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OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD

Record of Proceedings

Clarksville Town Council Meeting - March 4, 2025: Firefighter Honors, Police Promotions, and Fiscal Resolutions

Town Council & Commissions — Tuesday, March 4, 2025

BodyClarksville, Indiana

SessionTown Council & Commissions

DateTuesday, March 4, 2025

StatusFILED

Video Record

0:00 / 53:25

Transcript — VerbatimClick a timed line to jump · ⧉ to share it

0:05

We have a couple of things to celebrate this evening, and first we're going to um recognize our firefighter of the year.

0:12

I'd like to invite forward cheese kags.

0:28

I originally wasn't supposed to be here.

0:30

I was slated for a uh an agenda item at the school board, and I got lucky, so uh I made my pre-plans to have Chief Goldie uh present this award.

0:40

And since he worked he worked so hard today in the office on his speech, we're just gonna let him go ahead and do it.

0:46

So Sergeant Scott Minio, if you would come forward, please.

1:02

Good evening.

1:03

We are here tonight to acknowledge the 2024 firefighter of the year recipient, Sergeant Scott Minio.

1:09

Sergeant Minio has continually gone above and beyond for our department and has taken on other responsibilities outside of his normal supervisory position.

1:19

Scott Minio played a pivotal role when it came to the training and implementation of our new fire hose and nozzle packages.

1:29

He is often sought after as a resource by his colleagues when it comes to certain training like rope rescue, dive rescue, and instructional methods as he comes from an educational background prior to becoming a firefighter.

1:43

Scott, on behalf of the entire CFD admin staff, thank you for all that you do, not only for our department, but also for the community.

1:51

With that being said, please join me in congratulating Sergeant Scott Minio as our 2024 Firefighter of the Year.

2:15

The floor is your Sergeant Minio.

2:18

Can everybody hear him hear me okay about Mike?

2:29

Thank you everybody for coming tonight.

2:31

Um my name's Scott Minio.

2:33

I've had an introduction by the Chiefs here.

2:35

Tonight's gonna go a little different if you've been to these in the past.

2:39

Um part of this will feel pretty usual, but I'm I'm gonna take take a few different turns with this.

2:44

The main thing I wanted to talk tonight, um, Clarksville Fire Department.

2:48

I'll I'll touch on some things that have happened in the very recent past, but we've we've had a time to reflect this year at the Clarksville Fire Department for some good reasons and some unfortunate reasons.

2:59

Um but family is really the theme of what I wanted to speak on tonight.

3:02

Um surrounded tonight by my own personal family.

3:05

Uh got lucky with a bunch of aunts and uncles, um, mom, dad, sister, um, some extended family, maybe soon to be brother-in-law.

3:16

Um, he's still trying to pass the test.

3:18

Uh just back from his first naval deployment.

3:20

So let's get a quick round of applause for my uh staying up, John.

3:30

Happy he was home safe.

3:32

Uh I just got back from his first naval deployment.

3:34

So this is pretty cool that he was able to be here tonight.

3:36

So thanks for coming.

3:37

I'm also surrounded by fire department family.

3:40

I've known these guys for going on almost 10 years now.

3:42

Um it'll probably be another 10 past that, and who knows what what the you know path looks like after that.

3:48

Uh we've also got some sort of weird extended family, the police department there tonight.

3:52

Good to see all you guys.

3:54

Um I guess I was gonna lead off with a little humor just to relax everybody.

3:58

I'm gonna be up here for a few minutes.

4:00

Uh families have a lot of a lot of good and bad in common sometimes.

4:05

And our police we like we rely on them a lot.

4:08

Uh for an example, a thing that we have not in common with the police.

4:12

They love to call us up for some reason at like three in the morning uh to come identify a liquid on the ground.

4:17

Uh we don't know why they insist on waking us up from sleeping every single night, but they're consistent.

4:23

Um but I think we do have I'm with our police department, our brothers uh is really the one thing we both wanted to be when we grew up was a firefighter.

4:33

So any time you guys need to have the truck, they're right out there.

4:36

We've got three of them.

4:37

Pick your favorite.

4:40

Uh moving past uh family.

4:42

I did want to shine some light on all the incredible things that the Clarksville Fire Department has done just this last year alone.

4:48

So this list is very long.

4:50

There's been a lot of good productivity through the Clarksville Fire Department, but just uh just to give you guys kind of an insight uh to what this last year, year and a half looked like alone.

5:00

COVID slowed everything down for a while, and then we finally ramped back up.

5:03

Chief Gouldie mentioned this year, we were able, and this was a year and a half long project.

5:08

We were able to update all of the uh firefighting equipment that we use, all of our hose and nozzle.

5:14

That seems like such a basic concept for us, but that's a year and a half long process.

5:18

It took many, many man hours.

5:20

Every firefighter sitting in the back, and everyone that is not here tonight had a had a true hand in doing this.

5:26

It took a lot of time and man hours, but it's it's a wonderful resource that we're able to now pass on to all the future generations of the fire department.

5:34

So that's just one thing.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting

Procedural█████████████████████████████████33%

Personnel Matters█████████████████████████████████33%

Tax Increment Financing███████7%

Procurement██████6%

Public Engagement█████5%

Engineering And Infrastructure████4%

Zoning Variance████4%

Water And Wastewater Management███3%

Fiscal Sustainability███3%

Summary of Proceedings

Clarksville Town Council Meeting - March 4, 2025

The Clarksville Town Council met on March 4, 2025, for a regular meeting that included recognition of the 2024 Firefighter of the Year, promotions within the police department, public comments, and the unanimous approval of multiple ordinances and resolutions. Key actions included opposition to a proposed fire territory and a state tax policy that would significantly impact local revenues, as well as approval of annexations and interlocal agreements.

Consent Calendar

Minutes, Claims, and Reports: The council approved the consent agenda, which included minutes from the last regular meeting, current and pre-written claims, and acceptance of minutes and placement on file of various boards and commissions. The motion carried unanimously.

Public Comments & Testimony

Dylan Pennell: Delivered a humorous, satirical address about an alleged pigeon uprising in Clarksville, calling for an anti-pigeon task force and urging residents to stop feeding them. No formal policy request was made.
Cassandra Ross: Voiced strong opposition to the town’s handling of a stormwater project affecting her property on Potter’s Lane. She claimed the town created a false narrative during a work session, omitted a critical photo from their presentation, and has failed to remediate the water flow issue. She argued that taxpayer dollars are not being spent equitably. She noted that several other homes in the neighborhood are also impacted.
Kim Harris: Supported Ms. Ross by reading an email from Town Manager Kevin Bailey that promised minor grading work to address standing water, which has never been performed. She urged the council to do what is right.

Discussion Items

Ordinance 2025 G09 – Annexation for Origin Park: Annexation of 0.11 acres adjacent to 1019 McCullough Pike for River Heritage Conservancy. Passed unanimously on first and second readings.
Ordinance 2025 G10 – Annexation of Blackiston Mill Road Properties: Annexation of 2830 Blackiston Mill Road and land adjacent to 2820 Blackiston Mill Road, resulting from a Floyd County road project. Passed unanimously on first and second readings.
Ordinance 2025 Z01 – Zoning Code Clean-Up: Repealing several outdated planned unit development ordinances and removing obsolete zoning sections. Passed unanimously.
Resolution 2025 R11 – Opposing Jeffersonville/Utica Township Fire Territory: Staff reported that the proposed fire territory would cause a gross loss of $4.7 million for Clarksville (including $2.6 million net loss plus $2 million in circuit breaker credits) and a total countywide gross loss of $31 million. The council unanimously opposed the territory in its current form, calling for broader discussion among affected taxing units.
Resolution 2025 R12 – Opposing State Tax Policy (Senate Bill 1): The bill would reset tax rates to pre-COVID levels, denying municipalities natural growth. Clarksville’s estimated loss is $2.5 million (12.5% of the general fund). The resolution opposes the policy without replacement revenue streams. Passed unanimously.
Resolution 2025 R13 – Interlocal Agreement for Cloud-Based Storage: Authorized the town to enter an agreement with the Clark County Sheriff’s Department and Prosecutor’s Office for shared cloud-based digital evidence storage. Passed unanimously.
General Services Agreement with Mike Arthur: Approved a contract for carpentry and maintenance services beyond town employee capabilities. Passed unanimously.
Work Session Items Postponed: Manager Beatty noted that discussion on the LGE high-tension power line easement (request to expand from 75 to 150 feet, with concerns from River Heritage Conservancy) and prioritization of short-term stormwater/wastewater projects were postponed to a future work session due to missing documents.

Key Outcomes

Firefighter of the Year and Tributes: Sergeant Scott Minio was recognized as 2024 Firefighter of the Year. He gave an emotional speech honoring fallen firefighter Michael Mallory, presenting a special gift to Mallory’s family.
Police Promotions: Chief Walls announced promotions: Eric Lastnan to Corporal, Kevin Conklin to Sergeant, and Artie Popwell to Captain.
All Votes Unanimous: The consent agenda, all four ordinances, and all three resolutions (R11, R12, R13) passed with unanimous support. The general services agreement also passed unanimously.
Clerk-Treasurer Warning: Dan Stonecipher warned that if both the fire territory and Senate Bill 1 take full effect, the combined $6.7 million impact would equate to the entire annual police budget, requiring severe cuts.
Council Comments: Members offered condolences for Michael Mallory, congratulations to awardees and promoted officers, and emphasized the devastating financial impact of the proposed fire territory and state tax policy.

Executive Session

The regular meeting adjourned, and the council moved to an executive session in the conference room.

Meeting Transcript

We have a couple of things to celebrate this evening, and first we're going to um recognize our firefighter of the year. I'd like to invite forward cheese kags. I originally wasn't supposed to be here. I was slated for a uh an agenda item at the school board, and I got lucky, so uh I made my pre-plans to have Chief Goldie uh present this award. And since he worked he worked so hard today in the office on his speech, we're just gonna let him go ahead and do it. So Sergeant Scott Minio, if you would come forward, please. Good evening. We are here tonight to acknowledge the 2024 firefighter of the year recipient, Sergeant Scott Minio. Sergeant Minio has continually gone above and beyond for our department and has taken on other responsibilities outside of his normal supervisory position. Scott Minio played a pivotal role when it came to the training and implementation of our new fire hose and nozzle packages. He is often sought after as a resource by his colleagues when it comes to certain training like rope rescue, dive rescue, and instructional methods as he comes from an educational background prior to becoming a firefighter. Scott, on behalf of the entire CFD admin staff, thank you for all that you do, not only for our department, but also for the community. With that being said, please join me in congratulating Sergeant Scott Minio as our 2024 Firefighter of the Year. The floor is your Sergeant Minio. Can everybody hear him hear me okay about Mike? Thank you everybody for coming tonight. Um my name's Scott Minio. I've had an introduction by the Chiefs here. Tonight's gonna go a little different if you've been to these in the past. Um part of this will feel pretty usual, but I'm I'm gonna take take a few different turns with this. The main thing I wanted to talk tonight, um, Clarksville Fire Department. I'll I'll touch on some things that have happened in the very recent past, but we've we've had a time to reflect this year at the Clarksville Fire Department for some good reasons and some unfortunate reasons. Um but family is really the theme of what I wanted to speak on tonight. Um surrounded tonight by my own personal family. Uh got lucky with a bunch of aunts and uncles, um, mom, dad, sister, um, some extended family, maybe soon to be brother-in-law. Um, he's still trying to pass the test. Uh just back from his first naval deployment. So let's get a quick round of applause for my uh staying up, John. Happy he was home safe. Uh I just got back from his first naval deployment. So this is pretty cool that he was able to be here tonight. So thanks for coming. I'm also surrounded by fire department family. I've known these guys for going on almost 10 years now. Um it'll probably be another 10 past that, and who knows what what the you know path looks like after that. Uh we've also got some sort of weird extended family, the police department there tonight. Good to see all you guys. Um I guess I was gonna lead off with a little humor just to relax everybody. I'm gonna be up here for a few minutes. Uh families have a lot of a lot of good and bad in common sometimes. And our police we like we rely on them a lot. Uh for an example, a thing that we have not in common with the police. They love to call us up for some reason at like three in the morning uh to come identify a liquid on the ground. Uh we don't know why they insist on waking us up from sleeping every single night, but they're consistent. Um but I think we do have I'm with our police department, our brothers uh is really the one thing we both wanted to be when we grew up was a firefighter. So any time you guys need to have the truck, they're right out there. We've got three of them. Pick your favorite. Uh moving past uh family. I did want to shine some light on all the incredible things that the Clarksville Fire Department has done just this last year alone.

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