MENTONE – Mentone Town Council held a public hearing for its 2025 budget.
The proposed budget totals $968,703. The casino/riverboat and rainy day funds are zero dollars. The general fund is $661,603. The local road and street fund is $17,200. The motor vehicle highway fund is $64,700. The cemetery fund is $12,700. The cumulative capital improvements fund is $2,500. The cumulative capital development fund is $15,000. The economic development fund is $195,000.
There was no public comment.
The budget will be adopted at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 16.
The council also introduced an ordinance raising the rates of townwide trash pickup.
In August, Councilman Tim Croy said he met with a representative from Apex since their contract expires Dec. 30. Croy said Apex would like to renew their contract with the town for another three years with a price increase each year.
During the introduction of the ordinance Wednesday, Croy said the trash rates per household for 2025 and 2026 will be $15 and $16 for 2027. The current rate is $13.
The council will vote on the rate increase during November’s meeting.
The council also approved sending a letter notifying TRG Services their bid of $623,029.11 was approved for the Mentzer Park upgrade. The bid was approved during a special meeting Aug. 22.
Town Marshal Keaton Schopf also updated the council on applications for a deputy marshal.
He suggested hiring a part-time deputy marshal at first with the possibility of making the position full-time later on.
Schopf said he received nine applicants and is planning on interviewing all the applicants and bringing his top four picks to the council’s November meeting, so the council can interview the applicants and make a decision in December.
Schopf suggested pay of $23 per hour for someone with experience and $21.90 per hour for someone without experience. He said he preferred someone with experience doing work for 24 hours a week.
The council also approved a 3% salary increase for town employees. Along with that, they approved longevity pay for town employees.
Council President Jill Gross said she received information from Milford about what they were discussing doing with longevity pay. The town also received information about what Winona Lake had previously discussed.
Gross said Milford’s possible longevity pay was $100 per year of longevity and Winona Lake’s was $150.
Utilities Superintendent Josh Shepherd suggested the council might want to check what Culver was doing with longevity pay because he believed it was $175 per year.
Croy suggested increasing the longevity pay to $200 per year because Mentone has good employees the town wants to keep.
The council approved the longevity pay to be paid out every November starting November 2025 for town employees with at least one full year of employment. The longevity pay will be $200 for every year of employment, capped at 25 years.
In other business, the council learned:
• Trick-or-treating hours will be 5:30 to 7 p.m. Oct. 31 with costume judging starting at 7 p.m. at Mentone Elementary School.
• Clerk-Treasurer Amanda Yaprak started the $200,000 K21 Health Foundation grant application.
Yaprak said she will have someone at K21 look at the application to see if any changes need to be made. She also sent copies to the council members to have them look it over.
The council approved Yaprak submitting the application once everyone is OK with the application.