MILFORD - Milford Town Council kicked off the new year with an election of officers and the news at Monday’s council meeting that the police department received the full amount of their grant application.
Doug Ruch was re-elected president of the council and Ken Long was elected vice president.
Deputy Marshal Ben Sanders has been working on applying for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants (JAG) and told the council that they applied for $131,291.84 and received the full amount. He told the council that will pay for the salary of a fifth officer for a year, updated radios for all officers and other equipment. He said they received notice of the award on Dec. 16. He also told the council that he and Clerk-Treasurer Tricia Gall just closed out the 2024 JAG grant.
Ruch told Sanders, “A big thank you for your due diligence in pursuing the grants.”
In other police business, Marshal Thomas Waikel Jr. received approval to hire two new police reserves - Dallas Rice and Devon Valentine. The clerk conducted the swearing in.
Waikel told the council that after looking at inventory they determined they’ll need two or maybe three vests because of the new hires and asked for approval to apply for a grant through the Kosciusko County Community Foundation to pay for the vests. The council gave their blessing for him to apply for the grant.
Water Project
Ryan LaReau, of Commonwealth Engineers, was present and asked for authorization to advertise for bids for the estimated $6.9 million water project. He said with the council’s approval they’d advertise in the local paper as well as on Commonwealth’s website. He said the timeline will include holding a pre-bid meeting on Jan. 29 with contractors and bids will be due back Feb. 10 to be opened at the Feb. 10 council meeting. He said they’d be advertising for both Division A - the water treatment plant and Division B - including the water main looping.
The council authorized LaReau to advertise for bids.
The project will include a new treatment facility to remove iron and manganese, looping dead-end service mains, replacing lead service lines, potholing unknown services and installing a mixer for elevated storage tank.
The town’s water supply has high levels of iron and manganese, which LaReau told the council at a previous meeting that the Indiana Department of Environmental Management considers “emerging contaminants.”
Utility Department
Utility Superintendent Steve Marquart told the council they need to order salt, and he obtained two quotes - one from Knepp Sand and Stone with a quote of $123 a ton delivered and from Morton Salt at $101.43 a ton delivered. He said they need to order 50 tons.
Smiley motioned to accept Morton’s quote with a not-to-exceed quantity of 55 tons. Gall pointed out sometimes they receive more than the amount ordered and it’s difficult then for her to pay the bill. After much discussion, the council amended the motion to accept Morton’s quote with a not-to-exceed 55 tons or $5,578.65.
Marquart also received approval to pay an invoice for a repair he said was forgotten in the midst of a busy leaf season. They had to have a hydraulic pump repaired on the leaf machine at a cost of $2,405.71 from Brown Equipment. Council members indicated they wanted to know about such issues beforehand.
A matter that was tabled for more information after a very lengthy discussion was preventative maintenance and repairs on the town’s street sweeper. Marquart presented an itemized list of items that need to be repaired on the street sweeper and said he eliminated a couple of items that he felt they could do in-house. The total of items needing attention amounts to $17,807.94 from Brown Equipment.
Marquart said, “Keep in mind, it’d cost over $360,000 to replace the sweeper.”
Some items include brushes, shock absorbers, squeegees on a giant conveyor belt, a cracked windshield and more.
Councilman Jim Smiley thought it was too soon to make such a decision, and he wanted to know why there was a labor cost of over $300 to replace the windshield when he thinks it should be included in the cost of the windshield and what $350 worth of shop items are. Smiley also asked Marquart if he could negotiate any of the items.
Marquart said he had already negotiated to get that amount. Long wondered if it would be to the town’s advantage to consider a different type of equipment in the future that might not need as much maintenance.
Marquart responded that the sweeper was not that old and didn’t have a lot of hours on it.
“It’s a 2013 and if you keep it maintained it’ll last a long time - the last one the body rusted out,” he said.
Long made a motion to have the repairs done but it died for a lack of a second. The rest of the council wanted Marquart to get answers to their questions so they could make a decision at the next council meeting.
In other utility business, Marquart reported that water meters are being replaced so when residents receive a letter they should respond by scheduling a time to have their meter replaced.
He also received the council’s approval to apply for an 80/20 matching grant through Polaris Trail Grant to purchase a side-by-side Utility Terrain Vehicle for the Parks Department.
Clerk’s Report
The clerk had council approval for ordinance 2025-2, creating a fund for JAG grants.
In another matter, she explained there are three types of year-end transfers - the first type she has authority to do without council approval; the second type needs council approval and transfers within the same budget, but moves to a different category; and the third type of year-end transfers requires an ordinance and council approval because it moves from one fund to another.
She explained that they had three such transfers on the ordinance - one transferred funds in the amount of $327,847.83 from TIF to water construction project, another transferred $288.60 from police general fund to police grants and the third amount of $109.89 from payroll and insurance to general clerk miscellaneous. The council approved the transfers and the ordinance.
Gall brought several utility credits to the council for approval. One situation involved an error in the amount of $3,203.86, one credit for late fees in the amount of $9.81 and two credits for J&T Properties - the woman who came to the council last month. Gall said she went back 12 months and averaged the bills, which gave a credit of $531.52 for one property and $429.41 for the other property. The council approved all the credits.
In other business, the council:
• Heard the fire department will be doing ice rescue training around the first of February and will let the town marshal know in case he has officers who want to participate and said the sheriff’s department usually participates.
• Approved a resolution showing CEDIT expenditures for 2024 - $4,625 to R&R Visuals for camera, jetting and vacuuming lines and $85,615.58 to USI Consultants for Waubee Lake Trails.
• Heard an update from the community coordinator through Gall that there was a good turnout for the first senior social event and more events are in the works.