MILFORD - North Park subdivision residents came out in full force to the Milford Town Council meeting Monday upset about letters received from the Kosciusko County Area Plan Commission informing them that they must remove fences and structures in the easement area.
Matt Sandy, Area Plan director, was present and Council President Doug Ruch asked him to give an overview of the issues at North Park.
Sandy said there were four phases to the development and two developers platted the lots and easements were laid out. “Per ordinance those easements are to be kept free and clear for stormwater and utilities operations and maintenance. Through investigating we found a number of different structures — fences and sheds — placed in the easements; some have utility lines; some have drainage swales. Our office notified folks that they were in violation and gave them until May to resolve.”
Ruch said, “The first primary concern is because we have blockage in the storm drainage on Alexis Drive — those things need to be moved so we can camera the line and find out where the obstruction is.”
Sandy said, “That’s one reason why those areas need to be left open — that’s a priority area.”
That kicked off an hour of discussions, questions and complaints starting with new Council member Jim Smiley, who lives in the subdivision.
“Why is this just coming up now? I’ve lived there since 2006 and I was told I could put a shed there since 2007. I was told I could put a fence in the easement because there’s nothing there,” Smiley said. “Why wasn’t this enforced all along? A lot of people have a lot of money in those fences.”
Sandy said they don’t have the resources to invest in looking all over the county, so they got a complaint and looked at the whole subdivision. “Admittedly, we don’t catch all violations right away.”
Town attorney Jay Rigdon wanted everyone to understand the town’s role, explaining that the plan commission has jurisdiction over all zoning issues in town and is responsible for a lot of zoning issues.
“From the town’s perspective, specifically, easements are important if the town has an easement to protect whether it’s zoning or not — they want to be able to get to it to make repairs,” Rigdon said.
He went on to explain if there’s grass or gravel or a garden on the easement that’s OK because if they need to, they can still access the utilities in the easement, it’s just permanent structures that create a problem because sometimes a problem arises that they need to attend to immediately.
Smiley asked Sandy, “Why don’t you require permits for sheds and fences so we’d avoid this problem?”
Sandy said they could do that; they’ve just tried to be “user friendly and exempt those things from permits.”
A resident in the audience, Kevin Fuller, asked if he could speak and said his house has been up for 13 years and he was told by the county that it was no problem to put a fence up. Now he has a pool and he doesn’t want to find a kid in it if he’s forced to take the fence down.
“If it’s not a problem, why are you pushing the issues?”
One woman said she’s been in her house since 2016 and bought it because it had a fence for her dog and children, now she’s being forced to pay $2,000 to move it. “I feel you’re setting us up for failure if you don’t require a permit,” she told Sandy.
Christian Henne told Sandy he knew he wasn’t the director there when all this occurred and said, “I don’t envy your position but if it’s not a current issue, can’t we leave it and move it if we have to?”
Several others in the audience expressed agreement with Henne, stating they’d be happy to move it if their particular structures would cause a problem. Many kept asking the town council and Sandy why they were told by the county that it was OK for them to put up the fences and structures in the easements, expressing frustration about being given that permission and now being told they have to move or take down their fences or sheds. They were told they couldn’t give them that answer.
Ruch said, “The immediate problem is to the west and south of Alexis if you’re in violation. It’s not the town of Milford’s responsibility that you’re in violation.”
As some said they didn’t know if their homes were in the immediate problem area, councilman Ken Long got up and retrieved the plat and pointed out the area between Schafer and Alexis.
“If you’re in one of these homes, it needs to be taken out. I don’t want anyone to say they’re not going to move it because there’s fines involved and I don’t want you to have to pay them and our town employees should not have to be the ones to remove it,” he said. “The town has an actual physical problem now and we need that stuff moved.”
Toby Witmer said his property is in the “problem area” and he put up a fence just last year. “We went through all the correct channels and we weren’t told about the issues — now we have to spend money to move it.”
As the comments continued and two of the council members were among the audience showing the plats, Ruch called a five-minute recess after which he said they needed to get back to the regular agenda.
Smiley told his neighbors he’d give them the names of people at the county they could contact.
Fire Department
Assistant Fire Chief Todd Haines gave the fire department report then he gave a timeline starting with October 2021 when the fire department first came to the council and received approval to get specifications for a new truck as one was reaching its 20-year life. He said at that time the township had recently purchased a truck at the cost of $420,000.
In April 2022, they had the specs and the cost had increased to $605,000 and the town decided not to proceed. In December 2023, they lowered some of the specifications, but the price quoted had increased to $746,000.
“If we order it now it will take up to three years before it’s delivered, so in 2027, which will be four years past the recommended time to replace the 24-year-old truck. What are the next steps or what can we do because this keeps getting pushed back?” Haines asked.
Long said they only have $585,000 in that account to buy a fire truck. That set off another long discussion, culminating in Ruch asking Clerk-Treasurer Tricia Gall to set up a workshop with the town’s financial advisor Jim Higgins with LWG. She remarked that they’d already done that once but if they wanted to do it again, she’d set it up. The council approved the action.
In other business, the council:
• Heard the wastewater treatment plant superintendent received one quote for upgrading the lift stations from Kelco in New Carlisle at a cost of $38,700 but he was still seeking two more.
• Approved the annual spring clean up days as April 25-27.
• Approved discontinuing the use of adding fluoride to the town’s water supply, which is now unnecessary and will save the town $6,766.20 a year, which could be used to install CO2 to meet IDEM standards.
• Approved Street, Water and Parks Superintendent Steve Marquart’s attendance at the AWWA conference to obtain needed certifications.
• Tabled replacing old hand-held radios to obtain more than the single quote received.
• Gave permission to offer additional benefits to employees from Combined Insurance at no cost to the town.
• Heard an update from Barb Zimmerman with Milford Lion’s May Fest, which is planned for May 25.
• Approved three ordinances to clean up records — ordinance 2024-3 a salary ordinance amendment, to correct an education increase for a maintenance employee, ordinance 2024-4 a funds transfer ordinance to correct old records and ordinance 2024-3 dormant funds ordinance closing out three funds — Cares Act Covid fund, FEMA PA Covid grant and IPEP safety grant. All have been zeroed out and are no longer used.
• Approved paying the annual REACH alert invoice at a cost of $1,336.
• Approved paying $14,351 for workers compensation insurance coverage.
• Approved Gall attending the APT conference in August.