Syracuse Council Approves Budget, Hears Annexation Comments
October 20, 2021 at 10:17 p.m.
Syracuse Council Approves Budget, Hears Annexation Comments
By Denise Federow-
No one commented on the proposed $4.7 budget, which was read on second reading and then adopted.
The $4,653,874 budget is $96,034 more than the 2021 budget of $4,557,840. The biggest increase is in the clerk’s budget – an increase of $44,402. Clerk-Treasurer Virginia Cazier cited health insurance increases, trash collection increases and fuel increases as part of the reasons for the increase. There’s also an increase of $21,444 in the parks department budget and an increase of $18,873 in the town manager’s budget.
There’s a $20,000 decrease in the rainy day fund. The estimated tax rate per $100 of assessed value is $0.9686 – a decrease from the estimated tax rate of $0.9815 for 2021.
A public hearing was held on the ordinance for annexation of Kern Road but the Council only wanted comments, not questions. One resident kept asking why there were four houses on Kern Road not being annexed.
Chris Janek, of Bose, McKinney and Evans, the firm assisting the town with the annexation, finally responded that under Indiana law anything to be annexed has to be one-eighth contiguous to the existing boundaries so they came up with squared-off boundaries that would satisfy that law.
Former Councilman Tom Hoover, who also lives in the Kern Road area, asked if people not included in the annexation could be. Janek said yes but it would need to be a separate annexation request.
Most of the residents present, however, expressed that they didn’t want to be annexed.
Hoover told the Council that some people were there because they were concerned there wasn’t enough money to cover the cost of the fence. Councilman Larry Martindale assured them there would be fences all around and it would be addressed later in the meeting.
Resident Nick Flenar told the Council he lived in his house for 18 years and he was against the annexation and the ball park at first but said they were doing a great job on the ball park.
“It looks good, but as far as our homes and livelihoods, we should be left alone. Let the kids come in and play ball but we prefer to be as our country life is,” Flenar said.
Council President Larry Siegel said, “We had to annex the contiguous property in order to get the ballpark in town.”
He said originally the plan with the development of Kern’s Crossing was that it would be annexed into town and they would run water and sewer out there, but then there were other issues that didn’t allow for the annulment to go through.
No action was taken on the annexation Tuesday. Janek said they had to have the final vote 30 to 60 days after the public hearing so it needed to be between Nov. 19 and Dec. 17. The Council voted to move their November meeting to Nov. 23 – the fourth Tuesday instead of the third to be within that time frame.
In a related matter, the Council approved spending $78,210 for fencing from Custom Fencing for the north and west side fencing. The cost will be paid out of Economic Development Income Tax funds.
Siegel told the Kern Road residents that if they heard there wasn’t money in the ball park construction fund to finish the fence that was correct – the town is using EDIT funds as part of the annexation.
Both the police chief and fire chief were attempting to get a head of the supply chain issues by placing orders now for 2022 delivery.
Police Chief Jim Layne received the Council’s OK to enter into a lease agreement with Axon of Scottsdale, Ariz., for 10 body cameras and eight in car cameras at a cost of $21,000 a year for 10 years. He said the biggest expense was for iCloud storage but said it will automatically download into the cloud. They are currently manually downloading the camera footage, which he said “takes forever.” The agreement calls for replacement of body cameras every 2½ years and replacing the in-car cameras every five years. He said they should receive the body cameras in four to six weeks and the in-car cameras in April.
Turkey Creek Township Fire Chief Mickey Scott brought two requests to place orders. The first was to replace hoses and nozzles from DPS at a cost of $46,917 from the 2022 fire equipment budget. He said if he orders now he might get them in April. He said most of the department’s hoses are over 20 years old. The Council approved the request.
He also received approval to order 800 megahertz radios now because he can get a discount through a deal with the County Commissioners if they order by the end of the year.
Scott said they’d be saving $56,000 if they order now, plus it will be April before they can get them. The Council approved the purchase of mobile and base radios at a cost of $220,691.06 from J & K Communications.
John Earnst and Bill Pipp of the recently formed Turkey Creek Dam and Dike Conservancy gave an update on their progress.
Earnst said their budget was approved and with that there was several agreements they’ve passed on to the town attorney for easements and spelling out that the conservancy is responsible for cap to cap on the flow control structure while the town should maintain water levels and mowing around the structure.
Pipp said next is repairing the dike, which costs about $575,000. He said they still have $100,000 of the donated monies they collected to help cover costs until they get tax revenue, but they’re hoping the town will give a matching amount.
After the men left the meeting, Councilman Bill Musser said the men came to the town during a difficult time and stepped up to help. “I think we owe these guys to come up with funds and I’m going to want to talk about that.”
Siegel reminded him that the town put in over $300,000 for the dam.
The Council had already adjourned the meeting but voted to re-open it to hear from a couple of more people, one of whom was Derek Church, 1033 N. Mullin St.
Church told the Council he grew up in Syracuse and moved back and bought his house. When he did he said he asked building inspector Hal Hansborough if he could have ducks and chickens and said he was told that he could.
He said he has about 30 that he’s raised from chicks and recently got notified by Hansborough that he has to get rid of them within 10 days. Church said he doesn’t sell his eggs; he gives them away to neighbors and donates them to the food pantry. He said he’s been making improvements like adding 10 x10 kennels and was going to put stones down.
Cazier said there is an ordinance against having wild animals in town limits. Siegel suggested and the Council agreed to let Church keep the chickens until they can figure out what to do.
Jim Higgins of London Witte Group spoke to the Council about the possibility of a residential tax increment finance district and explained how it would work. He said one requirement would be to conduct a housing study and the good thing is Kosciusko County Economic Development Corporation has already done that.
Higgins told them it was an economic tool to “encourage housing and growth where housing’s not happening.”
In other business, the Council:
• Approved a traffic study on Kern Road by Commonwealth Engineer at a cost not to exceed $6,000.
• Approved six change orders for the ball park project at a net negative total of $6,303.
• Heard leaf pickup has started. Residents are asked not to put leaves in the street but instead line them up in lines in their yards.
• Approved the purchase of a brush system to clean clarifiers at a cost of $56,840 from Ford Hall Inc., Richmond, Ky.
• Approved the purchase of three flow meters that might have received storm damage at a cost of $30,353 from Mason Equipment in Fort Wayne.
• Heard upcoming events include Haunted Thrill at Crosson Mill, Oct. 23, 24, 29 and 30, 7 to 9 p.m., $5 per person; drive-thru trick-or-treat, Community Center, Oct. 30, 3 to 5 p.m.; and the townwide trick-or-treat hours are Oct. 31, 6 to 8 p.m.
No one commented on the proposed $4.7 budget, which was read on second reading and then adopted.
The $4,653,874 budget is $96,034 more than the 2021 budget of $4,557,840. The biggest increase is in the clerk’s budget – an increase of $44,402. Clerk-Treasurer Virginia Cazier cited health insurance increases, trash collection increases and fuel increases as part of the reasons for the increase. There’s also an increase of $21,444 in the parks department budget and an increase of $18,873 in the town manager’s budget.
There’s a $20,000 decrease in the rainy day fund. The estimated tax rate per $100 of assessed value is $0.9686 – a decrease from the estimated tax rate of $0.9815 for 2021.
A public hearing was held on the ordinance for annexation of Kern Road but the Council only wanted comments, not questions. One resident kept asking why there were four houses on Kern Road not being annexed.
Chris Janek, of Bose, McKinney and Evans, the firm assisting the town with the annexation, finally responded that under Indiana law anything to be annexed has to be one-eighth contiguous to the existing boundaries so they came up with squared-off boundaries that would satisfy that law.
Former Councilman Tom Hoover, who also lives in the Kern Road area, asked if people not included in the annexation could be. Janek said yes but it would need to be a separate annexation request.
Most of the residents present, however, expressed that they didn’t want to be annexed.
Hoover told the Council that some people were there because they were concerned there wasn’t enough money to cover the cost of the fence. Councilman Larry Martindale assured them there would be fences all around and it would be addressed later in the meeting.
Resident Nick Flenar told the Council he lived in his house for 18 years and he was against the annexation and the ball park at first but said they were doing a great job on the ball park.
“It looks good, but as far as our homes and livelihoods, we should be left alone. Let the kids come in and play ball but we prefer to be as our country life is,” Flenar said.
Council President Larry Siegel said, “We had to annex the contiguous property in order to get the ballpark in town.”
He said originally the plan with the development of Kern’s Crossing was that it would be annexed into town and they would run water and sewer out there, but then there were other issues that didn’t allow for the annulment to go through.
No action was taken on the annexation Tuesday. Janek said they had to have the final vote 30 to 60 days after the public hearing so it needed to be between Nov. 19 and Dec. 17. The Council voted to move their November meeting to Nov. 23 – the fourth Tuesday instead of the third to be within that time frame.
In a related matter, the Council approved spending $78,210 for fencing from Custom Fencing for the north and west side fencing. The cost will be paid out of Economic Development Income Tax funds.
Siegel told the Kern Road residents that if they heard there wasn’t money in the ball park construction fund to finish the fence that was correct – the town is using EDIT funds as part of the annexation.
Both the police chief and fire chief were attempting to get a head of the supply chain issues by placing orders now for 2022 delivery.
Police Chief Jim Layne received the Council’s OK to enter into a lease agreement with Axon of Scottsdale, Ariz., for 10 body cameras and eight in car cameras at a cost of $21,000 a year for 10 years. He said the biggest expense was for iCloud storage but said it will automatically download into the cloud. They are currently manually downloading the camera footage, which he said “takes forever.” The agreement calls for replacement of body cameras every 2½ years and replacing the in-car cameras every five years. He said they should receive the body cameras in four to six weeks and the in-car cameras in April.
Turkey Creek Township Fire Chief Mickey Scott brought two requests to place orders. The first was to replace hoses and nozzles from DPS at a cost of $46,917 from the 2022 fire equipment budget. He said if he orders now he might get them in April. He said most of the department’s hoses are over 20 years old. The Council approved the request.
He also received approval to order 800 megahertz radios now because he can get a discount through a deal with the County Commissioners if they order by the end of the year.
Scott said they’d be saving $56,000 if they order now, plus it will be April before they can get them. The Council approved the purchase of mobile and base radios at a cost of $220,691.06 from J & K Communications.
John Earnst and Bill Pipp of the recently formed Turkey Creek Dam and Dike Conservancy gave an update on their progress.
Earnst said their budget was approved and with that there was several agreements they’ve passed on to the town attorney for easements and spelling out that the conservancy is responsible for cap to cap on the flow control structure while the town should maintain water levels and mowing around the structure.
Pipp said next is repairing the dike, which costs about $575,000. He said they still have $100,000 of the donated monies they collected to help cover costs until they get tax revenue, but they’re hoping the town will give a matching amount.
After the men left the meeting, Councilman Bill Musser said the men came to the town during a difficult time and stepped up to help. “I think we owe these guys to come up with funds and I’m going to want to talk about that.”
Siegel reminded him that the town put in over $300,000 for the dam.
The Council had already adjourned the meeting but voted to re-open it to hear from a couple of more people, one of whom was Derek Church, 1033 N. Mullin St.
Church told the Council he grew up in Syracuse and moved back and bought his house. When he did he said he asked building inspector Hal Hansborough if he could have ducks and chickens and said he was told that he could.
He said he has about 30 that he’s raised from chicks and recently got notified by Hansborough that he has to get rid of them within 10 days. Church said he doesn’t sell his eggs; he gives them away to neighbors and donates them to the food pantry. He said he’s been making improvements like adding 10 x10 kennels and was going to put stones down.
Cazier said there is an ordinance against having wild animals in town limits. Siegel suggested and the Council agreed to let Church keep the chickens until they can figure out what to do.
Jim Higgins of London Witte Group spoke to the Council about the possibility of a residential tax increment finance district and explained how it would work. He said one requirement would be to conduct a housing study and the good thing is Kosciusko County Economic Development Corporation has already done that.
Higgins told them it was an economic tool to “encourage housing and growth where housing’s not happening.”
In other business, the Council:
• Approved a traffic study on Kern Road by Commonwealth Engineer at a cost not to exceed $6,000.
• Approved six change orders for the ball park project at a net negative total of $6,303.
• Heard leaf pickup has started. Residents are asked not to put leaves in the street but instead line them up in lines in their yards.
• Approved the purchase of a brush system to clean clarifiers at a cost of $56,840 from Ford Hall Inc., Richmond, Ky.
• Approved the purchase of three flow meters that might have received storm damage at a cost of $30,353 from Mason Equipment in Fort Wayne.
• Heard upcoming events include Haunted Thrill at Crosson Mill, Oct. 23, 24, 29 and 30, 7 to 9 p.m., $5 per person; drive-thru trick-or-treat, Community Center, Oct. 30, 3 to 5 p.m.; and the townwide trick-or-treat hours are Oct. 31, 6 to 8 p.m.
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092