Featured image: Batesville Mayor Rick Elumbaugh reads from a proclamation recognizing May 9 as National Fentanyl Awareness Day at the Tuesday Batesville City Council meeting.
It was a busy meeting for the Batesville City Council Tuesday.
First readings were held for ordinances regarding an August special election involving capital improvements funding for the city’s water intake and treatment system as well as parks and recreation space.
One ordinance will amend a previous ordinance that authorized the city to use the net collections of its one-half of one percent (0.5%) sales and use tax to repay and secure capital improvement bonds approved by voters. The amendment will enable the city to redirect the sales tax, which voters approved in 2012, to different purposes.
The second ordinance calls for a special election in the city to issue bonds for financing and refinancing capital improvement costs, while the third ordinance calls for a ballot question in the election to issue bonds that will finance all or a portion of the capital improvement costs by levying a one percent sales and use tax to begin April 1, 2024.
At last night’s meeting, an attorney who worked with the city on the 2012 sales tax election told council members that the amendment to the first ordinance would allow the city to utilize existing future sales tax collections for the improvements, noting the refunding of the 2012 bond issue that resulted in the 0.5% sales tax will ensure there will not be a tax increase for Batesville residents.
If passed, the moves will allow the city to begin demolishing and replacing the city’s water plant and finance a new parks and recreation facility and Riverside Park improvements.
In other council news, members approved a private club application for “Club Stella on Main, Inc.,” located at 250 Main St., the address for Stella’s Brick Oven Pizzeria and Bistro. And Batesville Mayor Rick Elumbaugh and Independence County Hometown Wellness Coalition members also proclaimed May 9 as National Fentanyl Awareness Day at the meeting.
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