proud company. You could come in there and bid on it. 01:05:24
And see who's. 01:05:27
Who's the best? Are we getting the best for the money? 01:05:28
Are we just going to pay the big money? 01:05:30
I just had two additions to that. One is. 01:05:32
With the. 01:05:36
Inability for them to balance a bit I think. 01:05:37
Private contractors may dry up on that, but. 01:05:40
But we can see on that and. 01:05:42
And also, if you'd like to thank the commissioners for other things, your time is unlimited tonight. 01:05:44
The strong water that's been on my babies for a long time. 01:05:50
I do thank you for that and I hope you keep it. 41 dollars. 01:05:53
Just got an escalation calls in there too. 01:05:58
Nobody's seen anyway. That's what you talked about. 01:06:00
That wouldn't bring him on up. 01:06:03
Instead, let's go with $41.00 and what we were promised to start with. Thank you. 01:06:05
All right. Thank you. 01:06:09
Any closing comments from anyone? 01:06:11
Tonight. 01:06:14
I think Jack. 01:06:15
Then the chief wanted to speak. Oh yeah. 01:06:16
I'll make it real quick. 01:06:21
Sprayed and not our heroes on the Hill Highlander Fire Protection District. Jake Barnes. Work for him. 01:06:22
I just want to tell you real quickly what they've been doing in the past month. 01:06:27
The past month have been 919 training hours for fire and EMS which is amazing. 01:06:31
And that brings us up to almost 7000. 01:06:37
Hours for this year. 01:06:40
Which if you do any Googling. 01:06:41
You will see that that is way past most fire departments so. 01:06:43
Big shout out to. 01:06:48
Captain Macon. 01:06:49
We were awarded two different grants, the AFG grant. 01:06:50
For 146,000 exchange. 01:06:54
Also, we got the community paramedicine grade for $80,000. 01:06:56
So we're the first fire department or the 1st place in Floyd County to have the community pair management program. So we're pretty 01:07:01
excited about that. 01:07:04
We got four more grants that we're waiting to hear back on. 01:07:09
Which is nice. 01:07:12
With new product protocols by Doctor Potter. 01:07:14
We made 156 total calls. 01:07:17
Last month with 137 of them. 01:07:19
Being EMS calls. 01:07:22
And about 24 of them were mutual aid. 01:07:23
Also the big news is we got our turn out gear which is extremely expensive. 01:07:27
Big shout out to the our board. Our board has supported us like crazy from day one. 01:07:32
They helped a lot with that. 01:07:37
Battalion Chief Scott. 01:07:39
Did all the legwork. 01:07:40
And then, of course, Cody Macon with the Grant. So there's a lot of good things up there. 01:07:42
Just want to let you all know SO. 01:07:47
We stay in touch with what's going on. 01:07:49
Thank you, thank you, thank you. 01:07:52
All right. Any closing comments? 01:07:55
From the board, just thanks for the update on the EMS. I think it looks. 01:07:56
Tremendous what? What? 01:08:02
Come to and. 01:08:03
I'm anxious to see how we can get this to work. 01:08:05
OK. Anyone else? 01:08:08
All right, look for a motion to adjourn. 01:08:12
Sorry, I just want to say. 01:08:15
A big thank you to the Highlander person. I think they've been doing a tremendous job here lately, especially like in the 01:08:18
communications over the last several months. 01:08:22
With the commissioners regarding how they're doing EMS, the community paramedicine thing is a big thing, so. 01:08:26
Good things happening up there. I'm just really glad to hear it. I'm really glad and excited to see how. 01:08:32
All this stuff is. 01:08:37
You know, kind of coming to fruition, so. 01:08:38
Great conversations had. 01:08:41
All right. 01:08:44
Tony, did you? 01:08:46
You want to make a motion to adjourn. 01:08:48
All right. All right. Thank you all. 01:08:50
* use Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on Mac) to search in document
Unable to preview the file. Make sure you have Adobe Reader installed

Transcript

Event transcript
Join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. 00:00:00
I pledge allegiance to the flag. 00:00:04
Of the United States of America. 00:00:06
To the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God. 00:00:09
Indivisible with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:13
All right, all. 00:00:17
Last month, Joint Commissioner. 00:00:18
Council meeting was canceled for lack of business. I think we're making up for that today and. 00:00:21
I think we've made the turn. 00:00:26
Towards. 00:00:28
Colder weather because I think the furnace has been turned on now so we can all be too hot for the next 6 months instead of. 00:00:30
Too cold. 00:00:36
Which is good. 00:00:38
Were there any? Does anyone sign up to speak to any agenda items? 00:00:40
And while that's being taken care of, I'll look for approval of the 8/26/25 joint meetings. 00:00:49
Meeting minutes. 00:00:55
2nd. 00:00:56
Have a motion and a second all in favor, aye? 00:00:57
Alright, I'll give you that for. 00:01:03
That will begin. Several of these items are County Council. 00:01:06
Directed. And so there's going to be a lot of fluidity just going back and forth, letting Danny run that part of it. 00:01:11
And we'll begin that with the the public hearing state actually. 00:01:18
Strike that I do have two items to add and possibly 1/3. 00:01:22
For the commissioners specifically, item 4 was not advertised and I would like to add that. 00:01:26
Most approved second resolution 20/25/21. 00:01:32
Approving the issuance of the general obligation bond. 00:01:38
It was not on the agenda itself. 00:01:40
When it was initially published. Is that correct? 00:01:44
OK, so is that OK to add to this even though? 00:01:47
So I have a motion, the second all in favor on that, Aye. And again, that's just Commissioner specific only. 00:01:50
And then also Commissioner specific only the Barnes and Thornburg engagement letter for the general obligation bond. 00:01:58
2025. 00:02:04
Motion approved. 00:02:06
Second, all in favor? 00:02:07
And then Commissioner Sharp had an informational item to add at the end of this. 00:02:10
Again, we're not going to take any action on this tonight. If you want to explain what that is, yeah, This is just a basic kind of 00:02:16
plan of what we're imagining. What? 00:02:20
An EMS system could look like. 00:02:25
Nothing set in stone. There's a lot of moving pieces left here so. But at least it's a working document for everybody to kind of 00:02:27
get an idea of what the. 00:02:31
Kind of looks like. 00:02:35
This will be presented by Mr. Dixon, our EMS consultant. 00:02:36
All right. And that would be added as item number 10. 00:02:39
If I can get a motion in a second for that so moved I'll second. 00:02:44
Is there a way to to bring that up in the agenda before we vote on number six and seven? 00:02:48
So that we understand what the plan is. 00:02:55
That's not a solid plan. It's just. 00:02:58
And ideas. A brief presentation we're looking at. There's nothing set in stone. Not a solid plan. So that would be. 00:03:00
I'd like to hear that before we vote on the 6:00 and 7:00. 00:03:07
You're not voting on six and seven, it's Commissioner. 00:03:10
Oh yeah, 6 is just information approval of the yeah. 00:03:13
Now 7 point public safety tax funding for emergency vehicle purchase agreement. 00:03:18
Yeah, I think that. 00:03:22
Anybody else to understand the plan? 00:03:25
Before we, I don't have any problem doing that. Like you said it's information alone way, so I don't. 00:03:28
I'm doing that. The only reason it was added at the end is because. 00:03:34
The presentation was. 00:03:38
Given to me this morning for the first time to look at and I thought it would be interesting to add it. So the agenda was created 00:03:40
before the presentation was. 00:03:44
I'm having a problem with that. Anyone else on the GR? 00:03:48
Have any heartburn on that? It was put on because I thought. 00:03:51
We might be getting to a late point in the meeting where people might need to leave and go elsewhere. 00:03:54
That's why but. 00:03:58
We'll see how how briskly we get through everything else. 00:04:00
He said. I'm not going to have any heartburn over that, so. 00:04:03
Danny with the public hearing on the. 00:04:08
Ordinance. Umm. 00:04:11
All right, County Council will now open a public hearing for Ordinance 2025-20, amending the Will Tax Ordinance OF2025-12. 00:04:14
An ordinance establishing the county. 00:04:22
Vehicle excise, surtax and county wheel tax. 00:04:24
So the public hearing is now open. We've got. 00:04:28
I think I'll sign up to speak twice on that. Yeah, Mr. Daleman, if you would. 00:04:33
Like to come up? 00:04:38
Dear man, small farmer in Georgetown, IN. 00:04:43
I've got a problem with the wheel tax. 00:04:47
They called a user fee. 00:04:48
If you read it, it's really called a user fee. 00:04:50
What I want to know? 00:04:53
Is why are you charging me a tax on the trailers that I don't even use? 00:04:55
I have to license them. 00:04:58
Tag them, did not even use them. I got a kettle car I used twice a year. 00:05:00
I got caught or I used in case one of the kids cars broke down. 00:05:04
I got a utility charter. I probably don't use hardly any. 00:05:08
And you're charging me the same amount of tax? 00:05:11
If you're charging on somebody using the trailer all the time. 00:05:13
And there's it doesn't tear up the road. I'm not on the road enough to tear up the roads. 00:05:16
The the wheel tax is charging me. 00:05:21
Money that I don't even use the trailer. It's already hard enough to keep tires on the trailer. 00:05:24
In tariffs on a lot of things that you don't use. 00:05:29
And also you got a motorhome for taxing motorhome, which it does. 00:05:32
Haven't used Motorola on a year. Last year I never used it all. 00:05:36
There's a lot of people got boat trailers. 00:05:39
Told about the late. 00:05:42
Once. Go get it once. That's twice a year. 00:05:43
Charging us the same amount of fees. 00:05:46
That you charge. 00:05:48
For some I using their trailers 24/7. I can use it every day and I don't think it's fair for a small farmer. 00:05:49
Or for citizens that have a vehicle that they don't use and so I have to pay this real time. 00:05:55
I think it should be in the exemption. 00:06:00
A farm should be an exemption. 00:06:01
On this stage, thank you. 00:06:03
Thank you. 00:06:07
That concludes our public comment. 00:06:09
Fortunately, we will now close the public hearing. 00:06:11
The next item of business is the 2025 Dash 20 ordinance. 00:06:14
That we just spoke of. 00:06:19
I will state that. 00:06:22
The 2025 Dash 20 version is. 00:06:24
$25 per. 00:06:29
Passenger vehicle. 00:06:30
And there's varying amounts for other. 00:06:32
Types of vehicles, but for the one that. 00:06:35
Most people are concerned about it. 00:06:39
It is set at $25 in this ordinance. 00:06:41
Is there a motion for 2025-20? 00:06:45
I'll make a motion to approve with unanimous consent. 00:06:49
2nd, we have a motion and a second, any discussion? 00:06:52
Yes. 00:06:56
Yeah, I have. 00:06:57
Discussion. Umm. 00:06:58
So. 00:06:59
Who put this back on the agenda? Because. 00:07:00
That we just had this on the agenda. 00:07:03
And it failed. 00:07:07
I mean. 00:07:09
It was the coordinates wasn't correct I guess. 00:07:11
And we missed the 2026 deadline. 00:07:15
So this will not go into effect until 2027. That's correct. 00:07:18
So I'm I'm a little. 00:07:22
Concerned that we are putting a tax in place now at the end of 2025 or in October. 00:07:25
Of 2025 that won't go into affected till 2027. 00:07:32
There is state legislature that. 00:07:36
Is coming up. That could change. 00:07:40
The way this looks and the way and maybe the way we need to look at. 00:07:43
Putting this tax in place. 00:07:47
I don't see a rush. 00:07:50
To do this, and I would personally like to. 00:07:51
Table this and. 00:07:56
Take this back up in the summer of next year, sometime around June. 00:07:58
When the. 00:08:03
Then the legislation has done any kind of new. 00:08:06
Rulings that they're going to have on will tax, which I understand there, there's a real strong possibility that it's going to 00:08:11
come up. 00:08:14
Again. 00:08:18
At the state level. 00:08:20
So my thought would be we table this until we need to act on it. 00:08:22
This is not a tax that we need to act on now and we shouldn't act on, in my opinion, until. 00:08:26
Late next summer. 00:08:33
Any further discussion? 00:08:35
Yeah, well, it's clear it's convenient for those who are running next year, so they don't have to be. 00:08:37
Approach with that issue when they're running for election. 00:08:42
But anyhow, I don't support this thing at all. I mean. 00:08:45
For one, this tax doesn't have to be this large to get the matching funds. 00:08:48
But I've also said all along. 00:08:52
That we did. That public safety tax last year was. 00:08:54
Way too big, no justification for everything. 00:08:58
Has never been spent. 00:09:00
And then for the taxpayer, we should be making a reduction. 00:09:02
In that public safety tax to offset whatever increase. 00:09:05
The taxpayer is going to see for this. 00:09:09
Mr. President, excuse me, I just like to say that I voiced my opposition. 00:09:13
The last time we voted, it's already on record and I'm not. 00:09:19
Going to reinstate that tonight so. 00:09:23
It's already there. 00:09:25
All right, any other discussion? 00:09:27
All right, we have a motion a second. All in favor say aye. 00:09:29
Aye, those opposed. 00:09:32
Aye. 00:09:34
That carries Please put that on the agenda for our next regular County Council meeting for the second reading. 00:09:35
All right. And I know it's a little bit of back and forth, but. 00:09:44
I think Chris, yeah. Chris Moore is here to discuss the revised Stormwater financial business plan. 00:09:47
Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for letting us come up and speak. Chris Moore, Floyd County Stormwater Director. 00:09:59
We are here to. 00:10:06
Provide information for a revised financial business plan. Again, this is just an informative session, so if you have any. 00:10:07
Questions or comments after the presentation? Please feel free to ask those. That's what we're here to do tonight, so. 00:10:14
Without any further ado. 00:10:21
I'd like to introduce you. 00:10:23
To Kristen Hughes with Stantec, she's a consultant that's been working on it with us and John Damigo with ERC, also a consultant 00:10:24
that's been working on this business plan with us. So let them come up and give us a. 00:10:30
The presentation. 00:10:37
Good afternoon. I'm Kristen Hughes with Stantec. 00:10:44
We have our brief BIOS here, but we were here a couple years ago before you all presenting the business plan. 00:10:47
Since that time, the board requested that we do an update. 00:10:54
So I'm going to just briefly go over the history of the utility and then I will hand it off to John d'amico with the RC to go 00:10:57
through. 00:11:02
The the updates to the business plan. 00:11:06
So the utility, the concept of the utility was started in 2004, so from 2004 to 2007. 00:11:09
The county worked with FMSM Engineers, which is now Stan Tech. 00:11:19
To create the stormwater. 00:11:23
Utility. 00:11:26
And the fee as well as the board. During that process, a Stormwater Citizens Advisory Committee was developed. So there was input 00:11:27
from the public and regular participation from the public and the development. 00:11:34
Of the utility between 2009 and 2012. A phased approach. 00:11:40
Was used to implement the fee so that it wasn't a shock. 00:11:45
To the citizen system. 00:11:50
So in 2012 was when the full. 00:11:52
Rate went into place for. 00:11:56
The non residential properties. So those are the properties that pay. 00:11:58
A fee based off the number of equivalent residential units, which is abbreviated ERS. 00:12:02
So since 2007 a single ERU has been $39.00, which is what residential pays. 00:12:09
Floyd County's ers. 00:12:16
The number of square feet for one eru is below. 00:12:19
The national average. 00:12:23
And then aerial imagery is used to calculate the ER use for. 00:12:26
The non presidential properties. 00:12:32
So I'm going to go ahead and turn it. Oh, and there currently are 16 credits. Most of those are for agriculture. 00:12:34
So Agri. 00:12:40
Culture can reduce their fee. 00:12:41
By meeting the requirements of 16 different credits. So I'm going to hand it over to John. 00:12:44
To do to provide an update on the plan. 00:12:49
Thank you, Kristen. Good afternoon. 00:12:56
As Kristen has mentioned, I'd like to begin the presentation with reviewing. 00:12:58
The uh, uh. 00:13:03
Business plan that we developed. 00:13:05
Back in 2223. 00:13:08
And then conclude the presentation with the revision. 00:13:10
That we made in 2025 that would go in effect in 2026. 00:13:14
Back in 2223, we developed nine rate scenarios. 00:13:20
Each were evaluated by the board and the commissioners and at that time they were all rejected. 00:13:24
The only recommendation that came out of that previous plan was. 00:13:29
To update and revise the plan in 2025. 00:13:33
To be in effect in 2026, which is the reason why we're here this evening. 00:13:37
I would want to mention both. 00:13:42
Today and back in 2223, the current rate of $39.00 per year you per year. 00:13:44
Doesn't meet. 00:13:49
The cost of inflation, so it does reduce. 00:13:50
The value of the program. 00:13:53
As you'll see, there's. 00:13:55
Currently minimal if. 00:13:56
Zero money available for the capital improvements. 00:13:58
And then in terms of the county growth? 00:14:01
In the analysis and I'll get in a little bit more detail later in the presentation, but. 00:14:04
We're using the cost of inflation at 3%. It's anywhere from 2.82 point 9 to 3%. So we just rounded it to 3%. 00:14:08
And on the revenue side? 00:14:15
For the ERU and for the growth in the county, we're using 1.9% and that's coming out of the. 00:14:17
Purdue University Center for Regional Development study that they performed for Floyd County back in December of 2020. 00:14:22
So what's the need for the revision this year as well as back in 2223? 00:14:32
Well, to address the increased incident of the flooding events. 00:14:37
The aging and failing stormwater infrastructure. 00:14:41
The ongoing stormwater operation and maintenance, sediment and controlled costs. 00:14:44
There's been no change in the. 00:14:49
Since 2007, the inception. 00:14:51
The state of Indiana now this this rate. 00:14:54
Is both for city and county but the the single family residential eru. 00:14:57
In the state of Indiana is $57.79 per ERU per year as compared to your current 39. 00:15:02
And then more specifically the average for the county. 00:15:10
Rate in Indiana is $51 per ERU per month as compared to the 39. 00:15:13
And I've got a slide later in the presentation, but. 00:15:19
Previous study we identified over $2,000,000 of capital projects that were needed. 00:15:21
It's up, it's up over 2.3 million and there's also about six or seven different projects that that still have to be determined 00:15:26
what the costs are going to be. So that $2.3 million will certainly. 00:15:31
Increase in the future. 00:15:37
The bottom note there says the watershed studies. Usually out of a watershed study, other projects are identified and other costs 00:15:38
are identified. 00:15:42
So that 2.3 million will certainly increase. 00:15:45
In the future. 00:15:49
So what, what are we here this or what is the revision for this For this year 2025, we've been asked by the storm water board to 00:15:53
look at two rate scenarios. 00:15:57
Obviously the current rate is $39.00 per year you per year. 00:16:02
We've been asked to look at $41.00 per ERU, so $2.00 increase. 00:16:05
And I would mention that the $2.00 if we go from 39 to 41. 00:16:10
That will. 00:16:15
Basically cover the conversion of the non resident treating the agricultural from non residential. 00:16:16
To residential. 00:16:21
And I've got a slide later to give you a little bit more information on that. 00:16:23
And then the second scenario was would increase the current rate by $6 up to $45 per year, you per year. 00:16:26
And that that also we included the assumption of converting the agriculture from. 00:16:32
Non residential to residential. 00:16:37
And that would result in $95,000. Again, I've got I have more slides to. 00:16:39
Or later slides to explain more of the information, I will mention some of the statistics that we're using. 00:16:44
Western Kentucky has been tracking storm water programs in the United States for about over 20 years, so they have a lot of good 00:16:49
information. 00:16:53
They go state by state. They have the specific Indiana information as well as it's all the other states in the United States. 00:16:57
So here's the the list of capital, both from the previous. 00:17:05
Business plan in 2223 as well as. 00:17:08
25. 00:17:11
This year's analysis you notice #12. 00:17:13
The preble. 00:17:16
Creatures Preble Creek is listed there, but the six listed below are yet to be determined. So those are some of the projects that 00:17:18
a watershed study would need to be done. 00:17:23
To identify what the projects are, what it would entail, and then. 00:17:28
Certainly will increase the cost, but we're. 00:17:31
Currently at $2.347 million. 00:17:34
For the. 00:17:37
Stormwater capital costs. 00:17:39
So again, we've been asked to look at 2 rates, $41.00 and $45. 00:17:43
For both analysis, everything is exactly the same of the assumptions. 00:17:48
For the 41 and 45. 00:17:53
We use the 3% increase. 00:17:55
For staff. 00:17:57
In labor only so any non labor line item was not inflated at all. We're just inflating the the staff, the staffing labor and we're 00:17:58
doing that because the county is increasing staffing by 3% in their salaries. So so inflation or no inflation the. 00:18:06
The labor will increase by 3% each year. 00:18:15
As I mentioned 0. 00:18:18
Excuse me 0. 00:18:19
Percent increase. 00:18:21
In non labor items 1.9% in the revenues. 00:18:22
For the ERU increase for the to account for the the growth. 00:18:27
And again we accounted for the agricultural switching from non residential. 00:18:31
To residential. 00:18:35
And then any funds that we identify. 00:18:37
At the end of the analysis, we're assuming we'll be used for capital improvements projects. 00:18:40
So the $41. 00:18:46
Scenario Uh. 00:18:48
There's as you see, there's four counts. First column was the title. So the annual rate 39 dollars. 00:18:49
The in 2025, so in 2026, you see the flat rate going from 39 to 41. That's obviously an increase in $2.00 per ERU per year. 00:18:55
That's a 5.13% increase in in the in the rate. 00:19:05
The revenue generated. 00:19:09
Would be 881,437. Expenses on the expense side would be 871,560. 00:19:11
So. 00:19:18
The $41.00 scenario in 2026. 00:19:20
You would net about $9800 for capital improvements. 00:19:23
And then if the rate is kept at 41 into 2027, obviously no increase in the rate? 00:19:28
Increase in the rate. 00:19:34
The revenue would increase 8 to 898,184. 00:19:36
The expenses would be 890-1692. 00:19:41
And you'd net about 6492. So each year you go out, you'll you'll decrease about $3000. 00:19:44
But we just wanted to show the perspective of the 2026 and 2027. 00:19:50
And again, that this does include the conversion of the agriculture. 00:19:55
$45.00 scenario. 00:19:59
Similarly, the agriculture is included. 00:20:00
In this in this scenario. 00:20:03
Jumping to 2026 there, so you have the $39.00 and 2025 to to the 45 the the increase of $6. 00:20:06
That's a 15.38% increase. 00:20:13
The revenue generated would be 967,430. 00:20:16
The expenses would be 870-1560. 00:20:20
And I mentioned earlier the 95,000 so if. 00:20:23
The $45.00 rate would would net capital improvements of almost 100,000. 00:20:26
And then if you look at the 2027 similarly, there's no increase. 00:20:31
Then the revenue would increase a little bit by 9 to up to 985,812. 00:20:36
Expenses 890-1692 and it drops about $1500 each year because of inflation. 00:20:42
So the net for capital will be. 00:20:50
$94,000 in. 00:20:52
2027. 00:20:54
So just to mention. 00:20:59
Stormwater utilities all across the country, there's over 2500 of them in. 00:21:01
Indiana. There's 10, including Floyd County. 00:21:06
Stormwater programs and there's more than 116 cities in Indiana that have the storm water fee. 00:21:09
The national average for the single family residential. 00:21:16
Per ERU, per year 7428. 00:21:19
The Indiana average, again, is 5779. 00:21:22
The county specifically is $51.00 as compared to the $39. 00:21:25
And that that information comes again from the Western. 00:21:31
Kentucky. 00:21:34
Survey SO. 00:21:36
Will entertain any questions that you may have. 00:21:39
Can you go back by three slides? Sure. 00:21:44
I don't know one more. 00:21:49
Yeah, go back another one. 00:21:53
Yeah. So on this slide, there's a watershed study. 00:21:55
Is it $500,000 for the study? 00:22:01
On #6 Yes. 00:22:07
Is that? 00:22:13
Well, a watershed study. 00:22:16
And that would be a countrywide watershed study, you say is it necessary? At a minimum, we would recommend that you would do a 00:22:18
pilot which would be a little bit less than the than the half $1,000,000 watershed studies again identified the storm water 00:22:23
problems. 00:22:27
And the stormwater fixes? 00:22:31
So that's why either a pilot and again the intent of that would be a county wide, you wouldn't necessarily have to do a county 00:22:33
wide. 00:22:36
But you would certainly want to do a pilot which would be probably 25 to 30% of that cost. 00:22:39
And then you would extrapolate, but you certainly even if you do the pilot. 00:22:45
You would want to do those meeting watershed studies all around the county if you don't do a county wide. 00:22:49
You know, all at one time. And again, you don't have to do it all at one time. 00:22:53
But certainly every. 00:22:56
Area would need to be studied at some point to identify the problems. It's both twofold. It's identify the problems and it's also 00:22:58
in some cases to fix the problem. 00:23:03
Is there a reason 6 comes after 9 here? 00:23:08
Oh, no, sorry, fine. 00:23:12
I mean, this list has been in flux. I mean, you know, because, you know, we've asked Chris. 00:23:16
Reprioritize it periodically. So it could be that that wasn't as his number six Once Upon a time. 00:23:20
But other priorities continue to bubble to the top on that so. 00:23:25
I mean. 00:23:30
Thank you for the presentation. We brought this forward tonight because, you know, a couple years ago we brought forward a plan 00:23:30
and the commissioners approved of it and it did not get through council and we continue to work with this to try to tweak it, but. 00:23:37
Um, this year, early this year. 00:23:45
The commissioners? Really. 00:23:48
Tried to push forward on this to. 00:23:49
Even out the agricultural component of it so. 00:23:51
Even so, it's it's kind of a hybrid, right? There's been no adjustment for inflation since 2007. This still doesn't take us up to 00:23:55
inflation and still. 00:23:59
Far below the average cost for most people in the county. So in the state of Indiana. 00:24:03
So again, treating. 00:24:08
All the agricultural owners on the same. 00:24:11
Playing field is the. 00:24:15
Residential owners, I think. 00:24:17
Is it is a nice matter of fairness? 00:24:19
That needed to have needed been addressed for a long time. 00:24:21
You know, personally I'm in favor of the $45.00 because it gives some room for us to attack this. 00:24:26
This list and if we if we don't. 00:24:31
Start off with the number one, we're never going to get to #10 And again, we tend to add a couple of these to each year, so. 00:24:34
There's really no action we need to take tonight, but storm water crews here if you have questions. I would look for this to be on 00:24:41
the commissioners agenda, the first meeting in November and and. 00:24:46
To be. 00:24:51
Passed at either a $45.00 or $41. 00:24:53
Level to be determined officially. 00:24:56
And then it'll come before the council for. 00:24:58
Final approval sometime before the end of the year. 00:25:01
So so I have I have a couple questions because you know, I always do. 00:25:04
If you go back to the $41. 00:25:10
Slide. 00:25:14
Yeah, does this looks to me like that? 00:25:16
If we don't put at least $41.00 in. 00:25:20
We're not going to have enough money to cover expenses. 00:25:23
With the $39.00 rate, is that true? 00:25:26
Yes, in again. 00:25:29
Is as long as you're worse. 00:25:31
In both scenarios, we're assuming that the conversion of the of the agricultural from from commercial. 00:25:34
To residential, but what I'm asking is if we do the conversion and we stay at 39. 00:25:41
Do we have enough? 00:25:46
Revenue coming in. 00:25:48
Under those that scenario. 00:25:50
39 and the farmers going to the residential rates. 00:25:53
To cover the expenses, no, we're saying that the 41. 00:25:57
You'll lose money. It's 40. It's it's approximately 48. That's that's the way I read this. I just wanted to make sure I was 00:26:01
reading it. Yeah, it's a $48,000 loss. So if it's not increased to 41, you'll lose 48,000 out of the company somewhere. 00:26:07
OK, OK. 00:26:13
The second question I have is 2 slides forward from here. 00:26:16
Where you say that? 00:26:20
Tent There's 10 Indiana counties, including Floyd. 00:26:24
Why only 10? 00:26:28
I I think we've addressed this before, but I can't remember the answer. 00:26:30
Why there's only 10 counties that have? 00:26:34
These stormwater fleas. 00:26:37
Through idem and. 00:26:42
EPA and IDEM, it's based on your population and how close you are to metropolitan areas. So these counties, the 10 are closer to 00:26:44
metropolitan in it. So statutorily we have to have a storm water. 00:26:50
OK. That's that was my question. 00:26:57
OK. And these statutorily are the counties that have to have it? 00:26:59
Based on the current statute. 00:27:04
Yes, and other counties or other counties and. 00:27:07
Towns are added all the time in like 5 year increments and when the since new census comes out every five years. 00:27:10
I know Charlestown was just that and Scottsburg was just added. Those are just some towns. 00:27:17
Harrison County is probably going to be in. 00:27:21
Into it the next year and then they're looking at probably Scott Washington. 00:27:25
Through that. So it's growing, yes, if you say it's by urban areas. 00:27:30
The Y in Marion County, all the dominant counties. 00:27:34
No water. Say that again. I'm sorry you said it it. 00:27:38
Based on urban areas, yes. 00:27:41
Why in Marion County and all the donut counties? 00:27:43
In that is what Marion County. 00:27:46
Is Indianapolis IN? Indianapolis is a phase one Ms. 4 community, so they have already been in it. We are a phase two and this is 00:27:50
dealing with Phase 2. 00:27:54
Anyone with over a million population, city and county like Vandenberg, Evansville. 00:28:00
Fort Wayne. 00:28:06
And Indianapolis, those three have already. 00:28:08
Had to have. 00:28:11
Done it in a phase one. They had to do it early 90s like 1994. 00:28:12
OK, so I have one more question. 00:28:16
What is the average increase per? 00:28:19
Household for. 00:28:23
Floyd County. 00:28:25
If we go to 41, well. 00:28:32
I mean, everyone's paying 39 now, 41 is. 00:28:34
One scenario. So that would be a $2.00 increase, just $2.00 and then 4-5 would be the $6 increase where the 45 would get you money 00:28:39
to. 00:28:43
On an annual basis it would only be $2.00 per household, yes. 00:28:47
After six dollars is $0.50 a month. 00:28:51
Important. The $6 increase would be $0.50 a month if you went to 40. Gotcha. 00:28:54
OK, just make sure I understand that there wasn't any. 00:29:00
Saying out. OK, all right, I had a question. 00:29:03
So it looks like. 00:29:07
You had the 41 and the 45 rate and then it's flat the following year. 00:29:08
Is that correct? 00:29:12
Into that, I mean, I'm just surprised why we don't. 00:29:13
Do something like the $41.00 rate and then build it at 3% in 27. Why? 00:29:16
That seemed like that would be more reasonable to me. 00:29:21
So you could keep the. 00:29:24
Up with the cost of inflation for salaries. 00:29:26
Well, actually we talked about that is doing the 45 and a 3% or whatever. 00:29:28
Or consume the price context. 00:29:34
OK. Well, I didn't see this 3% the following year on any options. No, and we've talked about it to your point that number is in 00:29:37
the labor. 00:29:40
Cost, the 3% raises and the labor cost each year. 00:29:44
The cost, but not the revenue, right? 00:29:48
Correct, right? 00:29:50
I'd like to do that, but it's it's a good. We were just asked to do 2 scenarios so. 00:29:51
Understand that's why I allowed to make the comment now since they haven't voted on themselves, right? 00:29:57
And then talking to. 00:30:02
Our lawyers, the stormwater board attorney and everything else Indiana does not allow you to just put in at 3% and you keep on 00:30:04
raising it year after year after year. You actually, if you do that, you got to come in front of the council every year and ask 00:30:09
for that. So in 2028. 00:30:14
2728 We'll probably look at it again in 27. 00:30:20
Possibly come back in 28 past four, whatever that increase could be in 20. Yeah, there's two ways to write it. I mean, when I was 00:30:24
in the City Council, we had a a sewage increase rate that was part of the ordinance and it was a CPI of of industry specific. 00:30:31
Index. 00:30:38
But the ordinance called for an automatic meeting every. 00:30:41
Two years at which a rate would be considered. 00:30:44
So we've not. 00:30:48
The ordinance hasn't been completed yet. We could put something like that in that or we could just. 00:30:50
Leave verbage that it will be considered or need to be considered every two years. 00:30:54
So but an automatic. 00:30:59
Flip is not. 00:31:03
Not possible. Not possible. Yeah, so. 00:31:04
So we're looking to have that on our agenda, first meeting in November. 00:31:08
Correct, Susannah and and then we'll get that to you. 00:31:13
Immediately thereafter. 00:31:17
So thank you very much, very much. 00:31:19
And we'll keep moving along. I think it's back to Mr. Short and the second reading on. 00:31:22
Go by. 00:31:29
Yeah. Item number 3 is County Council second reading of Ordinance 2025-19 and Ordinance of Wood County authorizing the issuance of 00:31:31
general obligation bonds. 00:31:35
Of the county for the purpose of providing funds to pay for the cost of certain capital improvements and equipping projects. 00:31:40
And incidental expenses in connection therewith and on account the issuance of the bonds appropriating the proceeds thereof. 00:31:46
And approving certain matters related thereto. 00:31:52
This is the second reading. 00:31:56
Of Jeff, her second. 00:31:58
We have a motion. 00:32:00
Any discussion? 00:32:01
Yeah. I just want to reiterate as I voted last time, I voted against it. I just. 00:32:03
It it is no different than the wheel tax. This is a. 00:32:07
Even though this is not a tax increase, it's a reduction the taxpayer would have received. I think we should be offsetting that 00:32:11
with our public safety tax, so. 00:32:15
Can't support if we're not going to do that. 00:32:20
And I'll I'll add to that that I agree with but. 00:32:23
Jim said and that. 00:32:27
I do want these capital projects done. They need to be done. 00:32:30
But. 00:32:33
We are. 00:32:34
Overburdening. 00:32:36
Our taxpayers. 00:32:37
Right now. 00:32:39
And what we need to do is to adjust that. 00:32:40
Public safety tax. 00:32:42
By the amount. 00:32:43
That that, that we're not reducing their taxes by here. 00:32:45
So it this. 00:32:49
This is only because we haven't addressed. 00:32:51
What I've asked to be addressed all year long, and that is the reduction of that public safety tax. 00:32:54
That was put in place for. 00:33:00
An exorbitant amount. 00:33:02
So I can't vote for this either. 00:33:03
Any further comments? 00:33:06
All in favor say aye aye those opposed. 00:33:09
Aye, aye. 00:33:12
That passes. 00:33:13
All right, Agenda item 4, Commissioners Resolution 2025-201-A Resolution of the Board of Commissioners, Floyd County, Indiana, 00:33:15
approving the issuance of general obligation bonds, the County and other authorizing other matters in connection therewith. 00:33:22
Look for a motion to approve. 00:33:30
So moved second. 00:33:33
Any discussion? 00:33:35
All in favor. 00:33:37
Aye. 00:33:38
Item 5 is again council item. 00:33:41
So item 5 is our engagement letter with Baker Tilly. 00:33:45
For work on the general obligation bond. 00:33:48
Move to approve. 00:33:53
2nd. 00:33:54
We have motion and 2nd any discussion or questions? 00:33:55
On the engagement letter. 00:33:59
All in favor say aye. 00:34:02
Aye, any opposed? 00:34:03
Aye. 00:34:05
That carries. 00:34:06
All right, and. 00:34:07
I'm going to go ahead and. 00:34:09
Item 9. 00:34:11
Forward. 00:34:13
For the Commissioners engagement letter from Barnes and Thornburg again relating to the general obligation bond of 2025. 00:34:16
Yeah, look for a motion to approve so. 00:34:26
2nd. 00:34:28
A motion to 2nd any discussion. 00:34:29
All in favor. 00:34:33
Aye. 00:34:34
All right. So now if I'm correct, we'll bring forward. 00:34:36
Presentation on EMS if we have that queued up and ready to go. 00:34:40
Before we would go to item 6:00 and 7:00. 00:34:45
Is that ready or? 00:34:52
So again, this is just the presentation that I put together, nothing is set in stone. This is just a vision that I was asked to do 00:34:58
as a consultant, a 25 year paramedic. 00:35:02
Board certified and five sub specialties on the 7th paramedic in the world to hold those five certifications. 00:35:08
I've worked for 15 years as a flight paramedic on a helicopter on their manager in an air medical base. 00:35:14
And I've been in EMS since 1999. 00:35:21
So this was a presentation that I put together kind of what. 00:35:23
A potential EMS would look like for Floyd count. 00:35:28
So first of all, it would be a separate EMS division within the fire territory. 00:35:32
So it is still fire based EMS. 00:35:37
But what it would be is a. 00:35:40
Fire based EMS system for the entire county. 00:35:41
The employees will be the EMS workers will be employees of the fire territory. 00:35:45
And they would report through. 00:35:50
Their own EMS administration to the Fire Chief of the fire territory. 00:35:51
Those two administrations would work together. 00:35:57
As far as trainings, operations and any communications. 00:35:59
It would be a single role service, meaning that EMS workers work the ambulance, firefighters work with the fire apparatus. There's 00:36:03
no intermingling of the two. It stabilizes EMS, it stabilizes the fire department. 00:36:09
This service delivery model is exactly identical to every single fire department based EMS service in the city of Lewis. 00:36:15
They're single only. 00:36:24
This is what an organizational chart of what the fire territory would look like with the addition of EMS. 00:36:27
It is a mirror image exactly of what the fireside would be. 00:36:34
So if you look over the second column from the right. 00:36:40
There would be a deputy chief of. 00:36:42
Or, I'm sorry, the bar column on the right deputy chief for the EMS division directly under them would be a major overseeing the 00:36:46
operations. 00:36:49
Under them would be a captain who overseas all EMS and medical training for all members of the fire territory, including the 00:36:54
firefighters. 00:36:57
Those are Allstate mandated, state required courses that we will be able to provide in house for free. 00:37:01
And then there would be 3 EMS lieutenants. 00:37:07
Field supervisors that were overseeing shift operations or after. 00:37:09
Business hours. 00:37:15
So the commissioners implemented a tax. 00:37:17
Fund this service. 00:37:21
So in my professional opinion, I think it needs to be overseen by the county. 00:37:23
So. 00:37:28
The EMS chief would be selected by the commissioners. 00:37:29
The medical director, which is a physician, which is required by state statute. 00:37:32
Would be chosen by the commissioners with assistance from the EMS chief. 00:37:37
The deputy chief. 00:37:41
Would then be chosen by the commissioners, the EMS chief and the medical director, who again is a physician. 00:37:42
Then the medical training officer would be chosen by the EMS administration with final approval from the Floyd County 00:37:49
Commissioners. 00:37:52
The three, the three bullet points here basically what the responsibilities of each the EMS chief, the deputy chief. 00:37:57
What their roles would be? 00:38:04
So day-to-day operations, adherence to medical protocols, there's a lot of liability. 00:38:06
Liability compliance to state, local and federal guidelines as far as DEA narcotic compliance operations. OSHA. 00:38:11
So each of those members will be available 24/7 on call to respond to calls for increased. 00:38:19
Increase run volume. 00:38:25
Large scale events and then they would also be available to staff shifts due to call offs, vacations, or any open positions that 00:38:27
existed within the agency if. 00:38:31
They were unable to be filled. 00:38:36
On board each ambulance or via power Rd. stretcher. Those are basically. 00:38:39
Exactly what they say. They're quickly becoming the industry standard they have been proven to. 00:38:43
Minimize the amount of workman's comp claims. 00:38:49
Those are very expensive so. 00:38:52
They're being EMOS transport ventilator on every ambulance, a mechanical CPR device on every ambulance. 00:38:55
An EMS transport IV pump on every ambulance. 00:39:01
And video origin scopes on every ambulance. Highlander recently bought IV pumps. They're a great thing, but that level of service 00:39:05
is not consistently being provided. 00:39:10
To everyone in this county. 00:39:15
So there's a couple advantages of the. 00:39:20
The delivery model, so with those mechanical CPR devices. 00:39:24
It memorizes CPR interruptions by approximately 70%. 00:39:27
Through the American Heart Association has been proven that interruptions. 00:39:32
With CPR. 00:39:36
Increase patient mortality. 00:39:38
More patients die. 00:39:40
When CPR is interrupted. 00:39:41
The transport ventilators on board those ambulances allows for guaranteed, uninterrupted ventilations being delivered to patients. 00:39:43
And interruptions or ineffective manual ventilations, but done by humans. 00:39:50
Have been shown to increase patient mortality. 00:39:54
So again, more patients die. 00:39:57
The IV pumps allow for precise medication administration, especially weight based medications. 00:39:59
And everything with weight based medications and EMS is based on kilograms. So we're converting pounds to kilograms. 00:40:05
And then dosing medications based on kilograms. 00:40:11
So this prevents medication errors. 00:40:14
The biggest benefit to this is. 00:40:17
Is all of those items. 00:40:19
Are going to minimize and decrease the incidences of where you take a. 00:40:20
Cardiac arrest patient to the hospital. You're taking two firefighters off of an engine. You're taking an engine out of service 00:40:24
for upwards of an hour. 00:40:27
While they ride in with EMS and then that engine is not available to respond to the next call for service, whether it be an EMS 00:40:31
car, whether it be a fire call. 00:40:34
Having the IV pumps, having the ventilators, now there's not a need to take two firefighters. 00:40:39
So sometimes you might have to take one. 00:40:43
Eventually, you know. 00:40:45
You get trained up enough on this equipment, you don't have to take any. 00:40:46
So again. 00:40:49
Fire stays in service, they're available to respond to the next emergency. 00:40:50
So the day-to-day operations, there'd be 3 platoons, AB and. 00:40:55
4 ambulances each. Advanced life support. 00:40:59
One paramedic supervisor per shift for oversight. 00:41:02
They would be available as an incident commander for any large scale event. 00:41:06
After hours until the chief of the deputy chief arrived on the scene to assume the role of medical. 00:41:10
Command that is in. 00:41:15
That is a. 00:41:17
Direct recommendation of FEMA. 00:41:18
So in order to achieve this. 00:41:21
Service delivery model. 00:41:23
We would basically need to hire 27 full time employees. 00:41:25
There'd be one EMS chief, one deputy EMS chief, one medical training officer and 24 full time ambulance personnel. 00:41:29
So the medical officer would be required to possess instructor certifications and at least. 00:41:37
House ACLS and CPR. 00:41:41
Powell's ACLS and CPR are required. 00:41:43
Every two years. 00:41:46
CPR class right now is about $200. 00:41:47
Powers and Acls are about 2:50. 00:41:50
So you're looking at about 700 to $800 per person? 00:41:53
And if you don't have that person who's capable of teaching that, then you're outsourcing that. 00:41:57
And paying someone else to teach it. 00:42:01
So the reporting part of EMS each month. 00:42:05
The EMS administration would be required to come before the council. 00:42:09
And before the commissioners to report operations, to report the financials. 00:42:13
The Commissioners would control the operations, the Council would control the money. 00:42:17
So with that. 00:42:22
The EMS administration will work with a medical director to establish a clinical quality dashboard. 00:42:24
That, uh. 00:42:29
Is set by a key performance indicators named by the physicians, so this is the standard that needs to be met. 00:42:31
That information will be made publicly available, shared to everyone. 00:42:37
And that return, it shows a return on investment and it shows how we're performing as a. 00:42:41
Agency for Floyd County. 00:42:46
So we would start mobile integrated health in the community paramedicine program. 00:42:49
So this service generally targets the elderly, the homebound and the underserved. 00:42:53
And the goal of MIH is to decrease hospital readmissions. 00:42:58
Readmissions and to connect patients with local outreach services. 00:43:01
At a minimum, the agency would ensure that at least three people were licensed and certified as a community paramedic while 00:43:06
performing this service. 00:43:10
If you're going to perform a service, you should probably be licensed and certified at. 00:43:14
So as the agency began operations, we it would. 00:43:20
Become certified as a training institute with. 00:43:23
The Indiana EMS Commission, which would allow them conduct. 00:43:25
EMR which is First responder, EMT, advanced EMT and Paramedic classes. 00:43:29
When that last bullet point? 00:43:34
Do you foresee that as a revenue source for it is a revenue source? 00:43:36
Yes, so. 00:43:40
Really the only two current right now are Harrison County, Indiana and Scott County, Indiana. 00:43:42
They they do pretty much. 00:43:47
About two EMT classes a year on a paramedic class about every 18 months. 00:43:49
Average cost for paramedic class right now is anywhere between 8000 and $10,000 per person. 00:43:53
So EMT classes were on about $1000 a person. Advanced EMT classes run somewhere between 1500 and $2000 a person. 00:43:58
Did you envision that would be? 00:44:08
Firehouse specific or. 00:44:10
You could also open that up, open it up to the public so you can bring in people from outside agencies. 00:44:13
Medical so you would advertise that on a cadence which is the state reporting site anyone who was. 00:44:19
Interested in coming down being part of this class. 00:44:24
They're welcome to sign up. 00:44:26
So it generates revenue for the county. 00:44:28
The big part with community engagement in this service would be is the agency can provide Stop the Bleed classes to any and all 00:44:33
local law enforcement agencies free of charge. There's no charge. 00:44:38
CPR and Stop the Bleed classes provided to all New Albany, Floyd County school teachers, Floyd County businesses and Floyd County 00:44:44
residents free of charge because they're already paying taxes for the service. 00:44:49
One ambulance, you can special mark that. 00:44:56
Avoid central colors, green, gold. 00:44:58
Make a green and gold. 00:45:00
That's your ambulance for your Friday Night Football games. 00:45:02
It's community involvement. 00:45:04
It's it's showing the community that that you're out, you're visible. 00:45:06
And it's changing the perception of what EMS is. 00:45:10
So it's not just about EMS, it's it's also about improving what is being done on the fire department. 00:45:15
So. 00:45:21
As part of this plan. 00:45:22
A mechanical CPR device would be placed on every single fire truck in the fire territory. 00:45:24
The benefit of that is is. 00:45:30
EMS shows up on scene, fire department already has this life saving device that's being utilized. You're not having to stop CPR 00:45:32
and say well here, let's put ours on. 00:45:36
You hand them yours, you take theirs. 00:45:40
That fire engine goes back in service. 00:45:42
They have that life saving piece of equipment on board. 00:45:44
And they're available to use it next. 00:45:47
This level service is not provided anywhere in this region. Southern Indiana. 00:45:50
Or Kentucky. 00:45:54
So. 00:45:56
It's really a chance to elevate day one and show what the service can be. 00:45:57
One of the benefits also would be putting making sure that all the AED's on board all fire apparatus are compatible with the EMS 00:46:04
monitors. 00:46:07
Or about 100 and he works between $130.00 for a set of pads. 00:46:11
EMS or fargets on scene puts pads on. EMS gets their rips those pads off, they put their pads on and then they get to the hospital 00:46:15
and hospital rips those pads often puts theirs on. 00:46:19
So there's about $400.00 worth of pads right there. 00:46:24
So when you had the same pieces of equipment that are all compatible with one another. 00:46:27
You use one set. 00:46:31
So it cuts down on costs. 00:46:33
Also this we could consider the use of advanced life support fire engines. 00:46:37
So you have advanced EMT's, paramedics that are working on the fire engines? 00:46:41
And they want to still provide advanced level life support care. They can do that. 00:46:44
This level service it's not being done anywhere else either. 00:46:50
So I think Saint Matthews is the only one that's doing. 00:46:52
Perfect. So why? 00:46:56
Why now? Why EMS so? 00:46:59
As was stated previously, EMS is the. 00:47:02
In a previous meeting I was in today. 00:47:05
EMS is the only emergency service that consistently generates its own. 00:47:07
In 2024, Harrison County, Indiana completed 4868 transports. 00:47:12
They generated $3.1 million, which is about $636 per net revenue per transport. 00:47:19
Scott County, Indiana, which is 66% Medicaid funded. 00:47:26
They transported about 3800. They generated 2.6 million. 00:47:30
So the revenue generated from EMS would largely pay for itself. 00:47:37
EMS will pay for itself if it's done right. 00:47:41
The initial cost for startup is. 00:47:45
Obviously going to be the most expensive, but. 00:47:48
As that subsidy. 00:47:50
Kicks in with that reimbursement. 00:47:52
And EMS begins to stand on their own 2 feet, then that subsidy requirement. 00:47:54
Can be decreased. 00:47:59
And basically EMS becomes self funded at that point. 00:48:01
So why now and? 00:48:05
2025 Indiana House Bill 351385 became law and eliminates balance billing for all patients. 00:48:07
So what that means is when EMS sends that patient a bill. 00:48:14
The insurance sends back. 00:48:17
$500.00 for a $1200 bill. 00:48:20
And the ambulance service by law has to say, hey, thanks and. 00:48:23
They write the rest of that bill off so the patients not getting. 00:48:27
Exorbitant amount of bill. 00:48:31
Being built after what the insurance pays. 00:48:35
So it accepts insurance payments, payments in full for the services provided. 00:48:37
So also in 2025, I believe it was July 1st, House Bill 1454 became law and now designates EMS in the state of Indiana as an 00:48:43
essential service just like. 00:48:47
Police and fire. 00:48:52
And in that law, it also states that the county commissioners announced that store product provide this essential service. 00:48:54
So due to the EMS division that would be likely receiving a subsidy from the county, the most efficient and transparent way for 00:49:00
EMS to operate. 00:49:04
Is to be directly overseen by the county. 00:49:08
Operations by the. 00:49:10
Overseen by the Commissioners. Financials overseen by the Council. 00:49:12
And then monthly that EMS service should be required to report monthly. 00:49:16
Back to. 00:49:21
Commissioners and the Council. 00:49:22
OK. Thank you. I know that was kind of impromptu. You were asked to do that maybe an hour ago. I have. 00:49:25
I don't want to get too far into the weeds with this, but Rick on. 00:49:31
On Bill 1385. That became law in 2025. 00:49:33
If you haven't already reviewed our Mayor Pro contract for 2026 to see if that has any ramifications for that, I don't know 00:49:39
whether. 00:49:43
That bill has anything to do with. 00:49:48
Privately contracted insurance or contracts in place or whatever, but. 00:49:50
I think we need to review that bill to see how it may or may not impact. 00:49:54
The contract that we have in place with the Mayor PRO through 2025. 00:49:58
So I don't know if you can negate a contract that's already in place or not like that or if the grandfather's that in or out, but 00:50:03
we'll need to look at that because it. 00:50:07
Be germane to our our, our citizens. So we'll look at that. 00:50:11
All right. 00:50:17
Any questions at this? 00:50:19
Point I did have one question. 00:50:21
Health program? Yes, Sir. 00:50:26
That's more employees, right? 00:50:28
More employees? No. 00:50:30
It's just an additional role that's taken on by employees that we are. 00:50:31
The 27 EMS workers. 00:50:35
Is that's included. 00:50:38
Those mobile integrated health is a newer thing. 00:50:40
It's a newer thing that kind of targets the underserved, so quite honestly. 00:50:43
There's not a huge following for it right now because it's still in its implementation. 00:50:47
Nationwide. 00:50:52
So you know. 00:50:53
There's about 3800 EMS calls for the county for Floyd County based on the numbers that I received from the CAD at dispatch. 00:50:55
So. 00:51:03
There's going to be enough time for, you know. 00:51:04
The administration to say, hey, we have a call at 10:10 AM to go have a meeting. 00:51:07
Meeting with. 00:51:12
Patient that's entering Hospice care. So you start working with home health, you start working with mental health, you start. 00:51:13
Kind of connecting them with rehab facilities. So it's a lot of. 00:51:22
Almost like social work. 00:51:27
But it is kind of a newer concept with EMS and it's just a, it's a team approach. 00:51:28
Thought I thought it also included like they look at. 00:51:33
Records to see if people are calling consistently, like 3 calls over the last three months. So that's where we need to go and look 00:51:39
at why this is happening and say if there's some kind of support. 00:51:45
That they need to put in place so that we don't go there and pick them up, though. And a lot of its education. The public doesn't 00:51:51
know someone comes home on their own. 00:51:55
Home ventilator or home oxygen, they don't understand how work. That's a lot. It's just. 00:51:59
Going in facility, working with maybe the elderly who are. 00:52:03
You know, have some questions about or they're not able to get their medications they. 00:52:07
Have questions about how to utilize their equipment so. 00:52:11
You know, Clarksville actually received a grant. 00:52:15
Two years ago for $495,000 to fund it. 00:52:18
For three years. 00:52:22
So there's a lot of grant money available. I've spoken to Doctor Yazel about that. 00:52:23
So. 00:52:28
That's another option to cut down on the costs. 00:52:29
I I did have one. 00:52:33
Question you said 4 ambulances I think I seen in your. 00:52:34
Is that yes? So you would run 424 seven? 00:52:39
OK, but you have to have a rotation. 00:52:43
So you can't run one ambulance 24/7 365 because of maintenance? 00:52:46
God forbid one gets wrecked. 00:52:51
You have to set up a truck rotation because if you don't, what happens is then in three years. 00:52:53
You're asked to buy five more at one time. Yeah. So Highlander has three. 00:52:58
So that five would be in addition to the three of highlighter, they have two and one coming. Is that correct? So I met with 00:53:02
Highlander last Thursday. When I told them was I said I don't believe in tearing service down to say. 00:53:08
That, uh. 00:53:14
We're going to build a service just to say that you built the service, I said. 00:53:14
So let's take what you've built. 00:53:18
Let's take it to the next level. 00:53:20
Love that. 00:53:22
So. So this is not this is a team effort. 00:53:23
This is so my I think my question then comes to something that's in the next. 00:53:26
One of the next agenda items, and that is. 00:53:32
I think there were five recommendation to buy 5 new. 00:53:35
And the reason is is so. 00:53:40
I spoke with every vendor who is authorized to sell ambulances in the state of Indiana. 00:53:41
The largest vendor had 12 ambulances available for calendar year 2026. That's it. Once they're gone, they're gone. 00:53:46
Yeah, so. 00:53:53
Osage ambulance, for instance, if you call them right now and said I want to build an ambulance 2028. 00:53:56
Well, so these are available next year. So what the commissioners did last year was basically. 00:54:01
They took 5 ambulances out of that 12 and they set them over here on the shelf to keep him from being sold to someone else. That 00:54:08
was it. 00:54:11
That way that gives 90 days. 00:54:14
For the powers that be to figure out what the path for my question is, we have 3. 00:54:17
And now you're going to buy 5. Now we got 8, but you just told me we needed. 00:54:24
You need 424 seven. 00:54:28
OK, you're required by law to have a. 00:54:30
An ambulance at a Friday Night Football game. There's 55. 00:54:33
If one gets wrecked. 00:54:36
Is down for maintenance for an oil change for tires because view joints fall out. 00:54:37
You at least have a rotation. 00:54:42
But then also what that does is that sets you up two or three years down the road, so you're only having to buy, say, one 00:54:43
ambulance every two or three years instead of. 00:54:48
Five. Yeah, but now I'm up. I hear you. Up to six and not 8. 00:54:52
I believe one of Highland, they would be spares. You have to have spare ambulances so. 00:54:57
Again, so you're not just running those ambulances non-stop. 00:55:02
OK, because that's what happened. I believe by the end of 26, one of Highlanders will be near the end of its useful life. So I was 00:55:06
up there last week. 1 has 29,000 miles, one has 15,000 miles, and they have another one coming in February. So the great thing 00:55:11
about that is you're only buying 5. 00:55:16
And now those 3 ambulances are two years apart. So now you set up that truck rotation so you don't have all of these ambulances 00:55:21
needing to be replaced at the same time. 00:55:26
Right, which spreads out the expense of. 00:55:30
OK, So what if what if? 00:55:35
I was just gonna say in the interest of time, I wanna get to that and then we can, you're not going anywhere. So we have questions 00:55:37
and. 00:55:40
Chief Barnes is here. And he did. 00:55:44
Signed up to speak. 00:55:46
To Highlander, which is not really an agenda item, but may. 00:55:47
Now would be a good time for you to speak if you wanted to or. 00:55:50
I was. I forgot to get on the agenda. 00:55:54
So, umm. 00:55:56
I was just going to brag. 00:55:56
Dragons so not not talk about this. So we just put me on the. 00:55:58
OK, drag on yourself. 00:56:02
Yeah. All right. 00:56:04
So. 00:56:06
Again. 00:56:07
Many moving parts. 00:56:09
Many different timelines being kind of. 00:56:11
Explored on the same time where different parallel paths here. 00:56:14
Item 6. 00:56:17
Is really informational we want. 00:56:19
You all to be aware of the fact that we have created a job description for a chief emergency. 00:56:21
Medical services director. 00:56:27
And that's included in the packet. 00:56:29
And I don't know if that requires. 00:56:32
Formal approval or not from the Council, but. 00:56:34
We certainly welcome your impact. These are all. 00:56:36
Kind of living documents, but this is going to be advertised and so. 00:56:40
So the other thing about these ambulances is these are type 1/4 wheel drive diesel ambulances. 00:56:45
And when I did the research on all of these ambulances. 00:56:51
For instance, and I'll just compare these ambulances directly to Highlanders, they're $26,000 a piece cheaper than what 00:56:54
Highlanders currently buy. 00:56:58
So, and they're made in Indiana. 00:57:02
That's not and then so item 7 again. 00:57:05
We can take. 00:57:09
Questions about 6 or 7 or all this in a broad discussion, but item 7 is. 00:57:10
You know again. 00:57:15
The public know for a second time that the commissioners did. 00:57:17
Sign a formal letter of intent. 00:57:21
To purchase ambulances at our last meeting. 00:57:23
But again, we're not obligated. 00:57:26
Within this 90 days to do that but. 00:57:27
They're on reserve and hold for us should this all gel and come together at this point in time. 00:57:30
And the cost associated with that is going to have to be borne somewhere and so. 00:57:35
We wanted to put it on the table for discussion for the public safety tax funding. 00:57:40
To be utilized in that manner. 00:57:45
So, yeah, Commissioner Sharp may have more detail than me on that. Yeah. So additionally, we're just, what we're trying to do is 00:57:48
trying to set the stage, you know, get everything in place. 00:57:52
You know if if this is. 00:57:56
To happen in the next 90 days, you know, obviously. 00:57:58
We're going to need somebody to come in. 00:58:01
You know, and get all this work going so. 00:58:03
We've kind of agreed on what we would need from that position. 00:58:05
You know that we would feel, but that's not going to be filled right now. That's just. 00:58:08
So all this goes well, and then of course. 00:58:12
You know, the ambulances, I think it would be appropriate to go ahead and set aside the funding for it just. 00:58:14
You know, in case that happens, you know, but you know, like. 00:58:19
That's up to the council's. 00:58:23
To decide what to do. 00:58:24
But I would also just like to add real quick that. 00:58:26
You know, dealing with the people of Highlander has been really great here. Or less. 00:58:28
Several weeks. We've had some really good discussions. 00:58:32
They seem very excited about some of the things that we've discussed. There's obviously a lot of negotiations. 00:58:35
Left to go. You know, we're just kind of starting to have those discussions we started. 00:58:40
Having discussions with the the territory today today. 00:58:45
Regarding the EMS as well, so there's a lot of moving parts here. 00:58:48
But setting the stage is going to be paramount to the success of this program. 00:58:52
And that's the thing at the end of these 90 days, if anytime during these 90 days something happens. 00:58:56
You walk away from it, there's no financial penalty, there's no financial obligations. 00:59:01
However, at the end of these 90 days of no, no decision is made. 00:59:05
They're going to take those angles, put them right back on the for sale. 00:59:08
A lot and they're going to sell them probably within a week. 00:59:12
But that's already a done deal. 00:59:14
You've already they've signed an option, they signed. They just signed the option to reserve them. There is no. 00:59:16
Legally binding agreement to purge. 00:59:22
Reserved the January 22nd. 00:59:24
OK, so. 00:59:27
I guess my. 00:59:31
I have a couple questions and and the first one is. 00:59:32
Have we put a dollar figure on? 00:59:35
This whole plan. 00:59:41
I know it this seems like it's come together pretty quickly. 00:59:43
So I have a list of capital purchases that I've created. 00:59:46
That does not include. 00:59:50
Highlanders assets and how acquisition of that were to take place that is. 00:59:52
I'm not Privy to that information. 00:59:57
Yeah. But I do have a list of capital assets that would be. 00:59:59
Needed for this service to operate. 01:00:03
Yes, I'll be happy to e-mail those to you. 01:00:06
So I, I mean, I'd like to see a whole, a complete financial plan including. 01:00:09
Capital, but also operations. 01:00:14
Cost and who's going to bear those operation cost it sounds like. So the operator, all the employees of the territory in the in 01:00:18
the fire territory, go ahead. 01:00:22
And what rate would that? 01:00:26
Require. 01:00:28
In order for them to be able to so the EMS is going to be subsidized by the county. 01:00:30
And that's so as generates its own revenue then that subsidy requirement. And I guess that's my point. So how much is the subsidy? 01:00:35
On an annual basis for the next five years. 01:00:43
Well, I know, but we need to put some numbers together so we understand what that subsidy might. 01:00:48
Look like we're working. 01:00:52
OK, OK. 01:00:55
A lot of things I know, I know. I just have one operational question. The lieutenants, will they be like Field? 01:00:57
Command, yes. 01:01:03
OK. And the? 01:01:05
I think Dale was trying to ask you this question. I've opened the words in your mouth, but that. 01:01:06
27 additional employees. Does that take account of our Adm? 01:01:10
Yes, personnel, we have already. 01:01:14
So because it's single role, basically some of those people that were hired. 01:01:16
Recently strictly to work the ambulances at a Highlander. 01:01:22
Would have the option either stay with fire, they come over to EMS so they were one of the other that would kind of lower the 01:01:25
numbers a little bit. OK, so the 20, yeah. So the the 27 is the total number that it would take. 01:01:30
For it to happen, that doesn't mean that's 27 additional people that you have to. 01:01:36
That's total staffing. 01:01:42
All right. 01:01:48
Sounds good. 01:01:49
Thank you. More to come. 01:01:50
Any other questions? 01:01:51
I have one more but I can't remember what it was. 01:01:53
Oh, the first step though, I think I want to understand. The first step really is to create the star territory. 01:01:55
Well, I mean, we have a fire territory, but we've got to get Highlander. 01:02:02
We don't create that, they have to. 01:02:07
OK, but that is the first step for this to become a reality. Well, not necessarily. I mean, you know. 01:02:09
We want that to happen. 01:02:16
You know, I think it's it's better off if everybody's underneath the same, but. 01:02:17
You know, if need be, we could still just fund the EMS operations through the territory. 01:02:21
If if we had to. 01:02:25
Like I said, everything with Highlanders going very, very well. 01:02:27
You know the discussions are going well. 01:02:30
They seem to be pretty excited. 01:02:33
I know they're going to be having some votes here in the near future on. 01:02:35
How they want to proceed but. 01:02:39
You know, worst case scenario the territory already exists, so. 01:02:41
All right. Thank you very much. 01:02:48
Susanna, would you mind reading into the record? 01:02:51
Item number. 01:02:54
8 on the Commissioners appointment. 01:02:56
Just just this. Yeah, that'd be fine, yeah. Or. 01:03:00
Yeah, unless you have a microphone over there. 01:03:04
Fine tube #8 is the RDA appointment. 01:03:08
And the recommendation is for Corey Cochran to be? 01:03:11
Replacement on that. 01:03:15
Yeah. And that that's. 01:03:17
Spot is vacated by. 01:03:19
Can Rush correct? He's been on there since the inception of the RDA, Yes. 01:03:20
And he highly. 01:03:25
Recommended. 01:03:26
Mr. Cochran So. 01:03:27
Accepting that if you all. 01:03:30
Yeah, he's you've already discussed that with him. 01:03:32
I have talked with me, OK. 01:03:35
I'm familiar with Corey. I'll make. 01:03:37
A motion to accept. 01:03:39
In OK. 01:03:41
We have a motion for appointment and. 01:03:43
OK, OK. And for the commissioners all in favor, aye. 01:03:45
All right, our next joint meeting will be Friday, November 21st, 2025 at 10 AM. 01:03:49
Anybody, any elected government officials in the. 01:03:56
Attendance who would like to make a comment tonight? 01:04:00
They're all up here. Yeah, everyone's up here, I think. Well, there are a couple who. 01:04:03
Sheriff was here. 01:04:07
Anybody from the public with any. 01:04:11
George and I signed up for Stormwater, but I guess you missed me. 01:04:18
No, I have you underneath wheel tax. 01:04:23
There's two. OK, storm water, OK. 01:04:27
We haven't voted on that, so feel feel free to speak. 01:04:30
Commissioners for finally recognizing agriculture. 01:04:34
Is not a contributor, but a taker of stormwater. 01:04:39
And I want it took me a long time to give an understanding. 01:04:42
But also I want y'all to understand that we were promised this when it very started. 01:04:46
And they're just now doing it in. 01:04:50
Anyway, I want to thank you for that. 01:04:53
OK. And another thing on the. 01:04:55
This service service. 01:04:58
I've asked. I would like to see. 01:05:00
A private company come in and bid for the same contract. 01:05:02
That we're talking about here. 01:05:06
Have the opportunity to bid on it and see dollars for dollar. Apples or apples. 01:05:07
And see what is we saving money which cost us more money. 01:05:11
Because it sounds like we're getting a Class A. 01:05:14
The best Cadillac of EMS service we can get. 01:05:17
Was the talk. She's a good. 01:05:20
But I would like to see. 01:05:22
We're proud company. You could come in there and bid on it. 01:05:24
And see who's. 01:05:27
Who's the best? Are we getting the best for the money? 01:05:28
Are we just going to pay the big money? 01:05:30
I just had two additions to that. One is. 01:05:32
With the. 01:05:36
Inability for them to balance a bit I think. 01:05:37
Private contractors may dry up on that, but. 01:05:40
But we can see on that and. 01:05:42
And also, if you'd like to thank the commissioners for other things, your time is unlimited tonight. 01:05:44
The strong water that's been on my babies for a long time. 01:05:50
I do thank you for that and I hope you keep it. 41 dollars. 01:05:53
Just got an escalation calls in there too. 01:05:58
Nobody's seen anyway. That's what you talked about. 01:06:00
That wouldn't bring him on up. 01:06:03
Instead, let's go with $41.00 and what we were promised to start with. Thank you. 01:06:05
All right. Thank you. 01:06:09
Any closing comments from anyone? 01:06:11
Tonight. 01:06:14
I think Jack. 01:06:15
Then the chief wanted to speak. Oh yeah. 01:06:16
I'll make it real quick. 01:06:21
Sprayed and not our heroes on the Hill Highlander Fire Protection District. Jake Barnes. Work for him. 01:06:22
I just want to tell you real quickly what they've been doing in the past month. 01:06:27
The past month have been 919 training hours for fire and EMS which is amazing. 01:06:31
And that brings us up to almost 7000. 01:06:37
Hours for this year. 01:06:40
Which if you do any Googling. 01:06:41
You will see that that is way past most fire departments so. 01:06:43
Big shout out to. 01:06:48
Captain Macon. 01:06:49
We were awarded two different grants, the AFG grant. 01:06:50
For 146,000 exchange. 01:06:54
Also, we got the community paramedicine grade for $80,000. 01:06:56
So we're the first fire department or the 1st place in Floyd County to have the community pair management program. So we're pretty 01:07:01
excited about that. 01:07:04
We got four more grants that we're waiting to hear back on. 01:07:09
Which is nice. 01:07:12
With new product protocols by Doctor Potter. 01:07:14
We made 156 total calls. 01:07:17
Last month with 137 of them. 01:07:19
Being EMS calls. 01:07:22
And about 24 of them were mutual aid. 01:07:23
Also the big news is we got our turn out gear which is extremely expensive. 01:07:27
Big shout out to the our board. Our board has supported us like crazy from day one. 01:07:32
They helped a lot with that. 01:07:37
Battalion Chief Scott. 01:07:39
Did all the legwork. 01:07:40
And then, of course, Cody Macon with the Grant. So there's a lot of good things up there. 01:07:42
Just want to let you all know SO. 01:07:47
We stay in touch with what's going on. 01:07:49
Thank you, thank you, thank you. 01:07:52
All right. Any closing comments? 01:07:55
From the board, just thanks for the update on the EMS. I think it looks. 01:07:56
Tremendous what? What? 01:08:02
Come to and. 01:08:03
I'm anxious to see how we can get this to work. 01:08:05
OK. Anyone else? 01:08:08
All right, look for a motion to adjourn. 01:08:12
Sorry, I just want to say. 01:08:15
A big thank you to the Highlander person. I think they've been doing a tremendous job here lately, especially like in the 01:08:18
communications over the last several months. 01:08:22
With the commissioners regarding how they're doing EMS, the community paramedicine thing is a big thing, so. 01:08:26
Good things happening up there. I'm just really glad to hear it. I'm really glad and excited to see how. 01:08:32
All this stuff is. 01:08:37
You know, kind of coming to fruition, so. 01:08:38
Great conversations had. 01:08:41
All right. 01:08:44
Tony, did you? 01:08:46
You want to make a motion to adjourn. 01:08:48
All right. All right. Thank you all. 01:08:50