Muncie City Council February 1, 2021 AMENDED MINUTES MUNCIE COMMON COUNCIL 300 NORTH HIGH STREET MUNCIE, INDIANA 47305 MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2021 REGULAR MEETING: 7:00P.M., 15r FLOOR CITY HALL AUDITORIUM. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Led by Councilman Garrett. INVOCATION: Given by Pastor John Lee from Berea Church. Councilman Polk requests a Moment of Silence to recognize the passing of former City Councilman, Dave Taylor. Taylor passed away last month in January from COVID complications and was the longest-serving City Councilmember, ever, in the City of Muncie. He served 7 full terms of 28 years. CITIZEN RECOGNITION: Councilwoman Selvey recalls in November 2015, Deb Huston had a vision that no Southside Middle School student worry where their next meal might come from when not in school. With help and permission from then principal, Kelli Turner, that vision became reality. Starting out with enough food to send hbme with 4 students weekly, the pantry has blossomed into something Deb never could have imagined. Now feeding around 60 students a week, the SMS pantry is a staple at Southside. In the 5 years since its start, Deb and her volunteers have made and sent home over 30,000 backpacks of food each weekend and along break while also providing nearly 200 families with a Thanksgiving and Christmas meal each year. 6th grade teacher Rachel Miller recalled her experience working the Christmas Dinner giveaway by saying, "the families were so thankful for the help. The best part of the evening was seeing the relief on some of their faces knowing they would be able to feed their family on Christmas." In connection with the pantry, Deb and her volunteers also operate the monthly family food giveaway that has provided food for approximately 560 families this year alone. Deb's dedication to the students of SMS and their families does not go unnoticed by members of our community. Dr. Donna Cray of Frederick Family Chiropractic has donated thousands of drawstring backpacks and totes for students to carry the food home in each week as well as sponsoring students on the backpack program and Christmas dinners. She is joined by Nick Richards of Maxwell's Barber Shop who, for the past 3 years, has held a raffle which raising thousands of dollars to support the Christmas backpack and Christmas dinner program. Not to mention the support of numerous businesses, community organizations and churches including Fairlawn Church of Christ, the Jar Community Church, Second Harvest, John Frank Football, Eagle Flight Wealth 1 Muncie City Council February 1, 2021 Management and many more who have donated money and supplies to the pantry. Along with the food pantry, Deb and her team also run a clothing den where students can obtain clothing and personal hygiene supplies when needed. Special Education teacher Conner Polk was able to take a student to the den one day to pick out shoes and the student couldn't believe it saying, "oh my goodness, these are the nicest shoes I've had. I'm so glad I get to have nice shoes for gym!" With the new mask mandate in place, Deb secured over 700 cloth masks made by local volunteers to distribute to staff and students. Deb and her volunteers have given thousands of hours of their time to keep the pantry going. Over the life of the pantry, Deb has had volunteers from local churches, student groups and the help of many SMS faculty members. Because this is not Deb's full time job, she often spends her evenings and weekends working on paperwork and preparing things for the pantry. She has even given up multiple personal days to come in to work and spend the day working on items in the pantry. With restrictions on visitors and volunteers due to COVID, this year has been especially difficult on Deb, taking on a majority of the work herself. Deb is married to the love of her life, Dan Huston and has 2 boys, Daniel and Michael, as well as 2 grandchildren, Grace and Luke. When Deb is not working as an Instructional Assistant at Southside or in the pantry, she enjoys spending time with her family or taking a trip to her favorite destination, Essenhaus. Deb is truly an asset to the City of Muncie. Councilwoman Selvey can think of no better person to award the February Citizen of the Month award to then Deb Ferell Huston. Additional volunteers include Rick and Jayne Hopper, Charlotte McKnight, Tre Morton, Linda Crow, Karen Pierce, Margaret Jones, Cheryl Matthews, Jenny Leach, Trela Donati, Sherry Cross, Sherry Huffman and Kim Brown. Brittany Bales, School Board Representative, and Southside Middle School Principle, Dr. Corey Hartley, teacher and Rachel Miller are present tonight as well. Southside Middle School Principle, Dr. Corey Hartley explains that this was an absolute surprise to Deb and the group actually "fibbed" to get her here, otherwise, she wouldn't have come. Deb is one of the most humble but selfless people he has met in his life. While he has only been at Muncie South as a Principle for about 6 months now, he knows that they could not do what they needed to do on a daily basis without her and her volunteers. They appreciate her and could not think of a more deserving person to be recognized. Deb Huston couldn't do what she does without the volunteers, the School Board, Principle Hartley and the teachers. Anything that comes up that they need, the teachers will jump right in to help the kids or the pantry. She is just lucky to lead it but it could not be done without all the volunteers and people in the community, like Nick, The Jar and Fairlawn. Councilwoman Selvey states that since she is an educator and this is Black History Month, she has something that she would like to share with her students, the families and the community. She just wants to remind everyone that this year, Black History Month 2 Muncie City Council February 1, 2021 returns to its root with a new focus on black family ties. The theme for 2021, the black family representation, identity and diversity explores the wide-ranging diversity of black family life from single to 2-parent household to nuclear extended and biracial. The black community has always exhibited a steadfast understanding of the value of family as a source of comfort and strength. This month let us remember and join in the celebrations with our black community and learn to strengthen our family ties, regardless of what it looks like. President Robinson takes time to welcome the newest City Councilmember, Brandon Garrett from District #3. They look forward to working with him and welcome him here tonight. Councilman Garrett thanks everyone. ROLL CALL: PRESENT ABSENT Aaron Clark X Ro Selvey X Troy Ingram X Ralph Smith X Jeff Robinson X Brandon Garrett X Brad Polk X Jerry Dishman X Anitra Davis X APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES: A motion is made by Ingram and seconded by Smith to Approve the Minutes. Councilman Clark refers to the nominations/appointments made to the Vice-President, Reading Clerk, Legal Counsel, Human Rights Commission, Metropolitan Planning Commission, Industrial Revolving Loan Fund, 911 Board and the EDIT Building Commission were all by virtue of being a sole candidate while the minutes reflected a "9-0" vote. He recommends listing it "by acclamation." A roll call vote showed 8 yeas, 0 nays and 1 abstain (Garrett). AMENDED. MINUTES APPROVED AS AMENDED. Referring to the Land & Traffic Committee Meeting held on December 1, 2020, President Robinson explains that just the 3 Committee members (himself along with Ingram and Smith) will vote to approve those minutes (155 pages worth). A motion is made by Ingram and seconded by Smith to Approve to Approve the Minutes from the Land & Traffic Committee Meeting held on December 1, 2020. A roll call vote showed 3 yeas (Robinson, Ingram and Smith) and 0 nays. MINUTES APPROVED. COMMITTEE REPORTS: 3 Muncie City Council February 1, 2021 REPORTS OF CITY OFFICERS: Muncie Fire Chief Miller (along with Muncie EMS Director Clark) takes the time to welcome the 2 new council members tonight. He also appreciates this opportunity to showcase what the MFD has done and express some of their accomplishments achieved over the past year. As most know, April 6th of 2020, the MFD took over the entire City of Muncie servicing the citizens of Muncie with an EMS service. With that, came a lot of different avenues that they ran into, including an increase in run load (by quite a bit). In 2019, the number of runs jumped from 9,671 up to 14,751 in 2020. The department went on over 5,000 more runs with the addition of the EMS service. A synopsis of things the department has done to help those services consists of purchasing 2 new ambulances in 2020 to help with the incurred run load. Also, via a grant, the department received some ATV vehicles that are Med stat or otherwise known as off-road vehicles that could be considered small, mini ambulances. Once those vehicles are decaled up and everything, remembering the Council earlier expressing interest in wanting to look at those, they will invite everyone out to check them out. President Robinson jokes that he recalls they asking to 11drive" the vehicles. Chief Miller doesn't know if that will occur but the Council is more than welcome to come out and look at them once they are ready. Those vehicles were obtained through a grant that the department received instrumented by Lead Investigator Robert Meade along with grant writer Dustin Clark.