Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
MILFORD – A wastewater rate increase was discussed and a rare tiebreaker was needed to approve the 2019 budget at the Milford Town Council meeting Monday night.
Ross Hagen, an accountant with Umbaugh and Associates in Mishawaka, presented the findings of the rate study commissioned by the council a couple of months ago. He said the town’s wastewater system has to fund three basic items: debt service on bonds issued, capital improvements and dad-to-day operational expenses.
Hagen said using data from the last three years, his company projects that with the current rates charged by the town, the entity will find itself short about $82,000 in the next three years.
To cover the shortfall, caused in part by holding rates steady during the recession, Hagen recommended the council increase rates by 16.11 percent. That would take the average customer to around $50.17 per month for wastewater.
The council accepted the report and tabled the proposal until its November meeting.
The council’s 2019 budget had been prepared and read at previous meetings, as per state statute, but when it came time to the vote, retiring council member Dan Cochran said he couldn’t, in good conscience, vote to approve the budget and would abstain.
Because he is a volunteer firefighter, council president Doug Ruch couldn’t vote for the budget, and Bob Cockburn’s yes vote wasn’t enough to create a majority.
Clerk-Treasurer Joellen Free brought up a rarely used statute that would allow her to break a tie. Cochran agreed to change his vote to “no,” creating the tie and Free broke the tie by voting yes to the budget.
In his report, town attorney Jay Rigdon gave the council (at its request) an updated animal ordinance that includes provisions for pot-bellied pigs. For people living in the town limits to keep such non-traditional animals, the pets must be indoors all of the time except to “do its business,” must be spayed or neutered and limited to one such pet per house.
The council tabled the matter to discuss with animal owners the impact of the ordinance.
Rigdon also addressed tree branches hanging over Ind. 15, known as Higbee Street in Milford. He said the Indiana Department of Transportation has chosen to let towns handle tree issues within its limits.
Rigdon advised the council to cut back branches that are a safety hazard, but not because someone wants it done for aesthetic reasons.
Five properties owned by Ron Davidhizer have been fined for failure to maintain the houses properly, and Rigdon said those lots will be sold, most likely at the county’s sale in the spring, unless the fines are paid and the properties brought back in to compliance.
Rigdon said even if all the needed repairs were made, the fines won’t go away. The properties are at 315, 317 and 318 E. Williams St., 605 Kinwood Drive and 105 N. Maple St.
Police Chief Travis Marsh said the recent “Coffee With A Cop” event was successful, and he’d like to do it again soon. He said he wants citizens to be able to ask a cop any question, “even if all they want to talk about is fishing.”
Marsh told the council the department has, as of Friday, handled more cases this year than in all of 2017. He credited citizens with getting involved and filing more reports for the increase in workload.
The department’s body cam trials continue, but Marsh warned regardless of the vendor chosen, the cost may be prohibitive. He estimated the price of outfitting all of Milford’s full-time officers with body cams to be in the $35,000 to $40,000 range.
Marsh said testing continues in the search for another full-time officer for the department, and more testing needs to be done.
Utilities and Streets Supervisor Steve Marquart said 90 people came out for the town’s free cleanup days, using four 30-yard containers for rubbish and a 30-yard container for metal. It wasn’t as busy as the spring cleanup, Marquart said.
The supervisor added that just before the event, which allowed citizens living inside the town limits to get rid of larger household items, he went around town looking for things like old couches. Marquart said that rather than write up violations, he left notes regarding the cleanup. He felt like that worked well enough to do it again in the spring.
Council members approved $84,600 to replace water mains from Smith to Syracuse streets and from East to James to Williams streets. Ruch said earlier in the day the Milford Redevelopment Commission agreed to spend $8,000 toward replacing a leaking fire hydrant on a fire hydrant, reducing the cost to $76,600. The work will begin this fall.
Marquart presented the council with a $8,200 quote from Middlebury Electric for work that he deemed “necessary, because it’s an safety hazard,” for the community building on South Main Street. He told the council the building was constructed by volunteers in the 1980s and it’s possible the electrical work was never up to code.
Cochran asked Marquart to have the building professionally inspected, then solicit bids to have the work done. “It’d be better to have an independent inspector tell us what needs to be done, rather than someone who’s trying to sell services,” Cochran said. Marquart agreed to have the building inspected.
Leaf pick-up will begin as soon as enough have fallen, Marquart said. He encouraged people to not cover up curbs and to leave the leaves in rows along the street. He added the town won’t pick up leaves with trash, rocks or sticks in the piles.
“A lot of people use the leaves as mulch,” Marquart said. He added rocks and sticks are also hard on the equipment.
The council approved an iron flush on water well pump No. 3, the town’s largest well, at a cost of $5,960.
In other business, the council:
• Voted 2-1 to set trick-or-treat hours from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 31. Cockburn voted against the move, saying a lot of people attend church on Wednesday nights.
• Approved mileage reimbursement for town office personnel to attend a seminar in Wabash Nov. 1.
• Swore in new reserve police officers John Brito and Scott Anderson.
• Was invited to a public meeting for Milford Fest at the community building at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 23.
The next Milford Town Council meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Nov. 12.
