MILFORD - At Monday’s Milford Town Council meeting, Fire Chief Brian Haines informed the council that upcoming OSHA regulations will be “detrimental to fire services — volunteer and smaller career fire departments will be impacted.”
Haines told the council it will cost the department 1-½ to two times what their current budget is to comply with all the regulations. For example, a physical costing $39,000 now will cost $50,000. He said they can avoid that if they’re not anywhere near carcinogens, which he said is unreasonable.
“A lot of it is unreasonable,” he said. “We’re all about safety — but where do we draw the line? New firefighters have to have 300 hours worth of training before they set foot on a fire scene — you’re not going to get people to do it.”
He told council members he gave them a copy of the letter from Kosciusko County Fire Association, including Milford’s statistics, expressing their concerns. He asked council members to support them by sending comments via OSHA’s website by July 22. Haines said this also affects EMS and law enforcement. If it passes, it goes into effect in 2026 and departments will have 60 days to comply.
Haines told them 72% of fire departments are volunteer and even career departments also use volunteers. He said some of training they’re requiring isn’t even offered in Indiana.
Council members agreed to write a letter of support for the fire department.
Two bids were received for Milford Water Meter Replacement project. Bidding on the project were Everett J. Prescott (EJP), Fort Wayne, with a bid of $388,205.83; and NECO, Cincinnati, Ohio, with a bid of $407,157.
The council voted to take the bids under advisement and have Ryan LaReau, of Commonwealth Engineers, review the bids and make a recommendation before the next council meeting.
The town received a Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program (HELP) grant from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) to help pay for the new meters. The town has had issues with some meters misreading for some time, resulting in credits being issued and averaging bills. At the beginning of the year, they estimated the cost to replace the 500 to 600 meters would be $427,238 with $249,296 coming from the OCRA grants and the rest from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.
Michiana Area Council of Government (MACOG) Director of Operation and Community Development Zach Dripps was present and received approval for the grant services agreement. He told the council that the agreement is for them to administer the grant for both the water meters replacement project and Covid Economic Recovery grant project. The agreement is for $33,000. The council approved the agreement.
In a related matter, they passed resolution 2024-9 for the OCRA planning grant application. The council also approved the recommendation of the Covid Economic Recovery Plan committee for consultant for the downtown plan. Gall, who is a member of that committee, explained the process they went through and how they scored the six consultants who applied. After going through all the scoring and interviews, the committee decided on USI Consulting. She said the selection has to be submitted to OCRA by July 13.
President of the Redevelopment Committee, Dan Brown, came to the council to ask them to pass resolution 2024-8, acquiring certain real estate in the North Field subdivision. Brown said phase 1 of the project was infrastructure and six houses have been built. He reminded the council the way the agreement is set up, the developer pays for the infrastructure and installs it and the town pays them half the cost from the TIF funds — 50% of the cost up to one million dollars. He said the redevelopment committee passed the resolution at their morning meeting.
Councilman Jim Smiley said, “This is win-win — we only pay them back when we collect revenue. The builder puts all the money in — there’s nothing out of the town’s pocket.”
Brown said that was correct and said they receive tax increment fund revenue two times a year and they’d take half to pay the developer. “Right now, there’s no money in that fund,” he said.
Councilman Ken Long said, “It’s incentive for the builder to build homes, too.”
Brown agreed, saying, “It’s all up to the builder how many houses and this cuts the developer’s cost in half.”
In other business, the council:
• Approved having R&R clean and camera the storm drain, not to exceed $6,000.
• Approved using up to $2,000 from local roads and streets fund for repaving, if necessary.
• Approved having Peerless Midwest clean and video well #3 at a cost of $17,800.
• Approved hydrant flushing date moved to July 25 instead of July 24.
• Heard the public consumer confidence report for the town’s water is available online.
• Heard the concession stand is open at Waubee Lake Park Thursdays through Sundays, weather permitting.
• Thanked Pam Dwyer for her work maintaining the flowers at Waubee lake Park.
• Approved ordinance 2024-9, transferring sewer bond funds. Gall explained since they paid off one bond the reserve needed is not as high, so she wants to use $46,760 to make a bond payment, freeing up money in the wastewater department.
• Approved paying fire department insurance of $10,141.
• Set budget meeting dates for July 29 and 30.