INGALLS — For months, members of Ingalls Town Council and town department heads have been working on a plan to get rid of some eyesores.
That plan is beginning to take shape.
Outlining the extent of the problem at a town meeting in August, police chief Chris Thompson said there were 41 homes with more than 100 violations of ordinances related to abandoned cars, appliances and other scrap items sitting outside residences.
He added he expected there were more — his totals were only on the ones that were “plain view” violations.
At the Sept. 14 council meeting, Council President Scot Lawyer said he wanted to table the issue until next year to allow time for an Ingalls Community Cleanup Day.
“The town would provide electronics recycling. If people have old cars they want to get rid of, the town would provide towing,” Lawyer said of some of the things they’d like to offer. “I know individuals that would take them, but there are also charities out there that would gladly come in and tow things away.
“Before we go in and start citing people, I would want to do a community cleanup day. That way we are trying to help before we just go around citing people. I think that’s the right thing to do, and I have a lot of support for that.”
Considering the time it would take to organize the effort, Lawyer said he hopes a cleanup day can be scheduled either in late March or early April.
Golf cart ordinance
The council approved an ordinance governing the use of golf carts in the town.
Among other regulations, the ordinance requires carts to have proper lights and safety belts for each passenger, and for drivers to be at least 16 and properly insured, through homeowners or vehicle insurance.
Starting in 2021, there will be a $10 registration fee.
Before ticketing people for violations, Lawyer said he wants to use the rest of 2020 informing residence of the new legislation.
“For the remainder of this year is going to be more educating people than it is citing people,” Lawyer said. “We still have to order stickers. We still have some work to do on our end. We’re not going to have our officers out writing people tickets for it. We want to spend the remainder of this year making people aware of the ordinance and getting all of our paperwork and permits together.”
Residents interested in getting a copy of the new ordinance can do so by calling town hall at 317-485-4321.
Website improvement
The council approved developing a new town website.
Lawyer said the upgraded site will have an interactive calendar, which will include meeting agendas, links to ordinances among other essential town information. He said they would have more control over site content.
Signature Web Creations, a company out of Alexandria, will handle the project, which will be headed by John Dockery.
Lawyer said the site will be similar to one that recently went live for the town of Jamestown.
Town consultant Dax Norton, at the Sept. 28 council meeting, told the board he met with the site developer earlier in the day.
“We want to make it a very good site to marketing Ingalls,” Norton told the council.
Budget hearing
At the Sept. 28 meeting, the council held its public hearing for the proposed 2021 budget.
The proposed budget for 2021 is for $1,358,351.00. The proposed levy is for $534,164. The adoption meeting for the budget is slated for Oct. 13.
Storm water plan
At the initial September meeting, the council approved Triad Associates Inc. starting on an updated stormwater master plan for the town.
