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Delphi City Council meetings moved to Community Center




Delphi City Council members voted unanimously Monday night, by Resolution 2019-04, to move their monthly meetings to the Delphi Community Center, located at 311 N. Washington St., beginning in April. Council President Dale Seward told the group, although he agrees with the move, it should be considered temporary. He said the Council should actively pursue the installation of an elevator in the City Building.

The Delphi Board of Works will also begin meeting at the Community Center in April. Mayor Shane Evans said they will hold their twice-monthly 5:30 p.m. business meetings at the Community Center but will continue to meet for work sessions in the weeks without a business meeting at 9 a.m. in the City Building. Parking around courthouse

There was no real interest expressed by any City Council member to revisit the twohour parking around the courthouse. Mayor Evans reported some courthouse employees over the years have complained about parking tickets issued while they were at work. Evans said paid parking permits were suggested which would allow the employees to park all day in two-hour spaces without being ticketed.

It was noted there are two parking lots for county employees to use. Evans said he will locate the last downtown parking study done during the previous administration to learn what recommendations were made about the situation.

WHIN grant

According to the website, the Wabash Heartland Innovation Network (WHIN) is a consortium of 10 counties in north-central Indiana devoted to working together to fuel prosperity by harnessing the power of Internet-enabled sensors to develop the region into a global epicenter of digital agricultural and next-generation manufacturing. The Wabash Heartland Region is comprised of Benton, Cass, Carroll, Clinton, Fountain, Montgomery, Pulaski, Tippecanoe, Warren, and White counties.

A group of community members have applied for a grant from the WHIN Regional Cultivation Fund (RCF). The goal of the RCF is to spur innovative and visionary quality-of-place projects. Each applicant will be required to provide a match of at least 30 percent of the WHIN award amount (20 percent may be in-kind and 10 percent must be in cash). The grants are dedicated to advancing the region’s quality of place and must focus on at least one of the following areas – vitality, education or connectivity.

Mayor Evans reported he has been working on the WHIN Grant application with County Council President Josh Plue, the Town of Flora and Carroll County Chamber of Commerce Director Julia Leahy. He said, if awarded the grant, a building in Delphi to advance agriculture technology, provide students a place to gather and learn and also provide people and groups a place to collaborate will be offered. He said the County Chamber and the Carroll County Economic Development Corporation (EDC) plan to occupy offices in the building if the grant submission is successful.

Council member Mike Shockley asked the Mayor if the building they plan to use is the old Masonic Lodge on South Washington St. and if the building would be purchased for the project. Evans said the building, currently the home of Times Past Antiques, is owned by Times Past Restoration LLC. He said the County Chamber’s 501(c)3 Foundation, which is listed on the Indiana Secretary of State’s Website as the “Carroll County Chamber Five,” will assume ownership of the building.

Information about the WHIN program and grant can be found at whin.org. A promotional video about the Carroll County project can be found at vimeo.com/316206 288.

2018 financial report

Clerk Leanne Aldrich reported she closed out the financials for 2018. She said the annual report will be posted on Gateway and published in the Carroll County Comet.

City Council member Carolyn Pearson asked Aldrich about the funds with negative balances, including the Owner Occupied Housing Fund. The Stellar Owner Occupied Housing Program shows a $15,617.42 negative balance and the second program operated by the City has an $8,845.53 negative balance. Aldrich said the Stellar program was handled by the Kankakee Iroquois Regional Planning Council (KIRPC) and carries a negative balance because the City was charged for services not received and other issues. She said it is the responsibility of KIRPC to correct the situation. Aldrich said she expects the negative balance will continue throughout the year until the Council approves an additional appropriation from the City’s General Fund to close it out. Aldrich said the shortage for the second program is because money is owed from Star Development and she said it is expected to be paid within a reasonable amount of time.

Other negative balances include $4,950 for Trailhead Park, $199,413.93 for the Airport FAA Grant, due to the nature of the grant cycle, and $16,433.79 for the floodgate project. Aldrich said the shortage in the floodgate fund is due to the wrong amount being advertised for an additional appropriation at some point.

Other business

The Council suspended the rules of adoption to pass an ordinance allowing two handicap parking spaces on Main St. in front of the Delphi Christian Church.

Police Chief Steve Mullin reported Delphi officers made three arrests in February, stopped 50 vehicles, took five crash reports, and wrote four warnings and 10 parking tickets. He was questioned by Shockley about giving polygraphs. The Chief said he does them sporadically for other agencies during work hours. He said each one takes from two to three hours.

The next meeting will be April 1 at 6 p.m. at the Delphi Community Center.

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