Brown Co. is in the yellow cautionary state metric level, municipal buildings open June 1, the DNR is working with the town in providing water and sewer for Brown County State Park.
On this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Nashville's Municipal Consultant Dax Norton addresses these issues and more. Listen to the full conversation with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren by clicking on the play button above, or read some of the questions and answers below. A portion of this segment airs 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. Wednesday on WFIU.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: Brown County's 7-day positivity rate was at 17 percent unique individuals, 6 percent all tests, and rising now yellow on the state's COVID metric level, any word on the increasing rate there?
Norton: Yeah. Health Department definitely wants us to be cautious still. A senate bill, I think it was SB 5, the veto being overwritten by the General Assembly. A lot of vague answers as to who's in control at this point. So I think everybody's still being as diligent as they possibly can, I don't see a lot of reckless behavior. People are still respectful of, for the most part, from what we've heard, wearing masks in a business that requires it. And I still even see people outside on the sidewalks walking around with masks on.
READ MORE: Local Emergency Health Rules Voided Without Local Body Approval After Veto Override
Hren: Any updates on city/county buildings reopening?
Norton: Yes. So really, June 1 will be the reopening of town meetings to the public. Still need to wear your masks, still need to distance, still need to be cautious. They'll still be a limit on the amount of people in the room for public meetings, the meetings will still be offered as a hybrid. The council did pass their resolution which created their electronic meeting policy as set by house enrolled act 1437 allowing for some numbers to be off site and made electronically from time to time. And so you still need to be diligent, but it'll be a refreshing moment to have the council back in their chambers and close to the public able to look face to face and get some things done.
Hren: I wanted to follow up from something last month - you said the food and beverage tax revenue didn’t decline in 2020 and from all the closures and restrictions, it doesn’t seem feasible. Mary thought the same and emailed in asking, how could it NOT be down, did IN dept of Revenue not send Nashville its 2019 share?
Norton: Yeah, let me clarify - substantially. So not as you would have thought. I can easily get numbers posted on our town, annual financial report on the gateway. I think what we were saying and speaking about amongst ourselves, and the town offices was, wow - we were kind of surprised that wouldn't be cut in half. So I probably should clarify and use the right language substantially. It was a surprising number that, given the circumstances and relatively speaking, it wasn't a big hit.
EDITOR NOTE: I asked Norton for the actual figures after the interview, he was initially correct.
Brown Co. Food and Beverage Tax receipts:
2019 - $216,766.80
2020 - $220,841.32
We'll follow up with more.
Hren: I know it's summer and government tends to slow down a little bit, but I know the town is working with the DNR to provide water and sewer services, can you tell is about this partnership?
Norton: It's a relatively new development, although it does go back into last year. If you remember, in 2019, the State Park had to shut down the lodge because they actually manufactured their own water from Ogle Lake that supplied the lodge. Couldn't do it because of the flooding and the amount of sediment. So had to shut down for a number of days and lose revenue.
READ MORE ABOUT 2019 FLOODING: Brown Co. State Park Closed Due To Water Supply
It seems the DNR wants to partner with nearby communities that have water and sewer infrastructure and have those communities provide that product, that infrastructure and service to the park so that DNR doesn't necessarily have to be in the utility operation business. So they've approached the town to do just that.
Now, they were the town's largest utility customer prior to this conversation, some of their sanitary sewer came to the natural plant and some water was provided to the park by Nashville municipal utilities, this would just be pretty much the whole of it being supplied by the utility. It's a very good partnership.
There's a public hearing on Thursday to discuss the preliminary engineering reports. For all the projects, there are three projects totaling, I don't know, it's probably close to the seven $8 million dollar range. So now council on staff and myself are in talks to make sure that there's not a major negative impact on any of the ratepayers. But this is pre existing conditions that utilities need to fix in order to have the comfortable capacity to continue to grow and serve the parks needs and needs of the growth of the Council. But it looks like the state government, federal government understand that lots of money coming our way through state and federal grant processes to help fix those issues.
Hren: Of that $8 million, how much is that will Nashville have to pick up, does the state pick up anything?
Norton: Right now, the town is really responsible for about $5 or $6 million of it with the sanitary sewer rehabilitation project, force main project now, new lift station has to be built, some upgrades to existing lift stations, and some upgrades to existing facilities at the actual treatment plant. That pretty much brings the plant and its infrastructure even the pipes to 2021 standards, if you will. So it's a great project funded properly through the grant process so it doesn't have a negative impact on the ratepayers. It's going to be a very good project for the ratepayers and residents that it serves.
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