Les Rhoads resigns as town council president, nominates Hope Schneider as replacement…
nate adams- reporter
The Corydon Town Council meeting on January 4th started with an election. Having decided to step aside as president, Les Rhoads nominated Hope Schneider to be his replacement. She was elected by the council with no other nominations. Paul Hamann to continue as VP.
Planning for the Urban Trail continues. As part of the grant process for INDOT there will be a presentation for them this Thursday (not open to the public). Public meetings will follow later in the process.
The county appears willing to lend a helping hand by taking over responsibility for the slab bridge on Mulberry Street. The council gave permission to move forward with planning.
The council approved $43,000 for a new dump truck to replace an aging piece of equipment for the street department. None of the potential suppliers could give a delivery date but they are hoping for 6 months to a year.
Town Manager Scott Flickner then gave a preview of things to come. He is working with Baker Tilly, the town’s financial consultant, on a sustainable plan to provide compensation for on-call employees in the water, sewer & street departments, and to create a rotating schedule for those employees. Currently department supervisors are expected to be on call and are the only employees ever on call. While the current supervisors are apparently ok with the current situation, Mr Flickner doesn’t see the same willingness to sacrifice time with family from younger employees. Corydon is one of very few similarly sized municipalities without a rotating schedule.
He also has a wishlist of things he would like to do with American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds including “premium pay for essential workers” (NOT a bonus). He is working with outside counsel to ensure the funds are distributed according to law. No one wants to have to refund the funding. This will be discussed in greater depth at the next meeting on January 18th.