Good evening, and welcome to our public works committee meeting on May 14th, 2026 at our new solid waste garage.

Thank you all for joining us here.

We appreciate you.

I will begin.

I have sea counselors coming up, so I'll just a second for them.

But thank you for making this happen to all the staff, administration, channel 16, my colleagues, our president is also joining us.

So thank you for making that happen.

I'll begin with introductions on my colleague.

Louder, I'm hearing also these mics to my colleagues.

These mics on the desk are on, and they're recording for Channel 16.

So I'll begin with introductions to my left.

Um, Councilor Dilk.

Councilor Mike Dilf, District 24.

Derek Bahill, District 23.

Josh Bain, District 21.

Brian Mowery, District 25.

Maggie Millis, district five.

Andy Nielsen, District 14.

Nick Roberts, District 4.

Ryan Gibson, District 8.

Krista Wells, District 11.

Good evening.

Counselor Jared Evans, District 17.

And I'm Kristen Jones, District 18.

Tonight we will begin with proposal number 138 2026, which approves an additional appropriation of $1,496 in the 2026 budget at the Department of Public Works for the purposes of snow response and salt repair.

And we have our CFO, Sam Barrish here.

Thank you.

Hello, everybody, council members, committee members.

Um, Sam Barrett's chief financial officer for DPW.

Um, really excited to be in this new building tonight.

I think uh it's especially fitting because we've got some core operational issues for the department being addressed uh here in this fiscal package.

Also noteworthy, just as a reminder, uh appropriations adopted by this committee during previous spring fiscals actually funded almost a third of the cost of this brand new building.

So fiscal appropriations from public works committee ended up being instrumental in being able to get this done and just really excited to be here seeing it complete, seeing the trucks continue to come in is really rewarding for us.

So, this this fiscal package in front of you tonight includes two appropriations from transportation fund balance.

Um I'll go through them both pretty briefly.

It's also of course kind of funny because it's the beginning of May and it's nice out, and we're talking about mostly snow response items as as we often do.

But the largest part of this fiscal is 1.3 million dollars from Transportation General Fund balance to character three to cover costs associated with um contract plowing of residential areas during snowfight.

So for history, last year during the spring fiscal, this body appropriated two million dollars for residential callouts.

And along with that, we made changes to how the department operates during snow response when those decisions are made to call out contractors.

And so under that new policy, we called out contractors two times this last winter season.

So the first was on December 15th, uh at a measurement of just over four inches of accumulated snowfall.

The cost of that call out was just under 700,000.

The cost per call out changes depending on the amount of accumulation.

Vendors get paid a higher amount because it's more work, it takes longer to push the snow.

So that was call out number one.

Call out number two was January 25th.

That was the storm that produced a little over 11 inches.

The cost of that was 1.1 million dollars.

Um, the completion times on here, you know, one day for the first one, two days for the second one.

Vendors also get more time depending on the amount of snow accumulation.

So that's why the the times were different.

So why is this fiscal happening?

Well, the first fiscal uh first call out was covered with that two million dollars.

However, we reached the end of the year, and that two million dollars was a regular lapsing appropriation, so we don't have the authority to spend that money after 1.1 2026.

So basically, what you're doing is reappropriating the 1.3 million dollars that wasn't spent from last year, which is basically making the department whole from that January callout.

And any funds over and above that would be reserved explicitly for snow contractual costs in the next winter season.

Obviously, the difference there is only a couple hundred thousand dollars, but it will be exclusively reserved for that purpose.

Um, so that is the that is the bulk of the fiscal.

The next slide um goes into some of our broader costs for this winter season, uh, just for context.

Obviously, just talked about the 1.8 million dollars for residential contract plowing.

Um, but again, this was a this was a pretty heavy winter compared to recent winter season.

So we had about 25 inches of accumulated snowfall compared to an average of 14 in recent winters.

We activated 14 snow fights.

So it wasn't just the total accumulation, it was the frequency of the storms.

And again, when we activate a snow fight, that means we've got people working in rotating 12-hour shifts 24-7 until the streets are safe.

So there are costs associated with doing that.

We had significant overtime costs, which are listed here, about 2.5 million in overtime specifically associated with snow fight.

And then because of the frequency, we also had high salt costs.

We used over 33,000 tons of salt, which is well above recent averages and significantly more than recent winters.

Um what companies they tap into, and so in some cases we paid premium rates to make sure we were getting salt to refill our barns wherever necessary.

So there were some significant costs associated with uh snowfight this year.

We think those costs were obviously worth it.

This is a core public safety issue, and um hopefully this just gives some clarity around what type of money we spend in a winter season like that.

Um next, again, just for context, because we gave an update I think uh late last year on recent equipment investments.

I just wanted to note together.

Um the department, along with support from council, has actually invested a little over $7 million over the last 12 months in snow fight equipment, and that that is a significant amount of investment that we're really proud of and really thankful for all the investments that this body has made in helping us do that.

So with that, there were 14 trucks we were able to purchase smaller one-ton trucks we purchased with last year's spring fiscal, same time last year.

Um we purchased eight mil eight more with budgeted funds in 2026.

We ordered 12 large snow trucks with funding from a general obligation bond issuance, which funding became available late last year, and then we've also made some purchases in utility vehicles that we can use on trails, bike lanes, things like that.

So, you know, together uh that is uh 38 total pieces of equipment, and we're expecting to have all of that accessible to us for next winter season, so really excited about those investments.

Um the second part of this appropriation is 195,000 related to the salt barn that was destroyed last year at Traders Point.

Um I feel like the salt barn has made an appearance in a number of our presentations to this committee, so uh it's a recurring character, but this should be the final time it's mentioned.

The city actually has a supplemental insurance policy for um some structures, and in this case, we were able to recuperate some of the cost of rebuilding a new barn.

We received a 195,000 reimbursement payment this year to access the ability to spend that money.

We require an additional appropriation, and that will be plugged back into other facility repairs, repairing roofs, fences that have been knocked down, things like that.

And so that is the final item here.

So with that, I'm happy to take any questions.

Any questions?

Thank you, Chairman.

Uh, thank you, Mr.

CFO, and um appreciate this this update and remind our colleagues that when uh when we worked on the spring fiscal last year, this was always kind of the the design for our contractor response, right?

We were gonna provide an upfront payment knowing what we don't know.

Um, so we're glad that there's some money left over, and we can keep doing that.

Um question for UCFO, obviously, an objective is to be able to operationalize some of this, and as we're looking to the 27 budget in the future, and maybe too soon for you to answer this, but based off of trends you're seeing with the weather now with call-outs and estimates, um, you know, I don't know if you kind of have a sense or where that may be in the budget, but just wanted to say look forward to to working to try to pull some of that in so that um that's at least operationalized going forward so sure yeah, if I may say at least yeah, we look forward to those discussions too obviously uh the 2027 budget development process is just kicked off and it feels like it's kind of always ongoing um you know the the hard part about fiscal planning for something like this is there's a huge range of potential outcomes for each winter so you know if you look back over the last 15 years and many winners maybe you don't even have a four-inch storm but there have been other times in the city's history where maybe this could have happened six times in one winter or something and the cost is going to be you know millions and millions of dollars so I think you know we can definitely work on as you as you put it operationalizing some of this in the budget but there's always going to be the potential under that policy where any amount that you have in your ongoing budget is not going to be sufficient to you know proceed as you've intended.

So I think this this process being able to come transparently to this committee lay out the costs we incur um and talk through the need for the next season is is important.

Yeah absolutely and absolutely I think it's just about establishing some sort of leaning on your expertise like some sort of floor and some sort of cushion that understanding we may come to a future spring fiscal um have a really bad winter and need to be able to use a spring fiscal in order to backfill that money and make you all whole I think that's the flexibility that we need to continue to preserve in a spring fiscal while also ensuring that the budget has some kind of some kind of floor for what we've been able to establish as a basic city service.

So thank you chairman appreciate it.

Thank you uh thank you madam chair uh I think this is a Daniel question uh rather than strictly a finance but uh are we still on track uh for GPS uh migration to I guess specifically to snow and this part might be fiscal as we approach getting closer to ready for that are there any uh costs like ISA expenses that we are anticipating or it's we're all good sure in this setup I think the office do you want to pull up a chair?

Tech hustle come talk come join me.

Hi everyone Daniel Stevenson Deputy Director of TPW.

Say answer that question um we are making good progress on the GPS situation for a snow fight so um as far as routing software for snowfight we are going to be moving forward with an ESRI-based system we've had several meetings with Esri and with the ISA uh GISRE team um most of those costs are actually would be already included within our GIS contract um my understanding is that there will probably be some kind of a license cost additionally but the vast majority of what we need to do this will be included already in the city county wide um contract for GIS.

So we're making really good progress on that we are also working to optimize those routes we are actually working with a PhD candidate out of Purdue University um who is doing his entire doctoral program on this specifically so not only will we have those routes on like a GPS type map like you're familiar with like a Google maps um but they will be optimized for maximum efficiency.

So it's a fuel savings hopefully fingers crossed we can only help very valuable with the seven dollar a gallon diesel so thank you.

Questions comments that thank you madam chair and uh thank you CFO for detail reporting and this additional corporation very much in line and it shows how we appropriate fund what we need to do in terms of city service how how well it works, and you guys did such an exceptional job handling the snow this season, particularly with that second snowstorm in January, late January.

You guys uh stepped up and along with DPW Aspie and contractors to really made it really possible for us to get around the city.

So again, uh this appropriation is well in line and you have my support.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Anyone in the public who wishes to speak on proposal 138, 2026.

Thank you, Chairwoman Jones.

I move we send proposal number 138, 2026 to the full council with the due pass recommendation.

It's been moved and seconded.

We do pass recommendation.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

The ayes have it.

Thank you, Mr.

CFO.

We appreciate it.

Next up is proposal number 139, 2026, which authorizes truck restrictions on certain portions of Westmore Street in district 17 and 18.

For this proposal, I am going to do a presentation along with um Councillor Jared Evans.

It's a special special proposal because it goes way back, and I have some constituents here who are going to help me with that presentation.

It goes way back from way before I was elected, over a decade ago, the West Indianapolis Development Corporation, the Neighborhood Association, and neighborhoods began a plan for Moore Street, which you all are here, it's just around the corner from here.

And they began a plan for what a streetscape could look like, and they started on that plan, and over 10 years ago that plan stalled.

And so Lisa Lafflin, the executive director of West Indianapolis Development Corporation, as soon as I was elected, was one of the first things, one probably one of the first meetings I began when I was elected was to get that program and that funding back going for Moore Streetscape.

And so we began working to get that going again.

And with the diligence of the neighborhood, Lisa at WIDC and myself and the Department of Public Works, we began to get that moving again.

It took a long time, but we were able to get it.

Um, and so um many numerous meetings.

But November of 2024, we finally cut the ribbon on Moore Street, Straitscape.

Um, a lot of labor of love from the community, the neighborhood, myself, but what I'm asking for tonight is the street has been narrowed, and there was a purpose behind narrowing that street.

Um, and so what I'm asking for tonight is some truck restrictions.

And the reason I'm bringing in uh my buddy Councillor Jared Evans is in 2023, West Indianapolis was divided into two council districts, and so now Belmont Avenue divides our council districts.

So part of West Indianapolis is my council district and part of it is his.

So he has come along beside me since 2023 and shared the responsibilities of West Indianapolis, and so he's heard the the heartburn and the heartache of what's going on on Moore Street and the trucks tearing up the new investment and what has happened on Morris Street.

So I'll let him share some uh some trucks coming in.

Uh, there will be for anyone concerned with that, there will be an exemption.

There are some businesses along Moore Street.

There will be those exemptions for the deliveries and things like that.

But the one thing that we have on Moore Street that's really really important is our Merry Rig Neighborhood Center that we want to protect.

We have our library, we're getting ready to have a new library with that investment that you all the council helped invest in.

That's really important to us.

So there's this the park is right off of Moore Street as well.

So there's a lot of things with a lot of children.

Um we invested in sidewalks, we invested in pedestrian safety along that.

So it's just something that we really want to protect.

So, yeah, thank you, Chairwoman Jones.

Um, she's basically said everything we can said, but the reality of it is that we have to protect the investment that we are putting in the community, and a part of that investment is to get a residual out of that in private investment to improve the community and improve the neighborhood.

This also I think highlights and shines on the importance of zoning.

West Indianapolis for it's basically since the community has grown up, has had a lot of uh industrial build in the community and around the community, and that has made it somewhat difficult to do the things that we want to do.

A lot of, as you guys have driven over here, you see it, a lot of uh trucks and that nature have their businesses around this community.

What we are proposing is to restrict, have the weight restrictions on Moore Street going east, basically from Eagle Creek to Harding.

Amazon, for example, has a facility to the west of this, and it's quite honestly, their trucks oftentimes that are damaging the infrastructure that we've put in there, they can go west and hop on Holt Road and get on I-7.

They don't have a need to go down to Harden.

Um, so I I think it's personally it's pretty common sense, and it's something that we have to do.

It's it's one of those situations where one size doesn't fit all regarding ordinances.

It's clear that some thoroughfares are meant for this, others are going through actual residential communities, and so we decided that we were gonna move on this, and um, this is probably something that we could look at for other places in the city as well.

And so I would ask for your support tonight for this proposal.

Is there any comments or concerns from our counselors?

Councilor Cahill.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh yeah, no, no concerns.

Uh the one thing I I think we need to figure out a way to explore is that my understanding is that only uh state police are able to enforce this, and we have had an increasing demand for truck restrictions uh in multiple districts across the city.

Uh I don't know.

I unfortunately we we do these in public works, and then this is more of a uh public safety question.

Right, but I wonder if there wouldn't be an a way, much like the FBI sometimes will uh reimburse IMPD officers uh who then get an FBI email address, but they still are really IMPD.

Could we do and we do something similar with uh uh US attorneys uh where we pay for federal uh prosecutors to do something similar?

Could we build into our budget to essentially have a dedicated state police motor carrier services officer or two who could focus on these types of streets to actually have enforcement because unfortunately I I'm supportive of it, I want it to actually happen, but a lot of times we were putting up signs without the it is gonna be it.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

IMPD can't enforce this, they can't they have the problem that occurs oftentimes that they don't carry the officers don't carry the equipment to do it, but most trucks have to have the the weight, they have to have a documented, so as long as they have that and officers ask for that and are given, they'll be able to know whether they're above it or not.

Okay, so they are able to do it.

They've done it unfortunately Morris Street and and in my district on the other end.

So, any other comments, questions for my counselors?

Okay, before we get to public comment, uh Madam Clark has a statement that's the need to read.

Before we open the floor to public comments, would we like to remind committee members and the public of the Quran rules?

So everyone can have a fair chance to speak to be heard.

It's important that we each observe following rules.

First, each speaker will be limited to two minutes, second, eight public comments, must recently be made to the agenda item under consideration.

Third, speaking to straight from the item under consideration.

Maybe asking yours to their next point, so clear their time.

Finally, it takes the cost of us.

We can see it's in.

Thank you.

Anyone in the public who wishes to speak on proposal number 139 2026.

Just take it just watching it.

I'll have a time.

Thank you.

You didn't tell me there was gonna be a time on it.

You expect me to talk in two minutes?

Thank you both so much for having me all.

My name is Lisa Laughlin.

I'm the executive director at the West Indianapolis celebration, and I really appreciate on behalf of our whole community your hearing us tonight and your consideration of this of this issue.

Um, as both counselors have let you know, this has been a long time coming.

Um West Indianapolis, just so you know, White River to Holt Road, a little south of Washington to Raymond.

We are adjacent right now to our the community with that I serve.

We do affordable housing primarily, but we're also very much involved in economic development in our community.

And Morris Street was not just an economic development but a safety project as well.

Our community put this together in 2010.

As the counselor said, it took us a while to get it funded and built, but you all invested $12 million in that road.

$12 million.

The last thing that anybody wants is for it to be torn up by heavy trucks.

Our community, as Councillor Evans alluded to, is very industrial in nature.

At one point, we had the bookends of GM and Chrysler, those are gone.

Those entities brought jobs.

The trucking companies that are in our community now did not bring jobs to our community.

They brought already truck drivers with them, doing especially the Amazon, which is I don't know.

Michelle, there's probably room to park 250 trucks on that property.

It's huge.

And they are in and out of our neighborhood every year or every day.

We are a community of walkers and children.

Head start right in the very center of the community.

Fortunately, there is a signalized intersection there for the kids to cross because their parents typically will park across the street.

Their staff parks across the street.

But we are a community of pedestrians.

People walk all day, every day, or they're on their bicycles.

We have a lot of people who are in motorized wheelchairs.

We've had two fatalities prior to the reconstruction of Morris Street from pedestrians and someone in a motorized wheelchair.

Semis and triaxles fly down Morris Street even now.

Even now that it's been narrowed.

And not only do we have to be vigilant, but we have to be hyper-vigilant for the traffic that's in our community.

So we would ask you today very respectfully to consider this motion and to take the opportunity to have a positive impact in our little neighborhood, to have a positive impact on people's lives, on their health and well-being, and also to help us drive continued economic development.

We do understand that there are neighborhood servicing businesses that are going to require semis.

Those folks are usually driving a little bit fat slower anyway because they're trying to get to where they're going to stop.

Those aren't the trucks we're concerned about.

It's this back and forth through traffic when Holt Road is every bit as a viable option as Harding Street is.

Happy to answer any questions.

I really appreciate your time today.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lisa.

Anyone else who wishes to speak on proposal number 139?

Michelle.

No, you're fine.

You're fine.

Thank you.

So it's a little commercial.

That's all right.

Thanks for coming.

Okay.

Thank you, everyone.

My name's Michelle Mann.

I live in West Indianapolis.

Uh thanks for your time.

Appreciate you all being here to discuss this.

Very important to me and the entire community.

I'm a spokesperson for the Roadie's Park Crime Watch for Crime Fighters of the Year in 2017.

So we've had our finger on the pole of West Indianapolis for a long time.

For more than 20 years, our communities begged for the city to re route these pass through trucks off of Morris.

This need is documented in both our 2018 Quality of Life Plan and our 2011 West Indian Indianapolis land use plan because the constant truck traffic has long threatened our safety and blocked our revitalization.

In 2021, our long-awaited Morris Street reconstruction was finally approved and funded.

Construction began in April 22 and drug on until November 24.

Delayed because of underlying concrete foundation trouble that had crushed been crushed by years of heavy trucks.

That damage was pushed to the project from 6.5 million dollars to 10.3 million dollars, costing taxpayers an additional 3.8 million dollars more than the timeline had anticipated.

What could you have done with that 3.8 million dollars today?

Today Morris Street is a beautiful revitalized community, uh complete street project, a multi-use path connecting Eagle Creek Greenways, ADA ramps, new lighting, new trees, parking bump outs, 88 crossings, true gateways to downtown field.

Our residents, children, and families, work and workers walk and bike this corridor daily to the library, the health center, Mary Briggs, new the new still, their new store, and many others, along with food pantry.

This path connects directly to Roadie's Park, the pool, the community center, little league baseball, and other greenways.

Would heavy truck traffic ever be safe in the center of a street designated this level pedestrian activity?

Engineering alone has not stopped the trucks.

Every day, multi-axle dump trucks from Howard Company and logistic fleets from Amazon terminal treat Moore Street like an industrial truck stop.

They ignore posted detour signs with no enforcement.

Drivers choose speed over safety and straddling the double line and making two lanes residential roads impassable.

The damage is already happening, shattering curbs, destroying trees, and our sidewalk crosswalks at Belmont and Morris have been torn down twice in 2006.

Semi-trucks park on the sidewalk path, idle across sidewalks, and block ADA access, even at local businesses like Wendy's, where they drop blocked all three ADA parking spaces when I was there back in November.

Wyoming Street, my street, I'm right across the street from the park.

School 49 and hundreds of little leaders when the trucks come by to pass through.

When I called and asked Howard Company for their cooperation, because I knew that safety was important to them as well.

Their response to me was chilling.

They told me I they have the right to use the road, and if our children don't feel safe, we should consider moving.

We are not going to move.

Taxpayers did not invest an additional $3.8 million just for reckless corporations to destroy our infrastructure.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you, ma'am.

Any other comments or questions from counselor?

Yep.

Um, I would just say real quick, I don't think we mentioned this.

This was also a promise that was verbally made by the then DPW director to this community.

And it was never fulfilled.

Yeah, when uh back in one of our first meetings when we were discussing the heavy truck weight limits um back when Lisa and I was in a meeting with Commonwealth back in January 2020, and we were discussing the heavy weight limits.

It was decided that we would need to make a ordinance, and so that's what I am reacting on.

Is that ordinance that I was told I would have to do?

So that's why I am doing that and sponsoring that ordinance.

I'm reacting on that conversation and that's why I feel confident that that's what I need to do for my this is my neighborhood in my community.

So I'm asking for your all support tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chairwoman.

I would move proposal 139 to the full council with a due pass recommendation.

Second, it's been moved and seconded.

Proposal 139 to the full council to do pass recommendation.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

The ayes have it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And that concludes our meeting.

If we have a motion to adjourn, thank you.

And thank you all very much for coming out to the garage.