Cloverdale council addresses several lingering issues

CLOVERDALE -- It was a fairly simple meeting for the Cloverdale Town Council Tuesday evening as it discussed several routine matters.

Town Marshal Michael Clark came before the council to report on the progress he's made since he took the position. Matters included beginning an inventory on the department.

"It still has a long way to go. It's going to take months to get everything inventoried," Clark said. "I'm listing where everything's at and the value of it."

Clark also advised the council that it needs to purchase some audio and video recording equipment, which it should have already had by 2011.

"In September 2009 the Indiana Supreme Court amended the Indiana Evidence Rule 617," Clark explained. "It actually took effect Jan. 1, 2011. What that rule says is that if you bring anybody into a police department, a jail, any place that's owned by a law enforcement agency to interview or interrogate them it has to be audio and video recorded. If it is not, the evidence will be turned down in court."

Due to the amendment to the rule, the town should have purchased the equipment, which must be a video that cannot be altered in any way, prior to Jan. 1, 2011.

"We do not have that here," Clark said. "It's something that should have been done quite some time ago. It's law. We have to have it."

The equipment recommended by Clark is from I-Record and costs $5,316. The council unanimously approved.

Speed limits in school zones were also an issue addressed by Clark as he hopes to change the school zone signs to list times rather than having the standard "when children are present" sign.

"We really need to change our school zones signs," Clark said. "The problem with that is, if there is not children present out there, the speed limit is not 20, it's 30. I would really rather see it show times and during those times the speed limit's 20, it doesn't matter if there are kids there or not."

Clark hopes to enforce the school-zone speed limit between the times of 7-8:30 a.m. and 2:30-3:30 p.m.

However, the council will look into if the town already has an ordinance in place or if it must create a new ordinance.

Clerk-Treasurer Cheryl Galloway informed the board that the town will soon be going to a direct deposit system starting Oct.1.

Currently, there are five people who actually get a written paper check. However, the town would like to be uniform to make things easier.

Galloway also told the council that she has informed everyone who may be affected by the Food and Beverage Tax and has given the merchants forms to send in to the state.

"We gave everybody that was eligible for the Food and Beverage a letter with the BT-1 form for them to send out," Galloway said. "We are good to go on the Food and Beverage."

Utility Manger Rich Saucerman came before the council for approval of two items, both involving repairs to equipment.

Saucerman said the town's 2004 Ford F350 truck was not running properly and he took it up to Haywood's Auto Repair. In the process of trying to find the problem with the truck, the auto shop went ahead and did the work without Saucerman's approval.

"I wasn't aware of doing the work until he was already doing it," said Saucerman. "We took it up there to be looked at and he repaired it."

The council approved Saucerman's request for $1,926.92, but it was noted that in the future the council would like multiple quotes before doing any work.

"Next time we need to get a quote," council member Dennis Padgett stressed. "We need two or three quotes on everything. Nowadays, you can go across the street and there's $500 difference, and there's no sense in it."

Saucerman had another similar issue with a tractor that was taken to Cloverdale Equipment that needed a clutch replaced in it.

The tractor was brought to the shop to be looked at and once again work was done without council approval.

"One of our guys was reading meters and saw that he was working on the tractor," Saucerman said. "I went up there, and sure enough it had it broken in half replacing the clutch. I'm not making this a habit to do this stuff. I had no intent of the truck or tractor being done this way. I don't like the way it was done, but that's the way it happened."

The council again approved Saucerman for the cost of the repair, which was $2,100.

Following Saucerman's report, the council discussed starting a purchase order system.

"We started that at one time and we never did get it off the ground," Padgett said. "To be honest with you, that's a good system and I think we really need to go with it."

The council advised Galloway to do some research on how to begin enacting this system, which can be done through the existing Keystone system that the town already uses.

The council also passed Resolution 2013-9, which gives Galloway authorization to sign the lease for the police cars.

Also approved was Resolution 2013-10 gave Galloway authorization to sign the agreement to dissolve the building corporation on the town hall and add a mortgage for the term to stay the same.

The building corporation was created as a "shell company" to help pay for the town hall. The town is looking to go to a simple and straightforward mortgage with a 3 percent interest rate, the same amount as before, $299,000.

"This is a complication creating more fees and everything else," Town Attorney Alan Yackey said of the building corporation. "In other words this is a dance. It's so superficial. They did all this stuff that now needs to be unwound to get them back to a sensible position."

The town agreed to move forward to diminish the building corporation and pay off the town hall in a period of six years.

However, before it is dissolved and a mortgage is issued, the town will have to pay off all bonds held by the corporation, which will then transfer the title of the town hall from the corporation to the town itself.

The process will require review from an outside bond attorney, which will certify that all money paid to the bank for interest is tax exempt.

A special meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 21 to discuss several issues, including the budget and a financial consultant.