Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Evansville Land Bank Corporation Friday, July 17th meeting.

Thank you for joining us today.

We'll begin with the approval of the minutes.

Minutes were emailed to you by Jessica earlier this week.

Does anyone have any uh comments, concerns, or adjustments to the minutes that were provided?

Hearing none, would someone make a motion to accept these as um approved?

I'll make a motion to approve.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Thank you.

Uh Jessica, would you run through the financials, please?

Okay.

Yes.

Okay.

Uh, let's start with the profit and loss comparison from June.

Um, in the income, you will see the May and June monthly installments of the allocation from the city.

Um sale of properties was the sale of 106 Jefferson down to expenses.

The April legal fees are reflected there.

Um, the June land bank inspector payment of 2700.

Lawn care and debris removal is around four mowing.

4,000.

Uh the payroll you see there, that's the first payment to um action staffing for the summer intern payroll management and utilities include the internet service and Evansville Water Sewer Utility at 401 North Main.

Any questions?

Next page is the balance sheet comparison as of June 30th, 2026.

Um Indiana Members Credit Union is still sitting at 252, 893 79.

I am in the process of communication with both banks to move 200,000 to the German American money market account, which we have opened.

Um the Indiana Members Credit Union regular business checking has 461, 9106 as of June 30th.

And in those same discussions, we will be moving 285,000 to the German American Laddered Investments.

So that will leave um 230,000 over at Indiana Members' Credit Union, which is a little bit below the 250 to give some room for monthly allocations from the city.

Um the German American bank investments management account you see there has 501035.51 cents.

Those are all laddered in CDs at various financial institutions and then over 200,000.

And that is all I have to report on that.

Any questions?

Would someone make a motion to accept the financials as presented?

Thank you.

We have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

All in favor of accepting the financials.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Thank you.

All right.

Old business.

500 block Baird Park Drive.

We have it appears Ryan Dement in attendance today virtually to give any updates on the 500 block of bear park drive properties that were acquired from the land bank.

Good morning, Ryan.

Good morning.

So where we're at with those lots is we've vetted.

Hold on one second, Ryan.

Are we able to turn that volume up?

On the main computer.

I don't actually know how to do that.

Anybody?

Anybody?

Youngins, do you want to turn the volume up?

Ryan, are you able to speak a little louder for us?

I can sure try.

Thank you.

That's a little better.

Yeah.

Okay, go ahead, please.

Okay.

So we've been in the process of vetting general contractors so we can build out the red remaining lots.

We've selected two, and we're actually going through the vetting process right now.

So we are actually going through contracts.

We're going through licensing, insurance, bond, and backgrounds.

Once we complete those, the next step is we're working with champion homes, is who we're going to be building the properties or the buildings through the single families.

And they're going to be actually built off-site in Topeka, Indiana, and then shipped in.

These are going to be modular builds.

And these the time frame that we have on these, we're going to do two properties at a time.

And what we do is once we order them, we have a 90 to 120-day window.

And then they'll have them built and then ship down to us, and then our general contractors and our setup teams will be able to put the houses up in a matter of 48 hours.

And then from there, as we actually put two properties up, while we're in the actual process of getting those going, we're going to continue to stack and layer the additional properties till we get the remaining properties built.

And so we're looking for a time frame of between 90 to 120 days for build.

And then once we're about 60 to 90 days within the build frame, we're going to order the next set of two.

So we're just going to keep on stacking those down the street.

So 90 to 120 days once you've got the contract signed or from today?

No, 90 to 120 days until we actually from build.

So once we can have the contractors.

So we got to first finalize the contractor's agreement with us.

And once that is finalized, we go to Champion, we can sign with Champion to build the properties, and from that time, it's 90 to 120 days for the build.

Okay.

And then they'll deal with them to us, and then it's two to three days to get them put together, dried in, inspected, make sure they're all good to go.

So I understand that there's other uh parcels there that affordable housing trust fund parcels, et cetera.

We're really just focused on the land bank parcels.

So when do we think if we were to extend a development agreement so that we don't have to talk about this every month and you don't have to join us every month?

When do we think would would six months be enough for that to be completed?

When you when you say six months to be completed, no, because we need 120 days.

Which is four months.

Yeah, yeah.

So but in between, if we did six months, we could technically only get four of the or four of the eight properties done.

If I can add hi, everyone, if I can add to what Brian's saying, one of the is for our first discussion, one of the things we've been looking at is how we reduce as much risk and uh friction that we've had with contractors and all the kind of various development issues that we've you know had running head on into.

So the partnership with Champion Homes allows us allows us to get into a very predictable cadence of you know what we're building, when we're building, how we're building, and we've removed a tremendous amount of that that friction.

Uh they're they're very, very excited about this collaboration as well, so much so that as a public company they want to do a joint announcement about what we're doing and what we're doing uh as it relates to uh the develop for you know major true vest true home development in in Evansville, and then this will allow us to be able to build on very predictable schedules because basically, you know, it's it's a much simplified um much simplified process for us.

What's the what that's been our objective?

Yeah.

Um what are what are the foundation requirements for these modular homes?

What do you need to do for that?

Just a crawl space.

Just a crawl space?

Okay.

Yep.

So again, you know, we we don't want to have to hear this every month, and I'm sure you would have better things to do than join us every month.

And so happy to send you monthly updates as well.

Yeah, I think that we could put monthly updates into a development agreement.

And uh do we think nine months would be enough for us to get pretty much through this?

Or do we do to be to be transparent and upfront as uh honest as I can?

Nine to twelve months is is gonna probably be in that range.

So that's the and the winner is why I asked about the foundation.

So the foundations could be done in advance, so the houses are built somewhere else that come in here, they could be bolted onto the foundation when it's 25 degrees out.

Um obviously not working if there's three feet of snow on the ground.

I I get that.

Okay.

So yeah, our our our goal is to get back on track, not only developing this, but getting to our you know, we have an objective of course, and our goal is to get families living in these homes.

And with a monthly update.

Prior to that, I have a question.

Is there multiple properties they're looking at?

They're talking about 90 to 120 days per two builds.

Is there instead of just kicking this down the road another year possibly?

Is it understand monthly updates?

Is it possible to do or a good thing to do milestone, say two properties by this date, two more properties by this date instead of simply looking at this again in a year?

If things don't go as smoothly as estimated.

I mean, do you guys have a we could write individual property agreements for each development agreements for each one of these parcels?

But I'm trying to simplify things for uh for staff and for us, and still allow the developer the chance to focus on developing and and though the developer certainly has to agree that we have been incredibly um flexible in getting this project moving along it to the extent that it has.

Yeah.

What we could just just for edification, we could just keep one development agreement if you wanted to have separate milestones.

That's possible to do in one development agreement.

Okay.

But it does but it does add some complexity to it.

Right.

Well, it not only adds complexity, it adds complexity to what we're trying to do here in this meeting right now.

So I um, you know, alternatively is we could table this and go back and ask the developer to provide what's going to be done in six months, what's going to be done in nine months, and what's going to be done in 12 months.

And then we would take this up in our August meeting.

So that's the that is the alternative that we just table this with direction for you to come back to us as to when we can hold you accountable for the completion of these projects, or would you prefer board prefer that we just put one date on there and throw it out there with monthly updates?

Do I have a motion to table this?

I don't know that we should take it I would put an additional suggestion.

Come back in August 2027.

I mean they haven't made substantial progress then.

I mean, they we've already been left, but wouldn't if we need to next year this time, we're not even at least halfway through with them as a problem here.

So I think in addition to so this would be then we're extending the development agreement until our meeting in August 2027, comma, provided the developer provides a monthly report, status report on all of our parcels, comma, the developer pays all taxes, liens, et cetera, on time for these parcels during the construction period so that we don't have another tax delinquent situation here.

Does that sound acceptable?

Yes.

Would someone make a motion?

A motion again to to uh make sure that it's in the record for an extension to our August 2027 meeting uh with monthly status report updates and no tax or lien delinquencies on the parcels.

I'll second.

The motion and a second.

Is there any further discussion on this matter?

All in favor, aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Do you guys at TrueVest have any questions on what we've just done?

No, thank you very much.

We're grateful for our partnership and collaboration, and we're excited for the next steps and the next stages and you know, getting back on track.

And we think we have a very solid plan to do that.

Perfect.

I'm excited to see the modular homes go in and see how that works in our community too.

So thank you.

Yeah.

All right.

Okay.

Awesome.

Next up, 1513 West Missouri.

Um, which I think we just need a status report on.

Just a short update on that.

At the June meeting, the donation was approved, pending a clean short mortgage report or updated title search from the one that was provided in January, the demolition of the structure through fight bite fund fight blight funds, and the donor to pay the taxes while it's still in his possession.

Donor has provided a current owner owner report as of 7136, and there's nothing of concern, I believe, on that report as of now.

So the status is just wait for demo to be completed.

Okay.

Thank you for that update.

Is there any further old business to discuss?

No.

All right, new business.

Uh this is an annual item.

This is a demnity and release agreement that the Evansville Land Bank Corporation go uh enters into with the City of Evansville Fire Department and the Board of Public Safety and the uh City of Evansville Police Department and the Board of Public Safety to allow training on our parcels prior to any demolition.

Uh council, uh are there any updates or concerns we need to be aware of on these documents?

No.

Uh the only the only real change other than the dates was to eliminate the requirement for individual officers to sign off on on the document.

And we're fine because it's covered the indemnity is covered by the fire department or police department.

So perfect.

Does anyone have any questions for council about the indemnity?

Would someone make a motion to accept uh to approve the indemnity and release agreements for the fire department and police department?

I didn't make that motion.

A second.

With a motion and a second, is there any further discussion on these documents?

Hearing none.

All in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Great.

Next up, uh we had uh emergency tree situation.

And so on July 6th, there was an email vote uh pursuant to our bylaws, email votes are allowed but need to be ratified at our next meeting.

And so we are doing that now.

Um we have um that tree fell onto from 614 and uh fell across and went into the neighbors uh lot was a pretty big tree.

Uh it was addressed by American Eagle Tree Service uh for 7160 dollars.

American Eagle works with us repeatedly and regularly and has all necessary um insurance and permits for the um to operate in the city of Evansville.

Does anyone have any questions on the ratification of this email vote?

All right.

Would someone make a motion that we accept this?

Make motion to accept.

Second.

With a motion and accept uh and a second, all in favor, aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

We are done with that.

So that has been amended.

Other new business, excuse me, not amended, accepted.

Um yes, I'd just like to update the board that as of right now, the land bank is set to acquire 29 properties from the 2025 tax sale no sales.

Um of those will be fight blight acquisitions.

There will be six demolitions needed for with general land banking funds and two with fight blight funds.

And that's the update on that.

Great.

Um, additionally, um, the land bank intern Andrew Howard has prepared some data points that he'd like to discuss in his time with the land bank.

I'll hand it over to Andrew.

Welcome, Andrew.

Good morning, everybody.

My name is Andrew Howard.

I've been an intern over at the Evansville Land Bank since June, and I am finishing it up this month.

I've been shadowing Jessica at the land bank, learning the day-to-day and just how things work in the city here.

On the side, I've put together a little bit of an analysis of my own uh impressions of the land bank, especially in comparison to what I was able to experience in Muncie, Indiana at Ball State.

I know we're all busy people, so I'll try and make this brief.

I won't take up too much of your time.

But if you could direct your attention to the first page, I'll talk a little bit about the land bank's progress uh since it was established back in 2017.

Uh it's obviously done a good job of returning many of its properties back into productive use.

As you see, almost 80 percent of the properties acquired by the land bank have been transferred back into the community and into the public hands.

Almost half of those transferred properties went towards nonprofit entities and organizations.

These were mainly for affordable housing.

And the other large portion of these transfers consisted of green spaces and side yards.

So the land bank is doing exactly what it has set out to do uh according to the data that we have here.

However, there is still 21% of properties that are not being transferred out of the inventory.

And I think bridging that gap could be beneficial for the land bank.

So it becomes about how we can reach more residents and community organizations to buy up these properties.

So if you could follow me to the second page, I started looking at the kind of public identity and awareness of the Evansville Land Bank, especially in comparison to that of the renewed Indianapolis Land Bank and the Munsee Land Bank.

The most obvious difference that I noticed when researching these was the visibility of each of these land banks.

Both Muncie and Renew Indianapolis have dedicated branding logos and a website where they can showcase their successes as well as their available properties.

The Evansville Land Bank webpage is more of just an informational page within the city government website, which could potentially limit the amount of public access and community engagement that we get here in Evansville, which Muncy emphasizes a lot of community engagement with their land bank, many of their First Friday meetings being in uh open workspace in downtown Muncie with food catered and invites to local businesses, residents, as well as uh um different investors in the area.

Something else I noticed when I was on these websites when going to the staff directory, according to Evansville, it is just kind of Jessica and the on the staff.

However, I think that it's something to take into consideration when we look at the next page about how many tax sale properties are coming into Evansville.

But overall, I think an increase in a public awareness and a public identity could attract more nonprofit partners and would be side yard purchasers to investing in the land bank, taking these properties off of our hands and getting them back into to the community.

So this last page I'll just touch on real briefly about the comparison and tax sale properties.

As you can see, Muncie has a fairly steady amount of properties going into the into the tax sale each year that are tax delinquent, allowing them to have more predictable uh capacity uh capacity for their land banks.

Indianapolis has actually gone down in the amount of tax delinquency they've had, allowing them to kind of relocate some of their funds less towards acquiring land and more towards redevelopment.

Evansville, on the other hand, the Vanderburg County tax sale is kind of all over the place.

It's very unpredictable and a lot of fluctuations.

So I think it's important to mention that flexibility for the Evansville Land Bank, uh, especially when it comes to staffing, budgeting, partnerships, uh, as well as public outreach are really necessary to ensure that during these dips and spikes in the amount of properties the land bank is acquiring, we're still able to get those properties transferred over.

Now, these are just some of the data points and conclusions that I've come to while working here at the land bank on the side of helping Jessica with her work.

I've been able to uh talk with the Muncy Land Bait to get some comparisons.

I plan to continue to get a few more data points and information points.

I'm talking to the Muncie Land Bank today, actually, to get some more inf information on those things.

Um, but I do want to take the time to thank Jessica, Colby, and Wyatt for giving me the opportunity to work here.

It's been a pleasure working for the Evansville Land Bank, and I welcome you all to make your own conclusions and analysis from the data that I've provided.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Does anyone have any questions for Andrew?

Andrew, um, thank you for this.

This is great.

Colby, could you make sure that the mayor and the mayor's communication team gets this?

I th I think especially this first page with a little bit of branding could be a really good thing for um the mayor to distribute through her channels.

Uh yeah, I actually was thinking about that when you pointed out, especially the it what jumped out to me on uh and on that second page, not just the data points on that first page, but the public identity of the second page, it kind of jumped out that you know there's uh our presence online um could probably be a little bit more stronger, and with the city doing rebranding right now too.

How can the land bank kind of have it?

It is its own 501c3, so how can it have its own identity within the city's new branding and logo?

So that's something that I definitely will be talking to and Terry about.

So, yeah, thank you for that.

And sharing some of these data points overall, I think on the website would also be helpful to get that information out there.

I don't know that many people know how many properties that the land bank you know acquires and has in its inventory.

I know that a lot of our nonprofit organizations mostly come to us to um acquire properties for development, but you know, what does that look like for uh for-profit developers or you know, any other organizations or inter entities that might be interested?

So personally, thank you for your work.

Um it's been great having you on here.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

All right.

And I think as well, we should all as uh board members and staff be proud of the fact that almost 700 properties uh up till 2025 are returned to productive use in various ways.

So um it this is the most impactful organization I serve on.

Any further questions?

Members of the audience, any comments, concerns, anything?

Hearing none, we are adjourned.

Thank you.

Have a great day.