By GLEN WERLING
Roembke Manufacturing and Design is planning a new venture and Monday night, members of the Ossian Town Council did their part to help get it started.
Council members Josh Barkley, Brad Pursley, Jason House, Dennis Ealing and Stephanie Tucker adopted Resolution 23-1-1 granting a six-year tax abatement to Roembke Turnkey Solutions LLC, the name of the new venture.
Greg Roembke, chief executive officer at Roembke Turnkey Solutions, explained the new venture will be using molds manufactured by Roembke Manufacturing and Design to turn out finished product for customers.
The plans right now are to purchase the new spec building for the venture. The building’s steel skeleton was erected in December but it still has a ways to go before being ready to move in. However, the order lead time for the equipment Roembke is planning to buy — and wanted abated — will likely put its installation in the structure after the building is completed.
Roembke wants to buy $7 million worth of equipment, including a blow mold injection machine, air compressor, injection molding machines, injection pumps, thermal plastic presses, an overhead crane and information technology equipment.
Once its completed, Roembke Turnkey Solutions hopes to hire 60 new employees over the next four years. The total salaries are estimated at $2,745,600.
The abatement granted by the council will be five years at 100 percent and the sixth year at 60 percent.
In related business, Wells County Economic Development Executive Director Chad Kline informed the council that Ossian Spec I, LLC, the developer for the current Ossian speculative building, wants to build another next to the building that’s under construction (that Roembke Turnkey hopes to buy). Arrangements are currently underway to make that possible.
Kline added that Wells County Economic Development received a grant from American Electric Power to proceed with the process of establishing “build-ready” sites at the Ossian Industrial Park south of Industrial Parkway.
Build-ready will pave the way for any business or industry that wishes to build a new structure in the Ossian Industrial Park to be able to do so immediately.
In a related matter, the council agreed to continue its contract with Wells County Economic Development to provide economic development services to the town for 2023 at a cost of $11,431.30, which is the previously agreed upon 10 percent of County Economic Development Income Tax the town receives.
Other than dollar amounts and changes in dates on the contract, this year’s contract is essentially the same as last year’s contract, Kline explained.
In other business, the council members:
• Initiated the next step in the annexation process for the 72 acres targeted for a major housing development adjacent to the north side of the town’s Rose Ann Heights subdivision. A public hearing regarding the annexation was held at Monday’s meeting with the council open to comments about the annexation process for the land.
Since developer Kevan Biggs is the sole owner of the property and he is requesting the annexation, there was really no one present to ask questions about or oppose the annexation.
The council then closed the public hearing and at the end of the meeting formally adopted Resolution 22-12-1 adopting the fiscal plan for the annexation. The council then approved on first reading ordinance 22-12-2 which formally annexes the property. However, the ordinance will not be formally adopted until the next regular meeting of the council.
• After considerable discussion, approved employing the services of the Wells County Sheriff’s Department to provide deputies to fill in gaps in the personnel scheduling of the Ossian Police Department.
Sheriff Scott Holliday observed that this is a temporary fix for Ossian’s struggle to find full-time officers to fill four vacancies on the department. The sheriff’s department will invoice the town for the service monthly at a rate of $45 an hour. The cost will cover use of county patrol vehicles as well as fuel and mileage.
Tucker observed that currently there are two Wells County sheriff’s deputies employed as part-time officers by the town at a rate of $36 an hour. There would be no reason for them to continue in that employment if they will get paid more by the sheriff’s department as fill-ins. She questioned the fiscal wisdom of such a move.
Holliday pointed out that some of that difference between $36 and $45 will be offset by the deputies using county vehicles and wearing county uniforms and equipment.
He again stressed that this is only until the town is able to get back to full force for the department.
Interim Chief Brian McClish praised the cooperation that he has received from the county and the deputies employed part-time by the department, observing that they never complain, they go the extra mile, and are always there when he needs them.
Holliday added that it is true the county has covered Ossian’s scheduling gaps in the past with deputies for no additional payment, but there was no guarantee they would be near Ossian. This program would dedicate a deputy to patrol Ossian during the time one is scheduled to be in Ossian. The only exception would be in a police-action shooting, he said.
He also recommended that the town consider contracting with the Indiana State Police for detective services as he does not have the manpower to provide the town with a detective for intensive investigations.
• Learned from Police Commissioner President Caleb Chichester that the board has hired Scott Adam and Desmond Carter to serve as part-time police officers.
• Agreed to a recommendation from Chichester to consider an ordinance to appropriate remaining funds from the police department’s 2022 budget into the 2023 budget.
• Took no action on a request by Tucker for the town to allow her to continue on the town’s health insurance policy. Tucker sought to continue the insurance that had been offered to her when she was employed by the town as the police department’s sergeant. She wanted to pay entirely for the plan out of her own pocket with no additional cost to the town; however, Ealing said it was his understanding that the town’s health insurance policy, which was just recently renewed, would have to be rewritten entirely. The council was not amenable to that move.
• Reorganized as required by law. Tucker moved to make Ealing the president of the council but Ealing told her he didn’t want the job. Pursley then moved to re-elect Barkley to the position. The vote was 3-1-1 with Tucker voting against and Barkley abstaining.
• Re-elected Pursley vice-president on a 4-0-1 vote with Pursley abstaining.
• Agreed to set a meeting for later this month to discuss voting districts, which have to be updated for the town.
• Appointed Jay Esparza and Benjamin Jones to the Ossian-Jefferson Township Park Board. The two men will fill vacancies created by the resignations of Meagan Luce and Jenni Milholland. The council members also accepted their resignations Monday. The board members also approved Gary Guenin’s request to continue to serve on the park board for his first full term.
• Appointed Esparza to the Ossian Board of Metropolitan Police Commissioners to fill the vacancy on the board created when Stan Reed chose not to seek another term. Former town councilman Bill Dowty had also sought appointment to the position.
• Made Pursley the alternate representative for the town on the Wells County Area Plan Commission if current member Melissa Woodworth is unable to attend a meeting.
• Approved a request by Ossian Fire Chief Ben Fenstermaker to purchase three sets of turnout gear, boots and helmets at a total cost of $12,718.95 from Municipal Emergency Services of Indianapolis. MES’s quote was not the least expensive of the three Fenstermaker received for the turnout gear, but he believed that the quality was better than the lowest bid of two bids received from Hoosier Fire Equipment Company of Greenfield. Their bid for Ricochet turnout gear (not including helmets or boots) was $10,467.
• Took no action on Fenstermaker’s request to reconfigure the Ossian Town Hall to give Fenstermaker more office space. He was seeking to relocate to the space currently occupied by police department patrolmen offices.
• Gave Fenstermaker permission to purchase six wall-mounted gear lockers from Gear Grid of Forest Lake, Minn., at a cost of $2,008. Part of the actual cost of the purchase will be offset by the sale of lockers on rollers which stick out into the bays, Fenstermaker said, and leave little room to walk between the backs of the firetrucks and the lockers.
• Accepted a request from Fenstermaker to craft an ordinance allowing him to move unappropriated funds from the 2022 budget into the 2023 budget. That appropriation will be considered at the next meeting of council.
• Heard a dispute between 303 West Mill St. resident Chelsey Tyner and Ossian United Methodist Church representatives over the daycare the church hosts. Tyner explained that the parking for the daycare on Norwalt Street makes it nearly impossible for her and her husband to back their vehicles out onto Norwalt and she sought relief from the town to prevent the daycare from permitting parents to park their vehicles on that side of the church during dropoff and pickup times. Moreover, she observed, by using narrow Norwalt as a pickup and dropoff line it made it difficult for other traffic to use the street. She added that the church already has a parking lot that it could use for dropoff and pickup and questioned why they weren’t using it. Church members argued that they were there first, using the parking lot was inconvenient, and they planned to remove a sidewalk and some shrubs to facilitate cars to be able to pull up closer to the church off Norwalt. Tyner was skeptical of the plan, believing it would not reduce the safety hazard caused by parents using Norwalt. There was terse bickering between the two sides before Barkley put an end to it and asked Tucker, McClish, Tyner, and the church members to sit down and iron out a solution because it was obvious at Monday night’s meeting that wasn’t going to happen — and short of banning parking on Norwalt Street entirely there was really nothing the council could do.
• Approved a utility adjustment for $161.06.
• Learned from Martin that the water line replacement project at Hickory and Shady lanes was underway and she asked people living in that part of Rose Ann Heights to please be patient with the town as there will be times the water will be turned off.
glenw@news-banner.com
