INGALLS — The addition of a new council member, resignation of the town manager and discussions about Newco Metals and a new Element 13 facility has made for a busy few days in Ingalls.
In a special Ingalls Town Council meeting on Thursday, Aug. 8, Madison County Republican Chairman Russ Willis swore in Scot Lawyer as the newest member of the council. Madison County Republican Party appointed Lawyer to replace Chris Bradshaw, who resigned.
The council also voted on new officers. Justin Gardner, who had been the council’s vice president and took over on an interim basis as president following Bradshaw’s resignation, was named council president. Councilman Tim Green was named vice president.
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Lawyer served on the council in the mid-1990s.
“Being back in town full time for five or six years now and with the encouragement, particularly from (Councilman Green), to get back involved,” Lawyer said. “For nothing else, I see it as a five-month term. If I don’t do anything but fill the void for the next five months, at least we have someone here with experience. We’ll see where it goes in November.”
Lawyer’s seat along with Gardner’s and Teresa Egerton’s, are up for election in November. Lawyer and Gardner are Republicans. Egerton is a Democrat.
“He served on the board before, and I think he is going to be a great addition,” Gardner said. “He’s not brand-new to it, so I think he’s going to pick it up pretty quick. He has a good head on his shoulders, and I think he really cares about the town.”
The council also accepted the resignation of town manager Frank Owens, effective immediately. Owens emailed his resignation notice to the board on Aug. 5.
Gardner, who will be the interim town manager until a new one is hired, said, “(Owens) said he was pursuing other opportunities and he was willing to stay on longer but didn’t want to burden the town with more payroll.”
Owens had been with the town only four months. He was hired April 8 and is appointment was scheduled to go until Dec. 31, 2020. He had replaced Tim Millikan, who was fired from the position in November 2018.
“I think the issue is how many hats the guy or gal will have to wear,” Gardner added, commenting on having to go through the process again of hiring a town manager. “We’ve talked about that in previous meetings, and even when Mr. Millikan was our town manager, about the amount of strain on that position. Hopefully, as we continue to grow, we’ll be able to expand some of our staff to be able to lighten the load or spread it out a little bit.”
In other news, at Monday’s regular meeting, a representative of Newco Metals spoke to the council about a tax abatement for the development of Element 13, an aluminum recycling facility, located near I-69 and State Road 13.
Residents of Ingalls have brought up concerns about the facility, which was initially presented to the town in 2016, as a “smelting plant” and the effects it would have on the area.
“It’s not going to affect the air quality,” Alex Intermill, an attorney from Bose McKinney and Evans LLP, representing Element 13, told the board.
Council members encouraged residents to attend the 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 19, Board of Zoning Appeals meeting at the town hall, 308 N. Meridian St., for a hearing concerning the abatement.
“When the abatement for Newco came in, you sent me to a plant in Northern Indiana,” Millikan, the former town manager, told the council. “I did a comprehensive report, and every classification for what they are doing is smelting by the very definition.
“I disagree that it’s just a scrap metal plant. Scrapping is breakage, and melting is smelting.”
Green emphasized that residents from the area should want to attend Monday’s meeting.
“There are a lot of ramifications from this that people need to be aware of,” he said. “It’s critical that people that live around there know what is going in.”
