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Culver Town Council Work Session 8-8-23

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A notice of a Culver Town Council Work Session came out Friday, August 4th, with the agenda listed as, “The Culver Town Council will meet to discuss goals and expectations.”

Since I have been serving on the Steering Committee for the new Culver Comprehensive Plan, I thought this would be of interest and expected there to be a full house. Because of the early time, I tried to listen in on Teams and attempt a bit of multi-tasking. Unfortunately, Teams failed again, with the sound going out about 10 minutes in. I was the only one online and after Karen (Clerk Treasurer) jumped through hoops to try and get it working for me for about 10 minutes, I told her I would just come down to the Town Hall.

I was a little surprised and disappointed when I got there that I ended up being the only one in the audience that wasn’t an elected official or an employee. Later on Karen said she had organized this as somewhat of a bonding meeting for the Council and the new Town Manager, so that made me feel a bit better about the low turnout. That doesn’t really excuse the public (and the candidates for these offices) for not getting involve. It was also an important meeting that received no press coverage…

There were several topics discussed, so I’ll hit the high points and my thoughts on them.

  1. Plan Commission
    • The Building Commissioner was there and there was one Plan Commission (PC) member there, but not for that reason. While everything they discussed was salient, it was slightly off target without plan commission member’s input. They discussed redoing the Zoning Ordinance and things they thought should be fixed. It’s unfortunate they were doing this without the PC members, since the PC already has a list of things on their agenda to fix, mostly based on BZA input. Not bad on the TC’s part, but maybe redundant and in need of input from those dealing with it every month.
    • Redoing the Zoning Ordinance is on the PC’s agenda, but as a general rule, that’s a step taken after a new Comprehensive Plan is adopted, so any recommendations can be incorporated. Not bad to get it started, but it probably should be slow-walked rather than having to do it twice.
    • The Council was mainly talking about delegating redoing the Zoning Ordinance to the Building Commission and one of the Town’s Attorneys. I mean this with no disrespect to either of them, but I think if the Council is willing to put money towards this, which they would have to do with these individuals, they should consider hiring a consultant that can do this. The Attorney alluded to the amount of time required to research ordinances and tie things together. While I’m sure they would do a good job of this, someone or some firm that deals with these things daily would know those things without the research and with a higher level of efficiency.
    • They did discuss prioritizing the current hot button issues, one of these being solar installations and battery installations. They set a goal to finish this well before their 2 year moratorium which is admirable. There are too many local people that have economic concerns tied to this to let it languish.
  2. The Budget and particularly how it related to employee compensation
    • While I know they listen to employees, I wonder if they are getting all the input they need here. They were concerned with the amount of overtime being spent and the need to “fix” that by adding staff where they could. There did not seem to be a lot of pushback on overtime from the employees. Are they sure that it is an issue with them or do they depend on it and look at it as a bonus?
    • It wasn’t clear if they had run the numbers on the cost of new employees vs overtime. If the employees are willing and or looking for overtime, then the break even point needs to be analyzed. Overhead items such as insurance generally don’t go up with overtime, but would with new employees. Likewise, things like training, additional uniforms, additional equipment, etc. come with new employees, but not with overtime for existing employees. How does this shake out? It would be different for different departments.
  3. Personnel
    • There was discussion about salaries and what could be done other than monetary largess that could make the Town of Culver a better place to work. Various inexpensive, but meaningful suggestions were floated for consideration. In the end, they realize that they must be competitive with the surrounding communities. This has become a spiraling competition and will be hard to do.
    • They discussed how to create more interaction between the board and employees. One of those suggestion was to go back to a liaison system where each council member would be responsible for a department. This was nixed because in the past this had created the perception of favoritism. Personally, I was glad to see that dropped since I feel like it undermines the authority of the Town Manager and their legitimate role between the Council and the employees. Particularly with a new Town Manager, that would create a difficult situation to reconcile. (I don’t know how they have the hierarchy set now, but when originally established, employees were to go through the Town Manager to the Council and the Council was to direct the Town Manager through the Council President creating a clear chain of command.)
  4. Combined Fire & EMS
    • A statement was thrown out that Culver is one of only five municipalities in northern Indiana that do not have combined Fire & EMS. Whether that is true or not, there are obvious value points in combined services, ranging from cross training, facility sharing and personnel availability.
    • Personally, I think this makes a lot of sense, but I’ve been involved in these discussions twice in the past in regards to just a shared facility and the conversations have broken down. I don’t think this is a reason to drop the idea, but the challenge needs to be recognized.
    • There was also discussion under this topic of forming a Fire Territory. I think they were wise in a decision to form a subcommittee to research this. Unfortunately, the subcommittee, at least initially, does not include representation from Fire and EMS. I think that would be important in order to achieve buy-in, plus it would add expertise from those in the field.
  5. Comprehensive Plan
    • There was discussion of the Comprehensive Plan and the current timeline. “We are farther along in the process than we were 6 months ago…” The Council remained mostly supportive, which seems appropriate since all of them have participated to at least some degree. I have some concern that this should have been addressed under the Plan Commission again, but regardless of that, it will come to the Council for final approval.
    • There was discussion on extending the extraterritorial boundary (Two Mile Limit) to 2 miles. I was asked to speak on that and discussed the sewer issue and why I thought it was important to gain that control now. Granted, the town would not have to provide that additional sewer for free, but they need to get the extended boundary as part of the negotiation. (They have made this more difficult by implementing their solar moratorium. Property owners are generally already suspect of coming under Culver’s control with a perception of no representation. Mandates such is this one demonstrate potential issues that will make this difficult.)
    • There was discussion on prioritizing the Comp Plan goals based on the public input meetings, i.e. the dots exercise. I thought this was good, but personally I liked what the Council did after the last Comp Plan, where they created an action plan based on those priorities. This led to some focus and was responsible for the Entry Level Housing Committee, pursuing and obtaining some grants, and finally, Culver’s successful Stellar journey.
  6. Common Good
    • Karen expressed the Council to come together for the Common Good. She expressed her concern that the Council had been fractured the past eight months and while they all had Culver’s best interest at heart, they had lost some of the spirit of working together that was achieved under Stellar.
    • Karen expressed concern that if they remained fractured, the new Town Manager would struggle.

All in all this was a good meeting. I would have liked to have seen more participation, but I’m sure it was helpful to the new Town Manager and I’m hopeful that it was a move in the right direction for meeting Karen’s goal of reminding them of their common cause of making Culver better.

Culver’s Electronic Sign Spoke to Me!

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On my way into the office this morning I noticed the cute little Lakefest signs along School Street. Of course, I wondered if Lakefest was on the electronic sign, since all I had seen on my way past it was the day and date. (See right)

So I looped back to see what was on the sign:

  • Slide #1 – Monday; July 3
  • Slide #2 – 7:10am; 66 degrees
  • Slide #3 – Farmer’s Market Schedule
  • Slide #4 – Don’t Give Up

So, I was a bit upset that the biggest event on the Culver Calendar is this month and it’s not on the sign, but then wait… “Don’t Give Up”!? Was the sign speaking to me? Ha!

For my lurkers, I’ve been harping on the sign not living up to it’s charter, let alone it’s potential for months now. I’m more tactful in public as I don’t want to offend those in charge, but I still think it would be great to see Lakefest on the Culver Sign and repeated on the other Stellar signs in Argos, Bourbon, Bremen, Lapaz and Plymouth.

So, with the encouragement of the sign itself, I decided to put out another post, encouraging the Town to make better use of this asset. Lakefest is a Culver event that should be drawing visitors from around the County, so it really should be on all the signs this month.

To some extent I understand this responsibility should fall on the Visit Marshall County, but unless the communities step up, it won’t happen. If each took responsibility to spread their respective events, this would (well should) take hold. Lets make it happen, people! Do it for the Sign!

MCEDC Annual Report

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Great to see that Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) is back on track with Annual Reports. (And not just because of my teeny-tiny picture on the cover! Ha!) Riverside Commons actually has two references in the report, though not by name.

The lack of an Annual Report was one of the major issues in my last couple of years on the board. It got contentious with that director fabricating a false schedule for producing a report that never happened. Then it was apparently just completely disregarded by the next director. I’m glad to see that the new leadership under Greg Hildebrand includes living up to commitments, the Annual Report being one of these.

I don’t know how Greg is doing on the State and National levels, but on the local level, it’s been refreshing to have a MCEDC President that is not constantly burning bridges, MIA or joked about due to the inability to contact them or find them in the office. He also doesn’t take his title too seriously. IYKYK This will go a long way to improving MCEDC’s image and returning it to the mission it had when it was founded.

I hope we will be seeing quarterly newsletters again too. The organization has to be seen and seen as productive in order to continue to move the county forward. Even at its low points, I felt it was positive for Marshall County to have MCEDC. Good luck to Greg as he strives to make it an organization of which we can be proud once again.

Rose Among Thorns

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Why do silly colloquialism stick with me!? I blame my Grandpa Murphy!

I was at the Culver Town Council Meeting on the 9th. They appointed Lilly Arzola to the Culver Redevelopment Commission (CRC). She made a nice introduction and said that she is a life-long resident and now that her son is out of high school, she wanted to give back to the community. I think it’s great that she’s stepping up. My odd sense of humor can’t help but look at the make up of the CRC and the Town Council and wonder… Sally would be called a Rose among Thorns as the only woman on the Town Council. What would you call Marty Oosterbaan as the only man on the CRC now? Inquiring minds want to know!

Moving on…

The CRC has been more active than most redevelopment commissions. Often redevelopment commissions are accused of hording money, but the CRC has actively put their dollars to work in the community. It will be interesting to see what the new group decides to do as there is only one returning member this year. Of course, as always, I have opinions and suggestions! Here are a few:

Blighted Properties: There are five commercial properties in and around Culver that are constantly discussed as needing improvements. I’ll not be naming names here, but most of you reading this will have properties come to mind. In some cases, the CRC/Town have gone to the point of getting appraisals to consider buying them. They have also pursued them at tax sales and through the Unsafe Building Committee in Culver and Marshall County. They have been met with resistance from the owners who don’t see their properties in the same light. What if these property owners were approached as partners in lieu of adversaries?

  • The Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) has Blight Clearance Program with grant opportunities for improvements to blighted properties. Possibly the CRC could champion one or more of these properties for improvement under this program.
  • The CRC already has a Facade Grant Program. Why not look at expanding this program to include cleanup of properties such as these? I can envision some pushback as this would “enrich” the property owner, but why is this any different from the enrichment offered with a facade grant? In the grand scheme of things, this not only increases property values which will be recognized in tax assessments, but it adds value to surrounding properties which are likely adversely affected. Whether it’s a renovation, a clean up or a complete tear down, this would add value to the community.
  • The CRC could also be the catalyst for change in a positive manner here. Provide those property owners with updated appraisals. Provide them with professional recommendations on what improvements would increase value. If appropriate, provide them with Phase I Survey information or sponsor them with Marshall County if that Brownfield Program is reinstated. Provide them with paths for better use of the property if those owners want to remain the owners and if not, provide them with resources for lucrative sales. Again, any of these options would have a positive effect on assessed value.
  • For a few hundred dollars, the CRC could commission architectural renderings of ‘What could be’ if the buildings in question were improved. Sometimes it takes an outside eye to see the hidden potential. This could be the catalyst to any of the previous points above.

Expansion Opportunities: There are businesses in Culver that could expand with assistance. In some cases there maybe a lack of knowledge and in others it could just be a perception that the expansion wouldn’t be welcomed. Here are a few that come to mind:

CabinetWorks Billboard on 31 South
  • CabinetWorks sits on a large portion of the land Culver has designated as an Industrial zoning district. As far back as when McGills originally was there, that property was held for control of neighbors, potential future expansion or the potential for a complimentary industry partner. When was the last time the town met with CabinetWorks to discuss their plans or to encourage them to pursue expansion or assist them in finding that complimentary partner? Is the necessary infrastructure in place so that property would be considered “Shovel Ready”?
  • Edge Mechanical, Skyline Builders, Sellers Services are among the many companies that have a large service presence in the Culver area, but do not have a physical facility here. Could the CRC help them start satellite facilities here?
  • The Business Development arm of Culver Crossroads worked with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) to identify potential businesses that would fill a need in Culver. One that fit that need strongest was a sporting goods store. Could the CRC champion recruiting for something like this? (Maybe this would be a chance to kill two birds with one stone and replace one of the above blighted properties with a new commercial venture.)
  • Millers Merry Manor has property surrounding it that was slated for future expansion into an Assisted Living facility at one point. The CRC could approach them to see if these plans are still under consideration and what assistance the town could offer to make this happen. If that plan is no longer viable, what do they want to see there? Could the CRC assist them in finding other opportunities for that property?

Online Presence: The CRC contributed to the effort to bring SURF broadband to Culver. They could champion community education on how to take advantage of this:

  • Sponsor classes that teach web development, online marketing and online sales. The Culver Chamber of Commerce has made several false starts at this, but the broadband access should make this easier.
  • Sponsor upgrades to our town websites including those that represent the town, but are not strictly municipally controlled, such as the Chamber of Commerce, the Visitors Center, Discover Culver, the Historical Society, LMEC and others that are commonly searched when someone is trying to find out more about Culver.
  • A presentation was made at their meeting on May 15th where a MACOG program for bringing remote workers to Culver was discussed. The CRC could sponsor a specific landing page for people considering that move listing all the positive things and all the options for help. (Most of this is out there already, but just not in an organized form. A good start for this could be made just by linking the existing resources…)
  • Sponsor professional services to improve websites. It could be done similarly to the Facade Program where there would be matching funds. Just as improving building facades makes Culver more presentable when someone visits, having local websites more presentable will help increase visits.
Our name on the big screen

Transition Assistance: Long time businesses that are fixtures in the community often disappear when there’s not clear transition path. Bennett’s was a long-time Culver business that closed last year. Was the town aware they were closing? Did the town offer any assistance to prevent that closure? Is the town working with them after the closure for a new occupant for that building? Another example would be the Evil Czech on the Davis Street. While the town benefited when the lot was donated to them, wouldn’t it have been better for the town if a replacement business was there?

  • The CRC could implement a program similar to the BEAR (Business Expansion And Retention) program MCEDC uses to keep track of industrial users could be implemented locally with our current businesses. Touching base and understanding challenges, plans and goals would allow offers of assistance to be timely.
  • The CRC could assist in finding buyers for businesses.
  • The CRC could purchase transitional properties and improve them for sale or market them to desirable new ventures.
  • The CRC could sponsor consulting services that would help a transitioning business make themselves more marketable.

Promote Viable Businesses: Often small business owners are too busy just keeping the doors open to even know what help is available. This goes along with the previous transition assistance with the CRC providing a clearing house of resources available to small businesses:

  • Provide explanations and assistance in obtaining appropriate tax abatements.
    • What is the difference between a Real Property Tax Abatement and a Personal Property Tax Abatement.
  • Provide explanations on TIF Districts and how to access those dollars.
  • Provide information on Facade Grants.
  • Provide contacts for the Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
  • Provide contacts for mentoring programs such as SCORE.
  • Provide information and contacts on student assistance available through local schools.
  • Provide information and contacts on student assistance available through local colleges.
  • Provide information and contacts on State training dollars.
  • Provide information and contacts on State intern programs.

I’m sure there are lots of other things and the new commission members will have come in with their own goals. That said, the CRC is a group that always has a lot of potential for making positive changes in Culver. I hope the new group takes that mission seriously and is able to make things happen. From the brief introductions, I think they are.

Comprehensive Plan Vision

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I am currently serving on committees in Plymouth and Culver working on new Comprehensive Plans (or Com Plans). These documents are governed by State statute, but leave some flexibility to the communities. Sometimes the term “dream” is used with these documents, as in, “What would be your dream use for this area.” or “Dream Big!”. That leans much more towards fantasy for my liking. My preferred term is “Vision”. The heart of the Comp Plan are the land use maps… the “plan” part of the Comp Plan. It’s a visual tool detailing what the community would like to see and where that is.

There are several stumbling blocks for most people in this process. The first is that Comp Plans usually have a life of 5-10 years. (Plymouth’s last Comp Plan was completed in 2013 and Culver’s was completed in 2014.) People can become fixated on that short time horizon. While the Comp Plan should be revisited and updated every 5-10 years, the plan should be for 25-50 years, as theoretically the community continues on in perpetuity. This makes the 5-10 year update more of a tweak, removing things from the previous to-do list that have been completed and to adjust the overall plan for new trends that have developed. The Vision should be longer.

The second hang-up is a struggle to look past what’s there now and who owns that property. Most people look at a parcel of land and say, “I know that landowner and they would never go for that.” But… this is where they need to be thinking farther into the future than the 5-10 year life of the Comp Plan. The municipality will be here 25, 50 & 100 years from now. Will that landowner? Will that building still be viable? Will that street be there? The Vision should be longer.

The third major hang-up is separating the Comp Plan from the Zoning Ordinance. The Comp Plan lays out what the community would like to see. The Zoning Ordinance lays out what is allowed. There can and should be a difference. This is where a zoning hierarchy would be useful. In a discussion in a Culver meeting last week, we discussed the current Comp Plan’s direction for Main Street between Washington Street and Lake Shore Drive to be future Commercial. We discussed extending that to Lake Shore Drive between Main Street and State Street. This brought up discussion of the recent rezoning of a house on Main Street from Commercial to Residential. (Rezoning of 303 North Main Street discussed here.) The rezoning of 415 Lake Shore Drive was discussed as well. I look at these differently. While I have no problem with the reversion of 303 back to a home, there should have been a way to make that accommodation under the commercial zoning, leaving the long term vision in place. I would say the same accommodation should have been made for 415. While the new construction at 415 will theoretically be there longer, the townhouses planned are denser development and a reasonable intermediate step between single family residential and commercial. The strict district designations need to be softened to allow more mixed development. Furthermore, townhouses mixed in with commercial spaces are a reasonable long term plan in a walkable community.

For my Lurkers, this is not the first time I’ve pushed the Vision idea. I really thought Culver missed the boat not redoing their Comp Plan in 2020 and calling it 20/20 Vision. The whole pesky pandemic thing kind of got in the way, not to mention the Town Manager at that time had Stellar Fatigue and despite the Stellar Communities SAP accomplishing much of what was in the 2014 Comp Plan, he didn’t want to create new goals that he would be charged with achieving. Ha!

As with most of these things, there will be more to come. I’m pleased with Culver and Plymouth putting forth the effort and while I was hesitant about them at first, I’m pleased with MACOG‘s administration of the planning. (Thanks Donny!) Everybody work on their Vision. Do your best to envision what’s over the horizon, not just what can be seen today.