Alright, it is the last week of the month in June. And as always we find ourselves with DAX Norton, the municipal consultant over at Nashville, Indiana. Thank you so much for joining us.
Yeah. Good. Good to join you on the phone.
Yeah, it seems like
every month there's a different
challenge to overcome. But we're moving on with the show on phone only. Usually we've started this in person. And then because of the Coronavirus pandemic, we went to zoom and then there's a problem in the newsroom today. So now we're on the phone.
Yeah, I think we're all sick. I think we're all sick of looking at ourselves. Anyway.
I just wanted to start with this past Saturday, I see that Nashville had a rally for social justice and it looked like it went pretty well.
Yeah, very well. The community should be I mean, the communities are very community, very proud of should be proud of themselves. went off without a hitch, great speakers, good collaboration. You know, solidarity. It was a solidarity rally and it truly was just that. So kudos to Brown County Nashville, the residents, people that joined in and in the organizers, it was a very good event.
Has anyone in Nashville town government have been approached or you to come up with some type of agenda or items for equal rights? You know, police overview racism in Nashville Brown County.
Yeah, so I i last week last Thursday presented the council with the idea of creating a Human Relations Commission. I've been involved with that process in my career and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. So they have a draft of an ordinance they can think the next step is to form a committee or a group of citizens You know, community leaders and sit down and go over that and see if they like some things and do they want to add some things. They're really the point is not just to be a state statute enables communities to have our Human Relations Commission for the purpose of dealing with discrimination complaints, but this really creates a proactive, positive, forward thinking group that I can put on events and educational opportunities. And I think it's just a good, good way of, you know, teaching tolerance and becoming a all inclusive community. So I think that's the next step. Is there going to be a committee formed to look at at that draft that I sent, and then just come up with ideas of what's what's what's best for national and Brown County from the perspective of forming Human Relations Commission. And is that a commission And
that is overseen by the town council and appointed, you know, members by the town council that meets maybe like once a month or something like that.
Yes, in its current form, it is a government ordained commission. state statute allows it. Like I said, I've been involved in two or three of those in my career and thoroughly enjoyed them. And they they became groups of positive education, not just negative reactions to negative discrimination complaints, which unfortunately, the commissioner has to deal with that as well, in fact comes about but I think the the thought is to be a group that's proactive forward thinking and is this teaching, providing educational opportunities, especially to the youth you know, deal with how do you become a tolerant all inclusive community
The name being you know, Human Relations Commission, we're talking about a whole breadth of diversity issues. Right?
You are, you know, you're adding everything in there, Joe from, you know, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation. Everything goes into that human relations. You know, a lot of people ask me why, why not human rights? And I said, well, it's in there, rights rights are in there, but we're really trying to have better relations one with another. So that's why human relations, it's so much softer, more positive term. That's really what we're trying to do. And hopefully the, you know, the youth will be heavily involved, because really the youth that put on the rally. I don't know if college students would like me calling them you use but I'll do that because I'm old.
Last time, we talked about grant funding to help businesses and I know we're moving ahead in the governor's stages to reopen the state. Can you give us a little bit of update on how businesses are doing reopening in Nashville and how the funds are being distributed? Because I think at one point, there was a what a $250,000 grant available.
There is it's close to being distributed. It's that's a partnership of the county and the Community Foundation and the Director of Community Foundation has done a fantastic job and I know she works tirelessly, because it's not an easy process with this $250,000 to get it going. I believe it's it's, it starts soon. It seems that businesses are reopening. Well, obviously, there's some struggles. I think one one thing that we look at as a town is how did people get through with their utility bills, and there wasn't much trouble. So we think that you There was there's obviously economic struggles amongst the businesses, they lost money. But it seems that the reopening is going fairly decently well, from a health perspective and from an economic perspective.
Is it difficult because some of those businesses are so in shops are so small to enforce, you know, social distancing and being able to have I mean, are they doing where their lines outside to come in? Or how are they doing that?
I think, you know, I think you have courteous people that have courteous visitors that have been helpful and understand what they need to do not everybody's wearing a mask. For the most part, I don't think there have been a tremendous amount of face covering issues or social distancing issues. There you'll have some that don't just don't seem to want to follow the rules. This seems to be a very minimal group of people. So things the reopening seems to have gone decently well.
You were mentioned about some of the late fees on utility bills being waived, but that was through May. Are is is that still happening in June or are they discussing that?
No council last Thursday, extended it through July through July. Okay.
But as you said, that's a small majority of those pain.
Well, yes, it seems that people have found ways to to pay their utility bill. That's a good sign. I believe
Town Council also extended the emergency declaration. What does that do besides putting a title on what's happening right now?
Really, for the most part, it is just a title for the for the time being until July the, I guess would be the sick would be the first business day back after the fourth or fifth stage. But we don't know what's going to happen in the next couple of weeks. There are spikes across the country. And so, you know, good, for instance would be if Brown County Nashville starts to see an unusual spike in cases which you have not. If it does, and in town council president needs to suddenly close those restaurants as public restrooms and public facilities again, and she can do that with that order. So the council discussed it pretty thoroughly. The attorney kind of said what I just said and the council approved an extension of that executive order in the declaration.
How about reopening schools, I don't know how much you've heard or been involved in that decision. We're starting to hear more of that in other counties and you know, Indiana University Of course and other schools, of course, Brown County being more rural. using virtual and online was a bit of a challenge in the spring. How are there any more plans being developed
in Nashville?
I would certainly defer to Superintendent on that for that. She answers to that question. I think she's gonna be the better one to and that's that's a good topic. I think that's a good you know, another another good leader in the community in the school system is so good. I would defer to the board and to the superintendent for answers to that question. I wanted to
get any additional information on the Brown County Music Center with the you know, events canceled for the foreseeable future. Are there any more plans that you've heard of about that facility, you know, being able to reopen or or do anything more
you know, all entertainment venues can open
In two weeks, so I i think that there are plans in place to reopen the facility as safely as possible. I haven't heard anything specific though,
and that they haven't come to you asking I know they get part of the innkeepers tax but not there's no request for additional help or funds that you know of.
No, not from the town not from the town's perspective. There has been no request for any kind of funding from from the town Music Center. They they have good leadership as well. So
how about jobs? Have you heard anything about jobs being lost locally there due to the pandemic?
I have heard of a couple of people who have permanently lost their positions and does not seem to be a large number of people seem people seem to be going back to do the jobs that they had prior but there have been some permanent job loss And then you get with the work work one officers and workforce development folks in the chamber. And there's plenty of resources to help those who have lost work to find additional opportunities.
Did you have any updates on the utility? I know last time we talked there were a couple positions that the folks in those resigned and have that has that been opened and moving forward to filling those
hired one having hired another thing seemed to be fairly stable, utility. Good crew, that's another crew that should be commended for doing what they did through this pandemic. situation they were there. I think they're essential employees. They have to be there fixing water leaks and sewage issues and storm water issues and watching the plant. So that's a great staff and a great And they're to be commended.
Really appreciate you taking some time out. I know you're busy, you got to step out to be able to get this interview in. So that's about all I had. But I wanted to see if you wanted to add anything and upcoming town council meetings, agenda items that are going to be addressed soon that maybe we should know about.
Yeah, we just had a very big economic development announcement yesterday with the moving of Quaff On's brewery to hard truth hills and the building of a brand new facility and then 75 apartment units being built on their old site. It's exactly what you want. It says all infill development. And so I sent an email to the redevelopment commission and council this morning and urge them to have a joint meeting together to talk about capital improvement plans as as you know, if the economic development area where to be expanded and they were to capture some increment, what what do they use that for Was Capital Improvement Plan look like? So those are huge announcements. It's assessed value. It's exactly what the community needs. And hopefully that will turn into additional developments.
So I just want to make sure I heard that right. The original croissants on a restaurant that I believe just reopened again, didn't
know so the brewery went from there to Orchard Hill now. Okay. Okay. They're moving from the from that site, though, which I believe I know history right is their second brewing site to build a 20,000 square foot I believe is what they said, facility up with the hard truth Hill site close to the distillery. So that'll be you know, brand new assessed value to Nashville and then at their old site. Up there, there's going to be a 75 unit apartment complex proposed. Gotcha. That's another. There's another need. Obviously, you need housing and Brown County slash Nashville. So you're filling that void in your apartments are generally high high assessment. So that all equates to eventually someday. The provision of the best services with lower tax rates. And that's the point of the redevelopment Commission and the TIF and the economic development areas is you want to build as much as you can using those tools so that when those tools expire, that the tax base gets very broad and in the rates can go low. So
okay, yeah, I that was where I was confused. The brewery is separate from the restaurant part.
Gotcha. It is Yeah. For brewery up on the hill. Yeah. Absolutely. Yes. Correct. Is there anything else No, I think that's I don't know if I missed the chief of police Ben Seastrom in the rally I think I may have missed and I would be remiss if I did. His leadership was phenomenal. He did a very good job, very gentle in handling the groups and he, he should be lifted up. And I know that his fellow officers on the county side and state side the National Guard, they were all fantastic. Ben was kind of the organizer of all that he he's from the town perspective, he's, he's to be commended.
Great. Well, thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it and hope to
see you next month.
Thanks, Joe for sure. Okay. Bye bye.
Yeah. Good. Good to join you on the phone.
Yeah, it seems like
every month there's a different
challenge to overcome. But we're moving on with the show on phone only. Usually we've started this in person. And then because of the Coronavirus pandemic, we went to zoom and then there's a problem in the newsroom today. So now we're on the phone.
Yeah, I think we're all sick. I think we're all sick of looking at ourselves. Anyway.
I just wanted to start with this past Saturday, I see that Nashville had a rally for social justice and it looked like it went pretty well.
Yeah, very well. The community should be I mean, the communities are very community, very proud of should be proud of themselves. went off without a hitch, great speakers, good collaboration. You know, solidarity. It was a solidarity rally and it truly was just that. So kudos to Brown County Nashville, the residents, people that joined in and in the organizers, it was a very good event.
Has anyone in Nashville town government have been approached or you to come up with some type of agenda or items for equal rights? You know, police overview racism in Nashville Brown County.
Yeah, so I i last week last Thursday presented the council with the idea of creating a Human Relations Commission. I've been involved with that process in my career and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. So they have a draft of an ordinance they can think the next step is to form a committee or a group of citizens You know, community leaders and sit down and go over that and see if they like some things and do they want to add some things. They're really the point is not just to be a state statute enables communities to have our Human Relations Commission for the purpose of dealing with discrimination complaints, but this really creates a proactive, positive, forward thinking group that I can put on events and educational opportunities. And I think it's just a good, good way of, you know, teaching tolerance and becoming a all inclusive community. So I think that's the next step. Is there going to be a committee formed to look at at that draft that I sent, and then just come up with ideas of what's what's what's best for national and Brown County from the perspective of forming Human Relations Commission. And is that a commission And
that is overseen by the town council and appointed, you know, members by the town council that meets maybe like once a month or something like that.
Yes, in its current form, it is a government ordained commission. state statute allows it. Like I said, I've been involved in two or three of those in my career and thoroughly enjoyed them. And they they became groups of positive education, not just negative reactions to negative discrimination complaints, which unfortunately, the commissioner has to deal with that as well, in fact comes about but I think the the thought is to be a group that's proactive forward thinking and is this teaching, providing educational opportunities, especially to the youth you know, deal with how do you become a tolerant all inclusive community
The name being you know, Human Relations Commission, we're talking about a whole breadth of diversity issues. Right?
You are, you know, you're adding everything in there, Joe from, you know, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation. Everything goes into that human relations. You know, a lot of people ask me why, why not human rights? And I said, well, it's in there, rights rights are in there, but we're really trying to have better relations one with another. So that's why human relations, it's so much softer, more positive term. That's really what we're trying to do. And hopefully the, you know, the youth will be heavily involved, because really the youth that put on the rally. I don't know if college students would like me calling them you use but I'll do that because I'm old.
Last time, we talked about grant funding to help businesses and I know we're moving ahead in the governor's stages to reopen the state. Can you give us a little bit of update on how businesses are doing reopening in Nashville and how the funds are being distributed? Because I think at one point, there was a what a $250,000 grant available.
There is it's close to being distributed. It's that's a partnership of the county and the Community Foundation and the Director of Community Foundation has done a fantastic job and I know she works tirelessly, because it's not an easy process with this $250,000 to get it going. I believe it's it's, it starts soon. It seems that businesses are reopening. Well, obviously, there's some struggles. I think one one thing that we look at as a town is how did people get through with their utility bills, and there wasn't much trouble. So we think that you There was there's obviously economic struggles amongst the businesses, they lost money. But it seems that the reopening is going fairly decently well, from a health perspective and from an economic perspective.
Is it difficult because some of those businesses are so in shops are so small to enforce, you know, social distancing and being able to have I mean, are they doing where their lines outside to come in? Or how are they doing that?
I think, you know, I think you have courteous people that have courteous visitors that have been helpful and understand what they need to do not everybody's wearing a mask. For the most part, I don't think there have been a tremendous amount of face covering issues or social distancing issues. There you'll have some that don't just don't seem to want to follow the rules. This seems to be a very minimal group of people. So things the reopening seems to have gone decently well.
You were mentioned about some of the late fees on utility bills being waived, but that was through May. Are is is that still happening in June or are they discussing that?
No council last Thursday, extended it through July through July. Okay.
But as you said, that's a small majority of those pain.
Well, yes, it seems that people have found ways to to pay their utility bill. That's a good sign. I believe
Town Council also extended the emergency declaration. What does that do besides putting a title on what's happening right now?
Really, for the most part, it is just a title for the for the time being until July the, I guess would be the sick would be the first business day back after the fourth or fifth stage. But we don't know what's going to happen in the next couple of weeks. There are spikes across the country. And so, you know, good, for instance would be if Brown County Nashville starts to see an unusual spike in cases which you have not. If it does, and in town council president needs to suddenly close those restaurants as public restrooms and public facilities again, and she can do that with that order. So the council discussed it pretty thoroughly. The attorney kind of said what I just said and the council approved an extension of that executive order in the declaration.
How about reopening schools, I don't know how much you've heard or been involved in that decision. We're starting to hear more of that in other counties and you know, Indiana University Of course and other schools, of course, Brown County being more rural. using virtual and online was a bit of a challenge in the spring. How are there any more plans being developed
in Nashville?
I would certainly defer to Superintendent on that for that. She answers to that question. I think she's gonna be the better one to and that's that's a good topic. I think that's a good you know, another another good leader in the community in the school system is so good. I would defer to the board and to the superintendent for answers to that question. I wanted to
get any additional information on the Brown County Music Center with the you know, events canceled for the foreseeable future. Are there any more plans that you've heard of about that facility, you know, being able to reopen or or do anything more
you know, all entertainment venues can open
In two weeks, so I i think that there are plans in place to reopen the facility as safely as possible. I haven't heard anything specific though,
and that they haven't come to you asking I know they get part of the innkeepers tax but not there's no request for additional help or funds that you know of.
No, not from the town not from the town's perspective. There has been no request for any kind of funding from from the town Music Center. They they have good leadership as well. So
how about jobs? Have you heard anything about jobs being lost locally there due to the pandemic?
I have heard of a couple of people who have permanently lost their positions and does not seem to be a large number of people seem people seem to be going back to do the jobs that they had prior but there have been some permanent job loss And then you get with the work work one officers and workforce development folks in the chamber. And there's plenty of resources to help those who have lost work to find additional opportunities.
Did you have any updates on the utility? I know last time we talked there were a couple positions that the folks in those resigned and have that has that been opened and moving forward to filling those
hired one having hired another thing seemed to be fairly stable, utility. Good crew, that's another crew that should be commended for doing what they did through this pandemic. situation they were there. I think they're essential employees. They have to be there fixing water leaks and sewage issues and storm water issues and watching the plant. So that's a great staff and a great And they're to be commended.
Really appreciate you taking some time out. I know you're busy, you got to step out to be able to get this interview in. So that's about all I had. But I wanted to see if you wanted to add anything and upcoming town council meetings, agenda items that are going to be addressed soon that maybe we should know about.
Yeah, we just had a very big economic development announcement yesterday with the moving of Quaff On's brewery to hard truth hills and the building of a brand new facility and then 75 apartment units being built on their old site. It's exactly what you want. It says all infill development. And so I sent an email to the redevelopment commission and council this morning and urge them to have a joint meeting together to talk about capital improvement plans as as you know, if the economic development area where to be expanded and they were to capture some increment, what what do they use that for Was Capital Improvement Plan look like? So those are huge announcements. It's assessed value. It's exactly what the community needs. And hopefully that will turn into additional developments.
So I just want to make sure I heard that right. The original croissants on a restaurant that I believe just reopened again, didn't
know so the brewery went from there to Orchard Hill now. Okay. Okay. They're moving from the from that site, though, which I believe I know history right is their second brewing site to build a 20,000 square foot I believe is what they said, facility up with the hard truth Hill site close to the distillery. So that'll be you know, brand new assessed value to Nashville and then at their old site. Up there, there's going to be a 75 unit apartment complex proposed. Gotcha. That's another. There's another need. Obviously, you need housing and Brown County slash Nashville. So you're filling that void in your apartments are generally high high assessment. So that all equates to eventually someday. The provision of the best services with lower tax rates. And that's the point of the redevelopment Commission and the TIF and the economic development areas is you want to build as much as you can using those tools so that when those tools expire, that the tax base gets very broad and in the rates can go low. So
okay, yeah, I that was where I was confused. The brewery is separate from the restaurant part.
Gotcha. It is Yeah. For brewery up on the hill. Yeah. Absolutely. Yes. Correct. Is there anything else No, I think that's I don't know if I missed the chief of police Ben Seastrom in the rally I think I may have missed and I would be remiss if I did. His leadership was phenomenal. He did a very good job, very gentle in handling the groups and he, he should be lifted up. And I know that his fellow officers on the county side and state side the National Guard, they were all fantastic. Ben was kind of the organizer of all that he he's from the town perspective, he's, he's to be commended.
Great. Well, thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it and hope to
see you next month.
Thanks, Joe for sure. Okay. Bye bye.
