Cloverdale council dissolves Redevelopment Commission

Friday, November 15, 2013

CLOVERDALE -- Tucked beneath an agenda item labeled "other business," Cloverdale Town Council member Coweta Patton quickly moved to dissolve the current Redevelopment Commission and all of its members and moved to create a new one during Tuesday evening's meeting.

"I don't think it's going anywhere right now," Patton stated.

It seemed that the majority of the council members were on board with Patton's motion, many of them stating that some positive changes needed to be made.

"I've sat on this board for 12 years and I've seen a lot of changes. I've seen a lot of good stuff and a lot of negative stuff come out of Cloverdale," council member Dennis Padgett explained. "I think that some of the members on the Redevelopment Commission really need to step up to the plate.

"There's a lot things that really bothered me over the last few years," Padgett added. "We need to make some changes and they need to be some positive ones."

The news caused a strong reaction, especially from Redevelopment Commission President Don Gedert who was in attendance Tuesday evening.

"No one has ever said that we weren't doing our jobs right," Gedert said. "You really just pulled the rug out from underneath us."

Gedert added that the commission has some unfinished business that is still at such a delicate state that it really cannot be public knowledge at this time.

"We have some very serious unfinished business that does entail a great deal of concern to the town," Gedert said. "It's not been brought to the town's attention at these meetings because it's very delicate and needs to be treated that way.

"By dissolving the Redevelopment Commission," Gedert added, "I could still probably go ahead and work on that and see if I can get it resolved before the end of the year."

However, the vote to approve the dissolving of the commission saw some opposition. Council member Larry Fidler and council vice president Gary Bennington voted against it, but majority ruled and the motion passed.

As of now, the council has already begun working on recruiting new members to serve on the new commission.

"We are working on it as we speak," Patton said. "We are getting ready to talk to people. It's going to be a whole new board, at least that's the way it's going right now."

It's clear the council is looking to go in a different direction and make some changes and developments for the town, one of them being a new hotel.

The council recently met with developers from Atlanta, Ga., who recently purchased the property at 2007 N. Main St., the old Morrison property, at a tax sale.

The process of cleaning up the property has already begun and the developers have approached the town with a plan and are seeking some help with financing to help with the project, which involves cleaning up the property for development and remarketing it.

"They're looking for help from the town because of the nature of the company that technically owns this," Town Attorney Alan Yackey explained. "They've already spent a fair amount of money moving this along here."

Yackey explained to the council that it is possible for them to use some of their EDIT money, initially in the form of a loan, to help promote the development of the space.

"That loan would be forgivable upon the owner/developer meeting certain criteria," Yackey said. "You can't just give money to people, but to promote development you can make a loan of the money. That would have to be paid back if the owner/developer didn't meet certain criteria."

The idea of giving out such a loan is to help launch things forward as the developers, who own 73 other properties in Indiana, have indicated they do not have the funding for demolishing the current building on the lot, which is estimated to cost $37,619.

"These people are hot to trot," Yackey said. "Something like this could just be what you need to launch this thing forward. These are people who have a plan and are enthusiastic."

Although, the council members seemed to be on board with giving the new developers such a loan, many were left wondering why other developers were not left with such an option.

"Quite frankly, local folks that came in and took down the old Holiday Inn, we didn't offer them any help," Gedert said. "Those are local folks. These folks are experts. While they painted an excellent picture of what possibly could happen with that property, there are all those possibilities of what could happen."

Yackey advised the community that although they may not be local, they are the only ones that have come forward and asked the town for help.

"They're open to all sorts of things," Yackey said. "These are open to developing it themselves or selling it. They also said they're open to someone else developing it while they retain ownership.

"If the development doesn't happen, the money stays as a loan signed off on by the developers that becomes a lien on the property."

He also reminded the council that if a restaurant were to go in there, the town would get one percent of the gross as increased water and sewer utility usage.

The council did not make a decision on the issue at this time as it is still in development stages, rather just informed the public on the possible plan for the property.

In other business:

* Clerk-Treasurer Cheryl Galloway informed the council that the town received $4,828.17 from an unclaimed check that was never cashed. The town also received $2,027.86 from the Food and Beverage Tax for the month of September.

* Galloway also received approval to hire a new deputy clerk, Angela Moerchen, at a rate of $13 per hour. She hopes to provide Moerchen with on the job training in hopes of her being elected as clerk in two years. Moerchen will be moving to Cloverdale from Goshen.

* Cathy Tipton was granted approval to post a fundraising sign for United Way for three months in front of the Town Hall.

* Utility Manager Richard Saucerman received approval to make an initial purchase of 25 tons of salt from Morton at a rate of $56.10 per ton. However, the council approved him to order up to 75 tons.

* Saucerman also came before the council to give an update on Market and Grant streets project, which has begun. He informed the council that several pipes were uncovered and suggested installing a manhole for a cost of $2,000. The council asked Saucerman to try and locate how far the pipes go and if they are being used before installing the manhole.

* The council approved a bid from Wabash Valley Asphalt for $21,040 for paving sections of Lafayette, Water and Boone streets.

* The council offic-ially established a stormwater management board, which is to help obtain a grant. Members are to be appointed by the council.

* The salary ordinance 2013-10 was also approved.

* Recently, the council met with IDEM and was informed that the wastewater plant is short on manpower. Currently, the town employs one full-time and one part-time worker. It's suggested that the three-and-a-half people to run the plant, therefore the council gave approval to hire one more employee. The town is also considering hiring an outside company, depending on the cost, to fill in the other position.

The Cloverdale Town Council will hold a special meeting with Greencastle/Putnam County Development Center Director Bill Dory on Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 6 p.m.

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  • Another classic example of Cloverdale government at it's finest hour.

    After 35 years of this type of action by the town council, why would anyone want to serve in any capacity for this town?

    -- Posted by Lookout on Sat, Nov 16, 2013, at 11:13 AM
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