Perry Township - Monroe County, IN
Perry Township Offices

Perry Township Board Meeting Minutes: Tuesday, January 4, 2022

The meeting is called to order at 4:15 pm

Members Present: Jack Davis, Barb Sturbaum, Susie Hamilton, Dan Combs

Non-Members Present: Pat Combs, Sharon Yoder, William Morris

Agenda

  1. Fair Market Rate (Rent)
  2. Policy of Facility Use
  3. Request for use of Township space
  4. Other
    • Oxford House
    • Cow

Fair Market Rate (Rent)

Using Federal Housing Authority and Bloomington Housing Authority Fair Market Rent Value for Bloomington find the average unsubsidized value for each of the different size units and that is what they will pay per month so then the Trustee knows how much rent to pay for each size unit per month. This policy was adopted back in 1996. The rent benefit levels have been raised over the years. The Trustee only pays one month rent at a time because that is all that the federal government will pay at a time through the housing authority. Last year for a one bedroom it was $615, a two bedroom was $738, and a three bedroom was $853. The 2022 fair market numbers are so much higher that the Trustee felt he needed to ask the board instead of making the adjustment automatically. The new amounts are one bedroom is $803, a two bedroom is $971, a three bedroom is $1,369, and a four bedroom is $1,662. Susie motions to approve the raise the amounts to meet the fair market rate, Jack seconds, all agree.

Policy of Facility Use

The trustee is asking the board to allow the attorney to come up with a policy that follows the Indiana’s legal guidelines. A memorandum was given to the board from the attorney specifying that the meeting room should be classified as a nonpublic forum, giving the Trustee the right to reserve the use of the property for its intended purposes as long as a regulation is reasonable suppressive. The Trustee needs to follow a three point system: Nonpublic forum; disclaimer setting forth terms and conditions of usage, no apparent government message, application process that is value neutral and allows nine categories of reasons for usage. William believes that the meeting room is a government space under the control of the Trustee and the Board and it is a nonpublic space. The usage of the room by outside organizations may be granted but the policy should be neutral, applied to each organization individually. The policy should use the nine criteria identified by the Indiana Courts have upheld in the past in similar situations. Jack also wants to have insurance and liability responsibilities looked into regarding the usage of the space.

Request for use of Township Space

Courage to Change has requested to use one of the extra office spaces off of the meeting room for their case managers to get work done and to keep case files. Dan is asking the Board to approve their usage of the space as is until December while the attorney works up a valid contract showing their responsibilities and the Townships responsibilities and also outlining the insurance liabilities. This contract will be signed and will start at the beginning of the year. Courage to Change is not using the space very often and they are very quiet when they are there. Susie moves to allow Courage to Change to use the space till the end of the year and sign a contract for the space in January, Jack seconds, all agree.

Other

Oxford House takes in about 11 people per house from all over the state who pay up to $700 per month and members of the house vote to add and remove members of the house. The tenant agrees to follow a treatment program which is five meetings off premises per week. There is no on-site treatment or employees. These houses are administered by the longest term resident. Perry Township currently has one of these houses. These tenants are sent to these houses by the courts or on their own most of them have no connection to Monroe County.

The pantry has plenty of stock on canned vegetables. The amount of fresh fruits and vegetables we get is small. The amount of frozen meat we get is extremely small and very limited. Dan is asking to purchase another cow for the pantry. We got six months out of the last cow that was purchased at around $4 per pound and about 600lbs. The supplier has one available 3.90 per pound and around 800lbs which should last us till about the end of the year. The board approves of the purchase of the second cow for the pantry.

Meeting was concluded at 5:30 pm.