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Whitestown Increases the size of Town Council
November 27, 2006
The Whitestown Council appointed two new members to represent the growing community of Whitestown, In.
We are pleased to welcome Jason Tribby and Susan Austin to the Whitestown Town Council.
Both have been attending regular meetings over the last year or more and have proven their commitment to improving the community. more....
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Whitestown vs Boone County concerning the purposed EDA
November 9, 2006
It only took two full days for a judge to hear and decide if Whitestown, Brenwick and First Industrial's case had merit in opposing the county creating an Economic Development Area.
The process was very interesting, as the only citizen to make the trip to Montgomery County and sit thru nine hours of hearings. I would like to share a few observations.
more....
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Whitestown Utilitiy and IDEM under increased visablity
October 4, 2006
Town residents become even more concerned about water quality. The Whitestown Utility continues to fail IDEM (Indiana Department of Environmental Management) water test, but they also publicly tell the citizens of the town that the water is safe.
It has come to our attention that the Perry Worth Elementary school is still operating in a bottled water condition and will not allow students to drink utility provided water. We have not been able to contact a Lebanon School official to confirm.
We as citizens are becoming ever more concerned with the information or lack there of concerning the water/sewer/storm drainage in the existing town.
10-04-2006 Utility Board Agenda
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Carla Jackson keeps her word!
September 25, 2006
Unfortunately for the citizens of Whitestown it was commitments she is on record of having personally made to a select few Utility Management employee's without knowledge of the other town council members. In previous public meetings (including Utility Service Board which was looking into making a recommendation), several citizens and the town clerk/treasurer have provided significant input against any additional salary increases for utility employees at this time. Despite the wishes (and protests) of the citizens and documentation provided to the town council by both the town clerk and citizens, Carla pushed forward with her personal agenda item. The most grievous act was amending the agenda of tonight's meeting to vote on the salary ordinance amendment after learning that the meeting would have to be cut short due to the only other council member in attendance having an extreme family emergency. Instead of moving to adjourn the meeting, Carla made a motion to move utility pay increases to the next item of business and motioned that the salary ordinance be amended and approved, granting pay increases to utility management. It is my personal opinion that not only should Carla remove herself from any further involvement and oversight in the utility (a position which she has held against town code for more than two consecutive years) but that she should seriously consider stepping down from her council position. She does not feel the need to listen to citizens who have as much if not more experience than she in positions of management. I would be happy to retract the above request if she can produce employee's of her company which meet all of the following criteria. Since she has repeatedly referred to her business experience in the running of the town.
Salaried exempt that she still pays overtime
Salaried exempt that are not expected to work 40 hours a week
Employee in which she has given a $6500 base pay increase to in the first year of employment.
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Whitestown to Annex additional territory
September 25, 2006
In what can only be described as the biggest land grab since the Louisana purchase, the Whitestown Town council moved forward with an amended version of the 2006-20 ordinance to annex additional territory. By using the no re-monistration clause signed anyone requesting utility service, the new annexation includes a Zionsville school, Duke Reality's Anson, and Eagles Nest resisdential developments. The Royal Run development was not included at this time!
The move was obviously stratigic and caculated in response to Boone County taking over economic development control of a majority of the area and Fayette announcing plans to incorporate.
Note: I took the liberty of outlining the current town limits in red and the annexation area in blue on the area map. This was done only to make the map a little more clear to viewers.
Supporting fiscal plan resolution 2006-18
Upadated Annexation Packet
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Town Council sticks to it guns.
April 3, 2006
The Whitestown Town Council proceeded with the involuntary annexation of the Clark property. While they did not address the rezoning issue in the annexation ordinance they did make it perfectly clear that the intention is to rezone the area to R2 1.75 homes per acre.
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Clark attempts circumvent the wishes of Whitestown and surrounding Boone County residents
March 27, 2006
See Agenda for Special meeting 4-3-06
Mr. Clark threatens to remonstrate Whitestown's involuntary annexation if the town does not give in to his
request to change the zoning from R2 to R3. The town council has scheduled a special meeting on April 3, 2006 at 9:00 AM to review proposed compromises.
While I respect Mr. Clark's right to do with his property as he sees fit, I draw the line when he has no apparent intension of sticking around and sharing the burden of his decisions.
If you have not been keeping up, here is a little history.
Last year (2005) the town of Whitestown was besieged by several developers wishing to build very high density housing.
Many Whitestown and surrounding county residents circulated a petition stating that they did not wish to see any rezoning above R2 (1.75 homes per acre in Whitestown, 2.5 homes per acre in Boone County) with overwhelming participation. Mr. Clark backed a development of his property formerly known as Cobblestone. While we did not oppose the development, we did oppose their proposal for density and lack of builder commitments.
The biggest issue is the ability for developers to concentrate the developments rather than live up to the intent of the zoning ordinances. By this I am referring to the terms of net and gross. For example Cobblestone was asking for R3 zoning, which under Whitestown's zoning ordinance would permit 2.5 homes per acre, yet at the northern end of the proposed Cobblestone development, densities would have been over 4.0 homes per acre and at the southern end 1.5 homes per acre, making the overall average able to have met the zoning requirements. The Cobblestone developers ended up dropping the project. Now to avoid the surrounding citizens their due process, Mr. Clark wishes to increase the value of his property at our expense. (my opinion)
We support the towns original move to involuntarily annex the proposed land and rezone it to R2. This will allow the town to properly govern and develop its boundaries according to its comprehensive plan, and building standards.
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Kudos to our contractors and utility employee's
March 22, 2006
For getting the streets cleaned up so fast today. I was pleasantly surprised to find our roads in such create
condition on the way home last evening. Since there was still a great deal of slush and snow on 96th street between Keystone and Allisonville.
I would also like to thank the utility employees who had the un-enviable task of reading the water meters today. I saw them on two different occasions digging through the snow to find the meters.
Thanks all for the hard work.
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Whitestown Town Council addresses number of members issue
March 13, 2006
The Whitestown Town council passes resolution 2006-05, this resolution approved a referendum to be placed on the 2006 November ballot.
Basically it is a yes or no question, do the citizens of Whitestown want to see the town council increase in size from three (3) members to five (5).
Resolution 2006-05
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Here is the new plan put forth by the county
March 20, 2006
The county commissioners and Boone County highway department altered the original plan to route all traffic
thru Whitestown during the closure of 650 E. for the summer.
The new route will be to use 400 S to 575 E. to 300 S. and out to the 267/I-65 interchange. The county will make road improvements to both the un-paved portion of 400 S. and 575 E.
When asked about traffic concerns at the intersection of 575 E. and 300 S. the county responded they would look into it, they were requested to put in the following items,
Four way stop at the intersection of 575 E. and 300 S.. To us this only makes sense to assist the residents of Walker Farms and 575 E. a safe way to get into the traffic flow.
To reduce the speed limits in and out of Whitestown. Residents of Whitestown have made this request on multiple occasions to the county commissioners, but to date and no action has been taken to enhance the safety of local town residents.
To assist the town in getting the roads with in the borders of Whitestown corporate limits painted with the double stripes, for those of you who may not know there is no passing on all roads with in the Whitestown limits.
The current plan is to do a chip and seal improvement on the roads to be upgraded. The Whitestown town council has the option to pay the difference in cost to get these roads paved. They are looking into their financial options.
NOTE: While the closure of 650 E. will not take effect until Lebanon and Zionsville school terms end for the summer, 650 E. will have flaggers starting with in the next three weeks as the county's contractor begins moving dirt from the east side of 650 to the west side.
We have heard there is a compromise in the works
March 17, 2006
In a meeting concerning the 650E. closure between town officials and Boone County commissioner Huck Lewis along with the Boone County Highway superintendent and Duke representatives.
More will be discussed at tomorrows regular Boone County Commissioners meeting.
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Boone County puts it to the citizens of Whitestown again!
March 16, 2006
I am sitting here wondering what to say, so I will preface everything you are about to read with the fact I am a private citizen of both Whitestown and Boone County. My remarks are to be taken as my personal opinion with lots of input from my significant other. With that said and you were warned.
I am in complete shock from what I heard today. I give Duke credit for scheduling an informal meeting to let officials of the surrounding area in on the county's plans for road construction on 650 E and 700 E - both of which are being managed by the county.
The County's traffic plan is to re-route all traffic thru Whitestown in and out via 300S to the SR 267 / I-65 Interchange. Unfortunately the Boone County Highway superintendent (Tom Kouns) and the county commissioner (Huck Lewis) were not in attendance to answer any questions the public presented. Why did the county not see fit to call this meeting?
Carla Jackson of the Whitestown Town Council asked repeatedly why had no one from the county had approached the town to inform them of the burden this would place on our community. I re-iterated those very sentiments in a much stronger fashion. The only answer was, this is a county project and we were under the impression that the proper communications had been done.
It is a grave dereliction of duty to assume you may impact the very lives of your constituents and not allow for public input and public notice prior to implementing these plans. Did the Commissioners’ think they could just start the project and all objections and inconveniences would go away? Did the Commissioners’ think about the impacts to the Whitestown economy or are they under the same invalid assumption of 15 years ago that Whitestown residents don’t have any impact to the overall Boone County economy? Wake up and smell the coffee! Whitestown has been growing faster than any other town in Boone County!
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Whitestown Council Meeting
December 12, 2005
The Whitestown Town Council started the meeting off by adopting the Boone County EDC's flat fee ordinance (Whitestown Resolution 2005-23). This ordinance which has been adopted by the Boone County Commissioners to provide for development fees to be collected by the Boone County APC and Auditor to assist in the funding of the Boone County Economic Development Commission’s funding.
Next on the agenda was another annexation of property located west of the previous annexation of the Wallace-Lee property. West of SR 267 just south of the I-65 & SR 267 interchange. (See documentation under our documents-council-drafts link.) Marta Haza called into question both further annexation to the west and the proposed land use under the adopted comprehensive plan. The town then authorized Mr. Unger (Bose, McKinney and Evans) to proceed with public notification of the annexation, noting that they would review the proposed land use under the adopted comprehensive plan.
The next item on the agenda pertained to the Inter-local agreement with Boone County to set forth on the layout, building and maintenance of the Whitestown thru-fare. After discussion the board determined that more investigation was required on the financial ramifications prior to approving an agreement to put forth to the Boone County Commissioners. (more to come...)
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Whitestown holds a special meeting to address Christmas Party and Employee bonuses. December 9, 2005
The Whitestown Town Council held discussions on previously un-submitted Christmas party and Christmas awards. Among the residents, Mr. L.J. Jernstadt opposed both measures based on the un-known financial standing of the town and utility. Council member, Ms. Jackson stated if the town was not in good financial standing why would Duke Reality fulfill their commitment on a second check for $1 Million dollars or how would the Town be able to obtain SRF's to proceed with the new water and sewer plants. Mr. Jernstadt pointed out that these monies are already allocated and does not represent the true financial picture of the Town and the utility until we have a clear bill of health (audit) from the Indiana State Board of Accounts. Resident, Ms. Albright also pointed out that as a former government employee she had never been awarded any type of bonus. She also took exception with the late notice of a special meeting at a time when most Whitestown residents could not possibly be in attendance. A sediment shared by the two other residents in attendance, Mr. Jernstadt and Mr. Aiduks.
The town council decided to contribute to a employee pitch-in at town hall and voted down any employee bonuses this year.
It is worth mentioning that Duke Reality had entered into a contractual agreement with the town and is only fulfilling their part of that commitment. Could the town have obtained the SRF loans without the Duke pre-payment towards future fees?
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Whitestown Utility Board passes new Water and Sewer Rates
December 7, 2005
The Whitestown Utility Board held discussions on the previously submitted sewer rate changes and the new water rates. The Whitestown town council had requested that Utility Board submit both to reduce the cost and time associated with public notices and meetings. I will publish both sets of rates when they are made available.
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Whitestown Public Work session
December 2, 2005
Whitestown town council held its second public work session concerning an Employee Handbook.
The meeting which was to begin at 3:00 PM was delayed waiting for a quorum of the council to be in attendance. While most of the town's utility employees sat waiting, only Ceila Follmar was in attendance until Carla Jackson arrived at 3:20 PM. Sam Sorter was not in attendance.
While town residents were afforded the opportunity to review what came to be known as Debbie's (the town's clerk/treasure) copy, we were not given (even after informing the council) a opportunity to review what came to be known as Darin's copy (the utility superintendent).
Once the meeting was finally underway, local resident L.J. Jernstadt (me) was criticized by Carla Jackson for attempting to take over the meeting (her viewpoint) with my asking subject matter questions and providing resident input. Ms. Jackson repeatedly referred to notes she had made at the previous meeting, but were not available for review as required by our understanding of Open Door Laws. Additionally, Ms. Jackson threatened to close the meeting to public input. Ms. Jackson then informed everyone that she would have to leave at 4:00 PM for a family emergency.
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Valenti-Held Proposes new commercial park in Whitestown
November 14, 2005
Allen Valenti (President-Valenti-Held) and Mike Janson (CFO-Valenti-Held) presented their vision for a new commercial park on the north west corner of I-65 and SR 267
Valenti-Held Commercial Park Proposal
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Whitestown Comp Plan goes to the APC
September 20, 2005
Whitestown held the first of two public hearings on the comp plan.
On 9/19/2005 the town held a public hearing in town hall prior to tonight's hearing at the Boone County Area Planning Commission.
Here are the latest revisions to the Whitestown Comp Plan.
Preface
Body
Traffic Map
Land Use
There were modifications proposed by the community last evening and will be added as amendments to what has been filed with the APC.
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August Whitestown Town Council Meeting
August 15, 2005
The Whitestown Town Council moved forward with several agenda items.
Peerless Midwest is continuing the search for utility water wells with some very hopeful
prospects. The council assigned official ordinance numbers to the building, sub-division
control, and the anti-monotony standards. The next step for the sub-division control and the
auto-monotony is submission to the Boone County Area Planning Commission for their approval.
more....
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Farmington Lakes coming to Whitestown
August 3, 2005
There is a new development coming to Whitestown, it will be located on the Stanley and
Smith Property. Just three short weeks ago ( July 11, 2005) the Town Board passed an ordinance to annex the Smith
Property and a fiscal plan that said there was no development planned and no financial impact to the town.
We learned on Tuesday by checking the APC agenda that the APC would be presented with the concept
plan from Graystone Development for this property. We contacted two of our town board members who were under the same impression as we were. That there was no proposed development and that the land was zoned AG.
We have now learned that the land has been zoned R3 for several years.
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Boone County Commissioners listen to citizens
August 1, 2005
The county commissioners again upheld the desires of both Whitestown town and surrounding
area residents by denying the Cobblestone Development rezoning request for the Clark property
located to the south of Whitestown.
In a surprise move attorney for the property owner Jeff Jacobs submitted a request
to withdraw the request for rezoning. Mr. Jacobs sited the frustration of the developers in their
dealings with Whitestown as to commitments as the primary reason and did not want to see
the Clarks future options limited
Official Meeting Minutes
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Whitestown Music Festival
July 29, 2005
The Whitestown Town Marshall and the Whitestown Lions Club partner to put on the
Whitestown Music Festival. The music festival will be held at the Boone County Fair Grounds
on August 12 & 13. See the link to official event flyers.
more....
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Whitestown Submits Revised Cobblestone Commitments
July 29, 2005
In a continuation of the July 11, 2005, Town Council Meeting attorney Ty Conner representing the town
for the annexation of the Clark Property, presented the town's revised commitments to the developer (Misrach/Daffin) and their attorney Michael J. Andreoli
The town also re-opened the public hearing session for additional comments. It was again impressed upon the town board that
while town residents are not opposed to annexation they are strongly opposed to R3 Zoning stipulations in the annexation petition.
more....
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Grounds Rules submits drafts of two ordinances
July 29, 2005
In a continuation of the July 25, 2005, Town Council Public Work Session Ground Rules'
Brad Johnson presented two drafts of new town ordinances. These are the first to be formed from the work put into
the Anti-montony Standards the town has been working on since the beginning of the year.
more....
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Boone County Commissioners hear citizens
July 5, 2005
The county commissioners upheld the desires of both town and surrounding
residents by denying Centex Homes' rezone request for approximately 157 acres from
agricultural to R3 (2.7 home per acre under Boone County Zoning).
Siting the petition signed by over three hundred local residents the commissioners
upheld the unanimous un-favorable recommendation sent to them by the Boone County
Area Planning Commission (APC)
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Duke to pay some utility fees up front
June 29 , 2005
Duke Reality has agreed to provide seed money to the town of Whitestown
Utility in the amount of 8.1 million dollars. This money will be used primarily for the town
to move forward quickly in building new water and sewer treatment facilities required to
support the Duke project in the corner of I-65 and SR-334. The first payment of 1 million
was to be made on June 30, 2005 with a second payment of 1 million payable in December 2005.
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