MILFORD - The Milford Town Council on Monday accepted the resignation of R.J. Plummer, effective Friday.
Town Marshal Derek Kreider said he’d been with the department for three years and is moving to the Syracuse Police Department.
Kreider told the council he interviewed five replacements for Plummer and was asking for approval to hire Ally Slone as a full-time deputy marshal. Slone previously worked as a Kosciusko County reserve officer and, once approved, she’ll be doing field training and then attend the police academy next year.
The council accepted Plummer’s resignation and approved hiring Slone, effective Sunday. In a related matter, the council approved an amendment to the salary ordinance to reflect hiring Slone at a rate of $43,000.08 annually.
Clerk-Treasurer Tricia Gall gave an update on the recently rolled-out Paymentus online payment option. The new program began June 1 and, as of 6:25 p.m. Monday, 73 transactions were conducted. She said 34% came in as checking account payments as well as Visa, Mastercard, Visa debit, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal. Twenty-nine customers have enrolled in e-billing.
Gall and her department have been working on this for over a year, so she was excited at the response in just the first 10 days.
“It’s a true indicator some people really did want this — it makes it worth all the blood, sweat and tears,” she said.
Councilman Jim Smiley asked about the town’s cost and Gall said she had that information in her office but not with her. She informed Smiley that when the council made the decision, they were able to negotiate a much lower cost if the town paid the fees versus having the individual customers pay.
Gall, as a member of the Meet Milford committee, also reported that the first Food Truck Friday will be June 21 and asked for and received approval to close the affected streets at 2 p.m.
She encouraged the council and the public to attend and to stop at an information table that will be set up by Wawasee Community Schools. She explained when they build the new Milford school it will be built over the baseball diamonds.
“So, they’re looking at creating a community park northwest of the school where the football field and the track are now, adding ball diamonds and considering pickleball, basketball, a walking path and parking but they’ll have a table for community input.”
Gall said, “We don’t have a community park technically in town so this would be a cool way to get our ideas included.”
She mentioned then they’d look at how to fund it. Resident Jay Urbin said he thought it was included in the school’s budget. Gall said the ball diamonds are, but nothing else and said there were foundations that might be able to help.
Street, Park and Water Superintendent Steven Marquart asked about seeking schooling for water employee Angela Heltzel on distribution systems and water treatment.
Smiley asked if she wanted the schooling and if it’d be beneficial for backup. Marquart replied that she did, and it’d be beneficial for backup as well as safety. Smiley made the motion but Gall and Councilman Ken Long said there were things to discuss first.
Gall asked if the council was paying for class time and study time and said there was nothing in writing. Long said they needed to know the costs involved — he thought the classes could cost $800-$1,000 plus $500 in materials. He also said in the past he thought they paid for class time and travel time.
Council President Doug Ruch suggested she use the fleet car so they wouldn’t have to reimburse for mileage. All agreed about no paid study time. They wanted to know if the classes were all in person or online or a mixture of both.
Marquart said he thought they’d all be online and that it was an eight-week course but said he hadn’t looked into it too much until he knew how the council felt. He did say he budgeted for the schooling this year. He was advised to get more information and bring it back to the council next month. The motion Smiley made failed for a lack of a second.
Marquart also informed the council and residents that employees would be painting curbs and crosswalks soon so caution should be taken.
Also, he reminded the council that hydrant flushing will happen July 17-18, and that well number 3 was pulled for inspection and repair at no cost to the town and should be re-installed soon.
In the parks department, he reported that damaged trees were removed and trimming was completed. He’s looking to replace a couple of the trees, but the species needs to be able to withstand a lot of moisture — which the Cottonwoods can, but they don’t want cottonwood.
He also reported that they’ve lost 15 feet of shoreline in the last 23 years and in the past, employees approached the Department of Natural Resources about placing large rocks to stop the erosion but that was denied and instead they planted aquatic weeds. But Marquart said he heard they are starting to allow large rocks, so he wants to approach them again.
In other business, the council:
• Approved a three-month extension of the trash collection contract with Sweetwater at $5,123.36 per month.
• Heard the concession stand at the park will be opening soon, including a new hot dog machine. Lifeguards will be starting soon.
• Approved for the clerk’s office to be closed July 4.
• Heard they’d be advertising for bids Wednesday for the water meter project.
• Heard an update on the COVID Economy Recovery Plan, also known as the downtown master study, and received six status of qualifications, which will then be scored, and the top candidate will be brought to the council for approval.
• Heard town employees made several requests of residents, including: Do not allow grass clippings and debris in the street as it clogs up the storm sewers; do not remove flags from your yard - fiber optics are doing utility locates and do respond to the water service line survey. If you have any questions there’s a number on the survey to call.