Thank you, everybody, for attending this evening.

This is the uh meeting of the parks and recreation committee of the Indianapolis City County Council.

It is May 7th.

We're starting at 5 39 a.m.

I will start our meeting this evening by recognizing all of our members.

We'll start down there on the left, and Brown.

Good evening, everybody.

Thank you.

Mr.

Chair, Jesse Brown is a picture.

We have the leading district two.

Good evening, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman Charles Payne, Mr.

Flint.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Councillor Jared Evans representing district 17.

Thank you, folks.

I'm Councillor Dan Boots, District 3 Lawrence and Washington Township, and I have the pleasure of chairing this committee.

And tonight we have the pleasure, and I'm going to introduce the general director of the Indianapolis Opera Company.

Okay.

David Craig Starkey is going to open up our meeting tonight.

We have a fine pleasure of having a performance from the Indianapolis Opera Company this evening.

Mr.

Starkey, take it away.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Chairman Dan Moose and welcome to the Brazil Opera Center at the home of the Indianapolis Opera.

Little history lesson.

This is the second generation, formerly the second generation of the Greek Orthodox Church.

Anybody know where the first one was?

It is on Ohio Street where the Indiana Historical Society was.

They moved here in 1961.

This section here in is 1981, and you also might also recognize this place because in the back parking lot for 26 years was the Greek fest right over there.

So we uh were blessed with being able to begin to be in this building in 2010 after the Greek Orthodox Church went north into Carmel.

And with the support of Bill Austerly, founder of Angie's List that lived right over here.

Uh we were able to use this building in various uh applications and in December of combinate the people.

In December of 2019, Bill called me and said, basically, I need you to buy the building, sustain my legacy.

I am dying of ALS.

And so we did capital campaign in 2020, and we were able to successfully raise the money to buy the building, renovated 80%, and it is the home of the Indianapolis opera, and it's also a community center for midtown for offices of the farming arts organizations, education, dance, uh, youth orchestras.

We have chamber orchestra workers on here, the symphony, um, the chamber choir.

So this is one of the most used um community rooms uh in the northern part of the city here, and now it's being used for parking recuncil to showcase that our community centers can be public institutions of all kinds of success.

We are also going to feature two of our singers, two of our lead singers, because this is also the room where the Indianapolis Opera uh prepares all of its shows.

We just closed Mary Fido last weekend at the Tobyers Theater at Newfields, and they rehearsed the entire show in this room, full set, constant and everything, and um so this is where opera originates.

So you're going to hear music from the composer, the French operating composer, Bose.

Now, some of you might have heard about the recently, because well, you might have also heard that opera is not relevant anymore.

The actor Timothy Charme.

And you can tell how well that went because everybody around the world says you don't know what you're talking about, and he's right.

But then also recently we've had a new lieutenant governor that needs to be enlightened to understand that opera is not possessed.

And we're gonna sing your music from Carmen, and we're gonna do that because that's what the opera company does.

Because we are the Indianapolis Opera.

We are the biggest, the longest, and the most shining star of opera in the entire state of Indiana.

And we have two world-class singers.

They're gonna give you just a little snippet of carbon.

And we're gonna enlighten everybody on that opera.

It is truly a cultural institution of 600 years in the making and will never die.

This is what Album and Lindsay Moy and Allegra Surley singing selections from Carmen.

Helping them to recognize that uh an opera that's two hundred years old and can still speak today.

It doesn't mean that we're supposed to hide away from the stories of the past.

We're supposed to live in the live in them, lean into them, encourage them, and uh we believe that opera is part of Classical Renaissance happening in our city because we're living in an era of the millennial era, that's what we believe it's gonna be called.

And we're welcome, we're thankful, we appreciate each of you and you guys are understanding that parking wreck is culture.

And uh by the way, there's a great park right across the street called Charking Park that's about to open up, and we're gonna use a program here very soon.

So get ready for us doing our own background party.

So thank you very much.

Thank you guys.

Appreciate that very much, and thank you, performers very much.

That was beautiful.

Thank you.

Um are we okay over here with the presentation or the um we want to leave Prague and have uh White River Alliance?

Or are you okay?

You ready?

I think if you would like to find what we might need a couple minutes, so yeah, Kelly's here and Kelly's here.

Kelly's here now.

Kelly, can you plug in and be ready pretty quickly?

I have full faith in you.

Yes, we are.

This is why I didn't go into the I guess I can offer it.

Thank you.

There you go.

We'll stay on the gender.

You have a Mac too?

I do have a good one.

I won't be able to while we're doing this.

I'm gonna make just a couple uh announcements.

Um, Indy Parks is hiring.

We are looking for a lot of summer jobs, uh, particularly lifeguards for our Indy pools.

No lifeguards, no opening of pools.

So it is important that we uh fill those roles, particularly we're looking for uh some lifeguards at Salam Park, which historically has had some issues and even maybe not open the season or two when we had no lifeguards.

Uh the current pay is fifteen dollars an hour, and if you sign up between now and midnight and ninth, there's a $250 signing bonus.

So Kevin, there's some extra cash for it.

You're good to go.

Um, anything else on the job front, director?

That is worth mentioning.

The lifeguards are uh what we need the most at the moment, but our website, parks.dy.gov, or even the the city's uh government jobs website.

Uh that's also available.

Yes.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Welcome any and all applications.

Thank you.

Um about summer day camp registration.

Um there's a few spots still still left there.

Uh and if you go again to the website, there are all kinds of descriptions of all the summer programming available.

Um we're in the process right now bewinterizing all the restaurants, flash pads, and pools uh in preparation of opening day.

Uh pay attention for announcements on the free summer concert series.

Uh there's gonna be over 50 performances across the county and across the park system, so pay close attention to that.

Uh again, already mentioned the importance of the lifeguards and a very neat event on Friday, June 5th at 10 a.m.

Um at the Martin Luther of King Junior Park is going to be a naturalization ceremony.

Um the U.S.

district court is gonna be there and uh swear in some U.S.

citizens.

So that should be uh another enlightening feedback.

Executive Director Boitz, you are up.

And we have technology, and I need to speak into this.

Yes.

Okay.

It's wild, but I hope you all understand at least.

Yeah.

Good evening.

My name is Jenny Boitz.

I'm the executive director of the Park Science.

And I believe I met you all in December, which I think was probably right before I started.

So I know a little bit more about what we do, and I'm excited to share that that I certainly did four months ago.

Yeah, you have in front of you kind of a deck that really outlines I think a couple of things that we want to make sure you all go today and leave with.

And really, I think the theme for the year in my first year is really kind of headlined there, which is kind of a strong foundation, a strong structure allows us to have a sharper focus.

And so how do we prioritize both of those things over the next year?

So we'll dig into that a little bit.

But just to start for folks who don't know necessarily who we are, the Park Science is this year celebrating 35 years, being the nonprofit partner, and kind of fundraising partner for uh and on behalf of the Indy Parks and REC team.

And so really our core function is not only to kind of proactively seek and secure funds on behalf of the city, but also to be a thought partner and to be able to react and respond and solve challenges alongside the parks team and their many um challenges that happen across the portfolio of parks.

And so yeah, I think we're returning back to those core functions.

Uh and you know, we we have a very small but mighty team, and we do a series of events every year, and um, you know, we'll continue to maintain those events and continue to maintain our kind of brand as a partner across the city, but certainly walking alongside the city parks team.

I think a couple things for you all to know, and again, going back to kind of stronger structure.

Um, so in October of 2025, um, the Parks Alliance Board of Directors actually voted to kind of transition uh the Parks Alliance as a single purpose kind of nonprofit entity um legal structure to a CICF special interest fund.

Um, and that is for a few reasons, but the you know, the least of which is the ways in which we're gonna stay a lean team, we're gonna stay focused, we're gonna be able to stay kind of flexible for our parks partners.

Um, there's a lot, as you all know, of infrastructure and resources and services that CICF has and offers that we quite frankly will benefit from in the long run at the end of the day, the parks team and parks will as well.

So that's important for you all to know.

Our Lee Woodspee still exists right now.

We are um still, you know, have our tax ID, our governing board of directors still exist, um, but we are transitioning again to a special interest fund of CACF, um, and that then governing structure looks like an advisory board that does include Director Crohn, and we'll always have a seat at the table for the parks director.

Um, CICF will have a representative, and then there's a handful of others.

Um, at the time right now, we currently have kind of an ex-officio, if you will, of the original Parks Alliance board of directors.

There's a voice from that kind of legal entity, CICF has a seat.

Um, the parks department will always have a seat right now as Director Crohn, and we'll continue to grow that advisory uh committee and board as another administrative.

I think the other piece for you all to know, and what I think we've already seen in these first four months or this first quarter of becoming special interest fund is again the ways in which not only does CSCF offer resources and services for our smallity team, allows us to stay lean and efficient.

It also allows us to sit at the table for perhaps regional and national funders to kind of have different conversations with different scale than we might have had before.

What I mean by that is being able to approach funders and ask for maybe dollars uh at a greater scale than what we have before.

Again, because you know, the the office uh or the office um, you know, the the financial, I should say controls and accounting controls of CACF will continue to stay with them, and as you all know, they're gonna have quite a few um really important uh pots of money and endowments within them.

So there's a there's a legitimacy that I think this partnership brings us, um, as well, and I think we've certainly already seen that play out in the first few months of my tenure at least.

Oh, I think the other thought just wanted to bring to you all kind of so my early learning.

So I spent the majority of the first two months in a lot of coffee conversations, a lot of lunch um discussions, a lot of breakfasts, and uh right now, up to 72 one-on-one um conversations, and that is with a diverse group of folks from community partners to former board members to you know, former even parks directors, funders of the parks alliance, philanthropy partners, um, and I've really kind of valued not only the ways in which I've learned so much from that historical as you all know this long 35 years historical uh knowledge that they can share, but also the ways in which you know I can then bring and we can start to think about how are we more closely aligning and even writing in some ways, writing the ship of how do we stay closely connected to the parks team.

So I would just share with you three priorities that I think um you know our team internally thinks a lot about and certainly talk about often with the parks team.

And the first thing that I think I learned and heard um in all of these conversations is just the need for us to build trust, not just in me as a new executive director, but also just as the institution itself.

We've had you know a bit of transition, leadership transition certainly over the last three years with the parks alliance.

How do we return to that solid structure?

We return to you know what our core purposes and walking alongside the parks department.

I think that just does really um require a certain amount of trust uh to be rebuilt in some instances and cases.

I think stay focused for us really does mean identifying really clearly and working with the parks department on shared priorities so that we are not getting distracted, that we are not kind of you know stepping in sidestepping or moving outside the lines with the parks department.

So here we have just the very quick kind of six priorities that we talk about often that that continue to show up year over year, and so the ways which we can raise dollars for capital projects in Andre's team, parks programming across the portfolio.

So summer camps, you mentioned earlier, aquatic programs.

We are actively writing grants and raising dollars for those funds as well for those programs as well.

Community service projects.

So we carry um, you know, and coordinate quite a few corporate partners that want to come do big volunteer service days in the parks, plant some trees, um, and even you know, beyond that, and so we we serve as a liaison in some ways, but a coordinator for the parks team.

Uh, sports recreation infrastructure, similar capital projects, just making sure the partners here in the city um know that we are a resource to be able to kind of deliver those dollars to where they need the most across the parks portfolio.

I think you all know we're talking a lot about systems-wide solutions, but also kind of what does that mean to kind of continue to invest in and create the structure for citywide maintenance fund.

So some dreams I think we've sprinkled in there as well.

And then I think just for you all to kind of continue bringing us in the structures.

We this year and our internal team talks a lot about prioritizing our own internal sustainability and our own operations, and while we are a team of three, that's not growing, and so what does that mean to be able to, you know, refine our own and optimize our own internal operations with the small group that we have?

How do we leverage CICF in the ways that we need to?

Um, and at the end of the day, how do we make sure that we're still really thoughtful and and we can execute with excellence alongside the parks the parks team as well?

I think to bring it to life, and we just mentioned uh the beautiful park across the street.

I think one case study, just for folks in the room that may not know the role we can't play.

I think one that's actively happening is that's gonna break around soon, is kind of the northern playground in Target of Park.

So you think about the entire park with the master plan, how we were able to kind of uh direct funding there to do there's a piece and a sliver of that park that wasn't quite finished, and that was the playground, and so I think through um a partnership that we have, a trusted partnership with the park butler, and then of course, bully endowment.

Um, we are going to pass through grant that we were able to hold those funds that the um parks team is able to continue to move through that process of bringing the end of the day a really really high quality uh playground to kind of round out that really beautiful form across the street.

So, again, filling gaps, bridging resources, um, and and sometimes that's reactively in the ways in which maybe this case study is, but there's also I think our intent as a team and walking alongside the parks is to be really proactive and how are we thinking ahead a year or two, and how are we we starting to have conversations to fill funding gaps, partnership gaps, resources in that way.

So this feels um both timely, and I think also I think it will be exciting and uh welcome to the neighborhood.

Um, yeah, it's a really beautiful park that's gonna break around very very soon.

I think we're out of it right now, but the majority of it.

So I'm excited for you all to the kids and everybody in the neighborhood to kind of have access to that.

I'll pause there.

There's questions for anyone.

Thank you, Jenny.

Um, any questions from our panel here?

Yes, that's what we thank you so much, Mr.

Chairman, and thank you, Jenny, for your presentation.

This is so exciting.

I think especially like you said, timeliness with um some of the shifts you make both internally and our location this evening.

My question is about like I guess two or three about some of the critical shifts that are occurring within um the parks alliance, specifically looking at the governance structure and the breakdown of the three to nine person advisory board, including um those members listed below.

I I think that um you know this council has good leadership, especially in the parks chair, and I was thinking what might it look like to um you know have a member of this body, our body as a whole, be able to be part of that as well.

Um, I think that that could be a piece of the disconnect um to maybe some of the some of the council districts.

I know Director Crone is an amazing um and comes from sort of the NA side being who's on the ground as she still is, but I I just wanted to put that that thought out there because I think that the parks director could in some ways be like a mayoral appointee and a legislative body and having a fiscal agent being able to have a seat at the table, I think could be really powerful, especially those of us who are very strategically parks focused.

Um, and really just want to say thank you, because I think that a small but mighty team whose laser focus can get a lot done, and I've seen it happen, um, and really wish you and your team the best, and I'm here to support you in the way we need to see.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Yes, Mr.

Brown.

Thanks, Mr.

Chairman.

Anyhow, thanks for a great presentation.

I mean, obviously, you're gonna be that's not forward, and so everything you mentioned about the CICF um arrangements green.

So my question would be why didn't we have it five years ago or like what are the trade-offs?

What do you what is it to use to this structure, even if it is the right call right now?

Yeah, it's a great question, and I can only speak from kind of after the decisions are made.

Um, but from what I've gathered in all my conversations, I think a couple things, right?

I think one we all know we've seen a bit of a leadership transition, how do we stabilize um as an organization as a 501c3, right?

And I think that required some sort of big shift or some sort of big kind of wave of of new leadership.

Um, and so I think in the ways in which CSCF can stay stable, can offer the resources, can offer the controls that quite frankly the funders really need look to.

I think that was was important.

Um, I also think this in the same way that we kind of talk about a small white team, an advisory board that is really thoughtfully um, you know, is is uh comprised of thoughtful folks who are everyday thinking you all are, so at least every other day I think you have parks in a really small group and a focused group.

I think that is another governance perspective.

What does that look like to have board members or governing folks that are thinking about plugged into those conversations connecting dots all the time?

Um yeah, I think that at the end of the day, there's a review from certainly for us, right?

I mean, I think last year um Blake Johnson, I think this is the meeting that I was in uh where we kind of shared the goal and the metric to continue improving 65 cents of every dollar that we raise goes directly back into parks.

In order to do that, again, we need a very different model than what's been operating for five years.

We no longer are operating our own program.

So you all may know and heard the um in the urban acres, right?

The farms that was a program that maybe the parks lines would have owned and operated and kept on our books, had a team that did that no longer is you know part of ours.

So we're not really in the business.

I think this structure allows us to stay focused on being the liaison, being the bridge, being a resource without owning, and and perhaps even you know, doing that it can, you know, sidestepping or stepping outside of the lines within within Indy Park.

So you know that is the that is the ways in which I would interpret this decision.

I do think, I think to your point, um, it's the it's the right one.

Uh, and yeah, I think the ways in which we can continue to kind of share the governance, share the information among folks on small combined team that's thinking about parks all the time with funders with program partners and community partners.

I think we're open and walking to the CSCF also allows us to do that as well.

Thank you.

I think it's a I think it's also I think helpful that you were hired in this, because I can see one big guy's I think as a good director, you can less say it on your own, or you know, kind of for some government structure, but if you're used to that, that doesn't be a good outside.

Okay, well, thank you.

Sure.

Yes, counselor.

Thank you, Chairman.

Um, can you I want to make sure I understand that so CICF and their executive team will be in charge of essentially the parks alliance director?

Yes, in charge of, yeah, in charge of um, so my so my advisory board of every body is essentially my boss, right?

So, this group that is comprised of the CLCF structure that does give them um kind of latitude or authority is the ways in which the funds and assets have also been transferred.

So, in charge of our funds, make sure that those controls are in place.

Make sure that it's kind of you know distributed in accordance with all funding requirements, of course, IRS.

They're also in control of that, but I think when for me as a director, which I think is a good question, was they the CIC executive team is not my kind of um direct manager, if you will, it's the advisory board, and my technically my board chair.

So the advisory board still will decide who is the director, the executive director, yes, yes.

Okay, um, so very quickly, pastor, is the for folks that are familiar with the women's fund.

This is almost the exact same kind of model.

So we are kind of a special interest fund that is kind of held underneath.

So folks are maybe familiar with that that might answer some clear some questions.

Okay, I don't know that I would say it's a renovation or a concern, it's just a comment, a thought um in speaking with some previous folks associated with the parks alliance.

One of the things that came out of those conversations was that they felt there was a need to prevent to be an entity that was speaking up or starting to speak up and get louder about concerns with the city's parks department.

And this concerns me in the way that it almost seems like we would eliminate that potential for people to be able to speak online, if you will, from the city government itself, because it seems to me like we're saying you directly are aligned with the parks department, which I understand that was the formation.

However, I think our parks department um in the past was probably better, and I think after many many years of dysfunction mistakes made by city government with the parks department, it may have created an environment where the parks alliance no longer felt like they could be quiet.

And I'm not looking for people to be quiet.

I want individuals to speak up, speak the truth, um, and move us in from the correct direction.

I'm saying that's not what's occurring today.

Uh, just I think that was a formation.

Then not obviously you've just come off the heels of major historic investment from our parks, thanks to endowment, things to the uh dollars.

Um, but we're back down to what city government is giving to parks.

So I think that's a struggle.

So I it's more common, you don't you don't have to comment on that?

It's not a question, um, it's a concern, I guess.

A thought, but also um, Chair, I would just take a moment to recognize Vice President Park, please.

No, it's well, thank you.

Yes, as we sit here in Council Park's district, we appreciate your presence.

Welcome to Captain District Center.

Exactly.

Um, just a couple other closing comments.

If I could um director points, the advisory board that we've you've been referring to.

Um, will there be any opposition or would you welcome a member of our committee serving on that board?

Yeah, I think at the end of the day, I don't make the decision, but I would love to be able to be in conversation with you all and connect you to the right folks to be able to do that.

I think that's a wise, you know, a wise group and certainly strategic in a lot of ways as well.

So yeah, we welcome that for the is that the CICF folks who make that decision.

Yeah, I would say if that if we want to move forward with that, like let's have a conversation, and I can make sure that we get connected right now for folks, um, you know, just to to if you can connect some of us on your own as you all understand Sarah Eichelhart with KSM was on the Parks Lines board.

She is kind of that representation.

Um CICF is Jeff Bennett, so folks here certainly know Jeff Bennett, and then of course, Director Brown.

We have two spots right now that we are looking at needing, so we would like to be able to last over seven at five.

So there is certainly room uh for folks to join, and I would would love to connect to the right people to have those conversations.

Wonderful, thank you.

And just for clarification, for uh full-time employees or FDEs, the alliance has three.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

Yeah, and technically, we need to know.

We're all now CICF employees.

Uh, in the rest of all our transition over the CICF in that one.

So again, human resources personnel support is how we've kind of benefited from this transition.

So you and now are W2 employees of CSF.

Do you have any other 1099 employees that help or contractors that fill in and support your operation?

We do, yeah, we certainly do.

There's a handful of folks within kind of grant consultant working on communications we've had in the past, some other kind of part time or seasonal folks that we've certainly run on for someone matters.

Great, wonderful.

Um then finally, this is just a point of personal privilege.

If you know, I had the director of parts here too as well.

Um, it's just important to me are swim lessons for our youth.

Um, it's in and I've been in situations where we've had to pull a child out of a pool.

Fortunately, he was fine, but um he proceeded to jump into the pool and did not know to swim at all and didn't appreciate the danger.

So I think we have duty as a parks department to fund and get the financing however we can to really help our youth learn to swim.

Because there's nothing worse than an accident from around the water.

So that's just I can put that out there.

So yeah, I appreciate sharing, and and I think um so many partners, at least if you have my short amount of time, have been thinking about water safety in a way that um is exactly that.

How do we fund programs?

How we fund just access to pools, and but there's also the safety element that I think we're encouraging as well.

That's actually I'll just make too as I as I turn this off and hang over the dog.

But um, you did make it to our lunch two weeks ago.

Um, I will be sure you have a pair of custom trail socks, um, and a data and a trail passport, and again, there's a series of events that we host related to to raise dollars for our own operating funds, but again, everything that we bring in, we can put back into parks, and so those events are very, very important to us.

Um, we're partners, individuals are important to us, so again, we can continue to keep our lights on and our people paid, um, and at the end of the day, make sure that every dollar we we bring in finds its way to work.

So, wonderful.

I have already saw expense time.

Sorry.

I was gonna say I walked out without my socks.

I didn't catch them that there's wonderful.

Thank you so much, Directors.

Appreciate it.

All right, next we will have uh Kelly Brown and the water quality manager for the White River Alliance.

She's going to discuss um our local watershed and getting a better handle on it, particularly handling um uh land use surrounding our waterways and the cleanliness of our waterways uh and what drives those factors, just to uh further educate us on these topics.

Ms.

Brown, it's all yours.

Okay, thank you so much for having me.

Um, I had an excellent opportunity to also be on a panel with Dan Booths that I was uh very excited to now also be able to talk to you guys in a little more detail.

Uh I'm with the White River Alliance.

We are a regional nonprofit, we will focus to you on Central Indiana.

We look at the whole upward white river watershed, and so that's um to take a step back.

Do you guys know what a watershed is?

So you don't have to answer right now, but just to kind of say what the group is and uh why we use this whole watershed.

So all land goes into a body of water, so no matter where you live, you actually have riverfront property because it's going to go connect to a river.

Um the White River watershed is actually right here, it's very small in the blue, and it flows into the Wabash River and from Neo into the Ohio to the Mississippi.

And why we usually highlight this is because while it's also a lot of local issues that we want to talk about, we have a global impact.

This goes all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

So all water quality impacts the shrimp and everything else that you might want to eat at your different plate.

So there's actually been studies that showed that the white river was one of the biggest contributors of nutrients in the Gulf of Mexico.

So we have a big impact, and we also have a local impact.

So just kind of want to give that scale and to get back down to the local levels.

So the White River watershed is 1.7 million acres.

It's a lot of land cattle.

That is within 16 different counties, goes through a variety of towns, Indianapolis being the largest one.

That also includes Noblesville, Muncie, down Montsville.

The Riverwood does continue south of that, but this is just our focus area as the White River Alliance.

And this watershed is home to almost two billion people.

So that's a lot of people using this resource for a lot of different ways.

So some of the collective uses we have of this beautiful river.

This is a picture of the White River at the sunrise, is drinking.

So that might be one of the biggest things you think about.

Drinking water, waters that comes from the white rubber.

We also model and sell it.

So Coco Cola is equal, they sell that.

Um agriculture, that is another big use.

We do have some irrigation that uses sulfus water, uh, even a bigger use is lawn.

Um so when we actually water all a lawn, that is portable water, so that's drinking water that we're putting on our lawns to keep them green.

And then um ideally one of the other great uses is recreation.

So, how can we use the river for kayaking, paddle boarding, a variety of things?

Um, hopefully, raise your hand if you've ever been on the white river.

Excellent.

Those who haven't, you definitely show that there's things like Frank's livery that can get you on there pretty easily.

Um, so we use this a variety of ways, and there's a different variety of things that impact the white river, primarily being land use being one of them.

Because as we talked about, a watershed is the land itself that feeds into that water.

And if you see this map, I know it's kind of probably a little bit zoomed out, but Marion County, you can see it's a lot of peak, and the pink is a developed area.

Uh so why does this matter?

Uh, is because really this is a very connected system.

So when it rains, that rain's going to go somewhere.

It's going to go down and potentially run into the surface, like the white river.

And that matters because 70% of our drinking water comes from the river itself.

So how clean that water is getting into the river makes a difference.

So the more development we have, uh, the less water we're going to uh and the doy of water is going to be.

So in a natural area like our plots, we're going to see that only about 10% of that rain is going to leave that land.

And if you've been in downtown Indy, 55% of it is going to get into a stream.

And when you have that higher load of flow like that, it's going to bring more pollutants and things like that.

Because you're carrying a lot of things very quickly into the river.

Also, another important aspect is where it's going, is it going into the ground or not?

So in a natural area like fork, you have there again about 50% of the water is going to be able to go into that soil and recharge that ground water.

Because groundwater is also a very important part of our water system.

Versus downtown Indy, we're going to have about 15%.

So you're losing a lot of water or groundwater recharge.

And this is also important because the other 30% of our drinking water is from wells.

And if you were in other areas like Hamilton County, it's more like 90% of their drinking water is coming from wells, just so you know.

We are more dependent on sulfur water than a lot of other communities.

But having both clean and clean surface water and recharging groundwater is really important for our quantity of water.

And then one of the other things I want to kind of point out that's really important in the system is sulfur swattle pipes and things like that.

So storm water, I've kind of been talking about broadly, but in the city system, we have storm drains.

So it's another way that that water gets directly funneled.

So this is just kind of an example of a strong drain.

So everything in our house is going to go down the street to the road and go untreated to a local waterways.

This is a picture of one up with Colonel Street.

And then all these dots are showing you the many, many outflows we have in Marion County.

But I also want to point out Indianapolis has its own special uh issues that you guys are probably familiar with, which is combined sewer overflows.

So that is where those two systems, both the house sewage and the storm drains go together.

You can go untreated into the river and these areas in kind of the hashtag areas or five sewer overflow areas.

We do are very excited that they dig.

So the deep rock tunnel was completed last October.

So that is dealing with 95 to 97% of that overflow.

So a lot of it is being captured, it is being committed to getting into the streams.

This is just kind of a quick high level overview of giving you guys one over one on rivers and streams and how the water system works here locally, so that we kind of dive into what the water quality is here.

So I just kind of wanted to give it one background and why that holistic approach is so important because it's not just the water in the river, it's the land use and everything else around it.

So several years ago we did a white river, and I know I did a presentation on that to a different uh city county council group.

Uh, and this was had many goals largely to measure progress, align farmers and inspire change.

Because once you get a grade, then you kind of know where you're at, and hopefully you want to improve it.

So uh this is the reportboard ungraded, does not look like what you might get from your kids.

It is circular, partly intentional to show how interconnected everything is.

We have um land, water, and community areas, and we call them indicators, each have six indicators, recognizing how connected those different aspects are to each other and how they impact stream health.

So in 2023 was when we did our forest report colour.

We will be all planning to do this every five years.

So this is a little bit out of date, but we're getting ready to update it again.

Um, overall grade was a C.

The way it's really important is to look at those individual indicators.

So now you can start to see where the colors change.

So red is an F, and uh dark green is an A.

So you can kind of see where there is areas of improvement and where we're doing well.

And I will note this is on 100 point scale, so they're evenly distributed.

Just focusing though here in Marion County, so we also greeted by sub-regions.

So this primarily looks at sub-watersheds, so tributaries that go into the White River.

So that's Stony Creek and Cooking Creek, Eagle Creek and Eagle Creek Reservoir, Lower Fall Creek and Pleasant Run, all the primary ones that we see within Marion County.

And then there are separate grades for each of those, so you can now see how different those different subwatersheds are by water quality health.

And so here is where we really want to kind of focus in on where are we doing well and where do we need improvement.

You can see there's kind of a theme across these.

Um I think for those to see from farther away, but this little image here represents wetlands.

We have a failing grade across every one of our subwatersheds for wetland loss.

That's how much wetlands we still have, how much we've lost.

Also, we have two of the locations, Stony Creek and Lower Fall Creek, who are failing the tree canopy cover, um, and then another one that is failing both in Eagle Creek and Lower Fall Creek is um environmental bottom, and what that means is people's potential exposure to uh environmental pollutants that can negatively impact their health and quality of life.

So those are lower scoring grades.

I will also want to point out there's some good ones that I didn't highlight them as well.

Here, but you can see parks and trails actually have B on two of the three, which is great, and I'm gonna explain exactly what went into those in a second.

Um we also have really good scores on aquatic light, so that's the fish habitat.

All the river, White River is actually an excellent place.

People come from out of town to come fishing here.

So we have some really good fish diversity.

We have a very healthy fish population.

This is one I also like to highlight because in 1989 there's a fish kill.

But with intentional walk investment and funding, we were able to improve the fish habitat and get a very healthy habitat within you know 26 years, 27.

Also, just going to sew that there's an interactive website, and I also have printed copies of these that everyone can have if they would like, so that you can play around and look at the individual scores, and there's QR code if you'd like.

But I kind of want to highlight the particular lens that I think hawks and this group could have some impact on.

So wetland change, this just shows you what went into it, and I'm just going to highlight the fact that it's just looking at a recent loss.

So from 2005 to 2019, we saw an over 9% loss in Lower Fall Creek of our wetlands, 3.7% loss in Eagle Creek, and a 2.4% loss in Stony Creek.

So that is a relatively recent time frame.

Why does it matter especially for you guys?

It's because there's been a lot of regulatory setbacks in the recent history.

From a federal level and a state level, we are losing a lot of our protections for wetlands.

So honestly, one of the best ways to do it is at a local level when it comes to ordinances or protections.

So what can we do?

Well, we can focus on land acquisitions at all wetlands.

So we can also go to some floodplains.

Floodplains are also often active wetlands.

And then another thing I wanted to highlight is I don't know if you guys are familiar with the DNR in the loop mitigation program.

That is a state program, then that is a credit.

So when a developer is negatively impacting a stream or wetland, they can use this credit program.

And that provides funding for wetland restoration or wetland protection.

And so, say the example I have in the picture here is Riverside or Nature Park.

There's a wetland restoration area, you guys can get credits that you can sell and give more money to do more wetland restoration.

And white river watershed is the source area with high demand.

So they don't have enough credits to even sell right now to mitigate what's going on.

So that's actually the area we need that DNR has identified.

So intentionally looking at forest lands with wetlands could provide funding and would really help make a global impact and wetland loss when we're losing so many other areas of protection.

Next, just to quickly cover tree canopy because I know forks have a big impact on that.

So this is looking at percent canopy loss and even a shorter time frame from just 2011 to 2019, and the difference in time frames is just due to data availability, just as an FYI.

So we monitor all tree canopy more frequently.

So we have seen since 2011 a 2.2% loss of Stony Creek.

And when I say Stony Creek, that means kind of the northern area of Hamilton County.

And then in lower Fall Creek Pleasant Run, so kind of downtown east side, 1% loss.

Eagle Creek's not doing as bad, it's only a 0.1% loss.

So it is actually the green area here.

So it is one of the few that we are not really seeing much loss.

And to just kind of highlight a few opportunities that could be here, it's just planting more trees, and that's the obvious thing.

So the more trees we have in parks on ripeways and city areas, so that we can they can grow large and kind of restore that tree canopy.

Also, we do things that maybe homeowners can do, homeowner can plant a tree or do tree stewardships that can make a big difference.

And then a quick example of what some other cities are doing, Portland, Oregon actually has a utility bill credit.

They get $50 off of their bill for every tree they plant.

I think it's up to six trees or something like that.

And then Cullenworth County, they have a tree coupon with local loseries.

So they walked with local luxuries to give a coupon so that people can go out and buy trees at a discount.

So just some examples of ways we could potentially incentivize.

I know it has been tree giveaways and some other really nice things that have happened here locally, and we have to keep in Naples beautiful and a bunch of other people planting trees, but I feel like there's never too many trees.

So to I guess bring it back to that older conversation of water quality.

Trees are one of those great ways to stop that water.

When it rains, it's going to get captured in its in its canopy, it's going to slow down, it's not going to cause as much flooding.

It's also going to be more likely to get down into the ground because it's going to go into those soils, it's going to help reach off that ground model.

So it's going to both preserve the water where it's at, where it falls, and when it whatever flows away will be ideally a little cleaner and go slower because how quickly the water gets to all the rivers makes a huge difference.

So trees make a huge impact on water quality and air quality and heat island effects and improves your home value.

There's just so many things tree can do.

So and I could say equal things about wetlands, those are just you know on much larger scale.

So wetlands are the sponges and kind of the lungs of our environment, to be honest.

And then lastly, to just end on the positive note, because I had to highlight how you guys are doing on the box and trails and explain what went into that grade.

So that grade had three aspects, and that was the number of people per park.

So that's kind of like the density, and park acres proportion, and miles of trails, 100 residents.

And how we scored this was looking at the national like recommendations, and I can't remember which organization it was, but there's a recommendation for that.

Um, and so in the regions we're looking at, the Little Fall Creek Pleasant Run has a C, uh, Eagle Creek has a B- and Stony Creek has a B-.

So doing a little bit better, they all really is just how many people have to share a box.

So if we have all you know, maybe it's the more numbers of parks, the better the score you're gonna have because you want everyone to have access to that, and how far we have to travel to get to the cell.

But when I'm doing that, always report movement, but wanted to kind of end on a little bit of higher notes, and just um say I'm also here because we have uh the ultimate goals to raise these grades so that when we come back in 2028 and we do this story, hopefully we'll see an improvement and two canopy couple or hops or things like that, and just kind of wanted to share some insights into uh the white river and the local orders of that.

So thank you.

Thank you guys.

Very insightful, meaningful information.

We appreciate that.

Um, members, comments, yes, as well as thank you so much.

What a wonderful presentation and amazing graphics, data as always.

You come with a clutter of information and then actionable steps.

Um, so my first comment, Mr.

Chairman was the kudos.

But secondly, um, and I went to grab for my phone.

Can you talk a little bit about or are the White River alliance right now in the conversation surrounding data centers and some of their impacts that they have on our local waterways, rivers, particularly as you've been highlighting tonight, Will Creek uh park in the reservoir next door.

Yeah, so we have um actively attending all of those meetings.

We just went up to 11 last week.

I am not the primary team member, I will be honest, uh, focused on this, but we have multiple team members really looking at that issue.

Um, we've not officially come out with a stance because we have no board to approve any substance that we have, and we are a uh multidisciplinary board that includes like Eli Lily is on our board, just so you guys know.

Um, so we know do recognize that data centers have a huge impact in water quantity, especially, and that we need to be strategic about it.

And I would say one of our biggest concerns is the lack of data and transparency that's going on.

We need to know really where things are gonna be put, how much, what quality is going to be coming out as, and guarantee you that that's going to be monitored on the long run, because without that data, you don't really know what the long-term impact is, and this is just one example of our show they need to come down.

Um, we're thinking of saying leap and then other data centers that might be coming.

So I would say there's just a lack of data and understanding, and that goes with the forward data cells.

Um, I will I didn't even point out here, but if you were to look at the report code, we have two ungraded categories, which is water demand being one of them, because there was not enough data to grade it, and that's an issue.

That was in 2023, and that was looking at data for a while.

So there's just a lack of monitoring and understanding of all water system, both sulfur and groundwater, especially.

There's even less data ground through.

So thank you so much, Kelly.

Uh Ms.

Brown, if you those grade out bars were frankly what I was most concerned about, and once we could see what the lack of transparency about water demand just currently, and then how do we look to the future if we aren't informed?

So thank you very much, Mr.

Chairman, for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, Councillor McCormick.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um, again, kudos.

Amazing the video, the graphics, it was just very easy to understand and follow too.

Um, and the interactive site that you previewed.

I can nerd out on that a lot.

Um, I do have a question um with the report card.

Is this like a commonly used nationwide, or did you create the like the sections and variables and stuff?

Did you get that out specific to you?

So this is actually an international approach.

So the University of Maryland, um, with the logos on the back, created this over 15 years ago, and they have executed it globally, including um the Mississippi River itself.

Uh they did the barrier reef, so they also do uh fishing uh equipment marine systems.

There we go.

Uh so they have done it all over.

This is the first report quite done in the state of Indiana.

So we look force once to do a heel, uh, but they have done it in other places like Arizona and things like that.

Um, now I will note they have a set out process that you follow with the end of years change based on the community because what you want to focus on is going to be very localized.

So the fact that, and one of the things I would like to point out in the crowd, I think we're only the second report code, maybe it was the thought to really use that community aspect because we felt like community was also important.

So environmental important, and even unlikely things like education and health, but really all that can impact um the larger community, and having an educated you know, populace makes a huge difference on how all water is managed or how all land is managed.

So we took a holistic approach and did go a little different than some of the other report codes, but it is a best practice that's been going on for a while.

Also, that that's to make sure that with that repeatability and right um reliable, so it sounds like that work has been done across the market.

So thank you.

Any other comments questions, sir?

Uh I have a couple just quick, Miss Brown, if I may.

Um, could you could you pop up slides again, please?

I want to get a better understanding of the big big uh I know it's basic premise.

Um, yeah, the water that's collected and I've been down in our sewers, unfortunately, and have seen the impact of this.

You just there's the six-inch curve down the middle of the pipe that's supposed to separate your wastewater from your storm water, but it doesn't take much rain to overrun that curve, if you will, and then you just get the raw sewage right into our river or in creek.

So when it's collected down into the big big cavity, and then it's released slowly, that's the idea.

So you don't overflow the system, you don't overflow the wastewater treatment plan.

Is that water then released slowly to the wastewater treatment and not just slowly released back into the system or possibly into a nearby body of water?

So, yes, it goes down to the wastewater treatment plant, so it gets treated or what gets released and no longer uh unless there's extreme events, it's not coming out in those local waterways, it is coming out, so I think most of it goes south, so we go into Eagle Creek and then into the White River Wall south, kind of around Hodging Street area, um, is where most of that CSO water goes and is definitely standing.

I actually know that I will say that.

Sure.

So I assume down in the the skeletal structure of all this, the pipes, they had to get down in there and basically build those new curves or block them off or I mean reconfigure the entire pipe system.

My understanding is where it goes down to the tunnel happens.

Can you see my mouse?

Let's see.

So it's going to be more like if we can drop heel.

So this didn't really get changed.

Okay.

And there might be multiple pipes coming in to this one outflow.

They're going to have a drop shaft is what they called it.

And it's going to be like right here before you know.

So once that tunnel completely fills and that shaft is full, then it's going to still go over.

So they didn't actually stop or disconnect this system right here.

They just allow it for instead of this coming straight to the wastewater treatment plan.

I mean it still happens.

It's just a bunch of paper tunnel.

Yeah.

So really just increase the size so that it catches 95 to 97% of that small bottle.

But that's also based on data from only 2000.

Sure.

So it's still possible in the heavy rain to get the overflow of raw sewage into our waterlands.

Correct.

But it's been cut.

Drastically down.

Yes.

So it's supposed to capture 95 to 97%.

It's 97% everywhere with Black Fall Creek.

Fall Creek is 95.

Okay.

And then another quick question.

Can you expand a little bit looking at slide 21?

The DNR in LU program.

We've kicked those tires before and looked at that.

Um upon initial glance, it almost seems too good to be true.

Can you maybe dig one layer deeper on how that works and how it might be available to us as a governing body, and how can we create generate funding from this program?

Yes, I will do my best.

I will also fully say I'm not an export of the rival quick enough.

So yes, so it is you need to either have an existing wetlands that you need to restore so that it becomes more effective.

Um so you're protecting the wetlands and restoring it, or you can even build the wetland and use those credits.

So there is like kind of two different approaches, and the style and quality of wetland does impact how many credits you get, and I think how much money maybe that you get like associated back with it.

So it is like an approval process.

I think technically they have you know the ability to say no, this is not a wallet project.

The most recent conversation we have with you and all uh which is over over out of the, I'll be honest, uh, comment though that they need more credits to sell.

So they're all looking precise within the white oil watershed, so that they can offset other development that's happening now.

So, that's about the depths I can give right now.

Sorry.

This may be a silly question, but to whom are these credits sold?

Developers.

Developers, almost along generally like a carbon credit program.

That's my understanding, yeah.

Okay, all right, thank you.

That's helpful.

Uh any other questions, comments?

All right, thank you so much, Ms.

Brown.

It's been very informative.

Um our next meeting is next month.

I don't have a specific date, but I assume this next month.

The fourth, May 4th.

Thank you.

June 4th, I guess.

Yeah, May 4th was last week.

Um, so thanks everybody for coming tonight.

Yes, but you uh take public comment on any of the materials presented.

Um yeah, we'll take some brief comments.

I just make a brief comment.

I appreciate your uh your remarks.

I've I've seen a number of these uh presentations over a number of years, and I've uh participated in dozens of zoning cases.

Sure.

I think if we were to do some grading, uh it would be behoove us in the citizens to grade the Department of Metropolitan Development and the Metropolitan Development Commission in terms of land development regulatory practices, because we're losing our interstitial spaces, our repairing zones.

She talked about the tree canopy.

Case after case, I've watched I've watched hundreds of them over decades, and I can tell you that we're losing that war at the commission level and at the very variance board level as well.

I won't go into a long spiel unless you'd like me to elaborate.

No, I appreciate that, but if you could also introduce yourself for purposes of the record.

Sorry, uh Clark Collow, uh former city planner, actually, and uh more transition to more of an environmental advocacy role over the years.

Sure.

I've been involved in river issues uh for many.

Yes.

Briefly, just as a 50,000 foot view, what would be your number one recommendation to address the issue you just identified?

Well, you know, we just spent they just spent two hundred thousand dollars for to audit the zoning ordinance uh for social equity.

Uh that was uh firm called multi-source, it was two years ago.

I've been trying to get that report, but if we're if you know if we're gonna actually be serious about it, we ought to audit the performance of the Metropolitan Development Commission in terms of the number of variances they give, the extent to which they accommodate public input on uh on those kinds of cases.

I'll I just I'll just refer to one recently I've been too current about, but there was a case two days ago at the development commission, six acres in the in the Nora area.

That bill that billing was approved, and uh you know it's a it would be a good use, it's a uh recreational use for for young people and adults, but uh that was basically lot line to lot line, it left it left nothing of green space virtually on the whole site, and there was no discussion about it.

Uh at the commission level, one remonstrator, not me, but one remonstrator uh went to some length to uh articulate that need, and then that was just it was just no discussion about it.

It's very disturbing, actually.

Well, I appreciate that, and those are valid points, and I'm not sure this committee or this venue is the proper but yeah, that is something uh we well, particularly with uh, you know, I'm a big advocate of urban forest preservation um and tree canopy studies and as you may know, we have a 12 million dollar grant we're dealing with right now from the USDA for planting trees to particularly reduce the heat index and challenge neighborhoods.

So there's things like that that we're working on, and we're we're trying to turbocharge the Marion County Tree Board and get them more involved in particularly growing and protecting the tree canopy, and as you mentioned too, the the lack of tree canopy along our waterways is an issue too because of uh uh unnecessary heat and erosion problems and things of that sort.

So glad is great.

We should also be stemming the losses.

Well, I agree.

I've had the same discussion with the KIB folks, and I love what you do, but save me a 20-inch O versus plant me a two-inch uh two inch maple.

I'd much rather protect the current trees and spend money protecting our legacy and indigenous trees from Indiana than necessarily planting a bunch of trees and also require additional watering, which is you know, we're losing 30 40 percent of the trees because no one has a watering program for three certain years.

And if you don't water for three years, the chances of dying of a tree is better than 50 percent.

So that's another issue.

Thank you for taking the comment.

Of course, anybody else while we're here?

All right, hearing none, motion to adjourn.

All right, we are adjourned.