Roachdale announces budget numbers
Roachdale Town Council members approved the first reading of the 2010 budget Tuesday, which is estimated to be $520,000.
A second reading will take place at next month's meeting.
"It may get cut by the state, but this is the estimated budget," said Town Clerk Martha Louk.
Council member Bill Long updated the council on a preconstruction conference on Sept. 15 at 9 a.m. at the Crawfordsville office regarding stimulus money for the North Indiana Street project.
All three council members plan to attend the meeting. Bids for the job were let in July and awarded to Wabash Valley. The plan, which is 100 percent funded by stimulus money, is to repair bad spots, mill and repave an area on Indiana Street across from Railroad Street.
The estimate for the work is $83,475.44.
Town Marshal Mike MaHoy asked to hire a new volunteer deputy to replace one who had left, but the motion was tabled.
"I don't want to hire anyone out of town because of gas prices," explained Jack Jones. "If they are driving a car back and forth to Bainbridge there might be an issue."
Long suggested they think about the issue before making a decision.
Town Attorney Tom Casey discussed HB1558 regarding abandoned or unclaimed property. There are several houses considered to be a problem in town and officials are looking for solutions.
Casey suggested the council follow the local ordinance as far as notifying owners and giving them a period of time to work on houses.
A second issue concerned the fact that once a property goes to the county treasurer for a tax sale, the owner cannot come and bid on their own property during the sale.
"This has been a problem with people coming in and buying back their property at the tax sales," said Casey. "HB 1558 will keep people from being able to do that now."
After some discussion the board decided to move forward on cleaning up properties.
"We've been sitting and sitting on it. We need to do something," said Long.
The council gave Casey the go ahead to start the paperwork on three properties. One is located on North Indiana Street, one on East Washington Street and one on West Washington Street.
Casey's final advice was to not spend any money on cleaning up the properties until lien searches are made on them.
Marshal MaHoy was told that once a property was officially declared abandoned the ex owner could be arrested for criminal trespass for being on the property.
"This prevents somebody from waltzing in and living there after you've done cleanup on the property," added Casey.
Louk reminded council members that notices needed to be sent to local media and the North Putnam School Corp. before a section of Railroad Street was closed for a day.
"That is the only way into town from the north and from Montgomery County," Jones said. "We need to tell people once we know when it will be closed for the day. It will probably be pretty soon and we'll tell people once we know."
Jones also asked Mike Poole and Louk to look into pricing for "No trucks allowed" signs that need to be posted once construction is finished. Poole agreed to get prices for the signs and get back to the board.