The Mayor at last nights council meeting said the 1.3 grant IS the grant for Alton St to 2nd street improvements and NOT Downtown Improvements like the Vincennes paper had in its headline story Sunday.

He said he had never talked to Editor Gayle Robbins who wrote the story.

He said some of the quotes were accurate so I guess he talked to somebody but anyway it seems kind of funny that they would screw it up so bad.

I asked if the city was asking for a correction but was told that a press conference to be held Thursday in Terre Haute with the Lt Gov giving the check was to be held.

Hope the Vincennes paper doesn't screw that up too.

In other business they recognized a police officer and a city worker who gave CPR to a Bicknell citizen and saved his life in early May.

The Tresslar building was discussed and it was agreed to hold a hearing following the next Council meeting hopefully with the owner present to try to solve the problem.

The old bank building was discussed and they seemed to think it was given back by the Piepers. Don't know how they could do that as it is still in their name at the Assessors office.

They seem to have a problem finding who owns vacant lots the city mows in order to bill. I suggested they check the addresses on the Co Assessors webpage but they didn't seem to think that would work. Don't know why, I do it all the time.

And they also talked about the Youth Centers money which is still intact (4k) and their plans. They do plan to use about 1k of it to get a 501 c 3 non-profit status in order to ask for grants in the future.

From Ron Ackman

I attended Mondays city council meeting and since there were no reporters there am furnishing a report for this website as I viewed the meeting.

The Water Dept made a request for about a dozen new check valves to install on the house side of the meters. Seems it is state code and several have already been installed over the years. They prevent water from back flowing through the meter and possibly damaging a house by draining a water heater in case water service is cut off during repair to lines. They are about $700 apiece. This was requested in the BOW meeting. I missed the first part of the BOW meeting.

The council meeting saw bids reviewed and approved on 2 rehab jobs financed by the rehab grant somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 to 38k per house. The Lankford Drive street was

BOW sniffs around bad smell

JENNIFER JAQUA
Vincennes Sun-Commercial

BICKNELL - Members of the city council here Monday opted not to have the North Knox Development Corp. represent the city in its effort to bring new businesses to town.

Mayor Jon Flickinger said he had been approached by a member of the newly re-established group.

"They asked me to ask the council if you would support them in representing Bicknell to

JENNIFER JAQUA
staff writer

BICKNELL - Board of works members here tabled a request to extend the city's wastewater treatment plant construction contract by 60 days.

In October 2007, the project was ahead of schedule, but now the project seems to be running behind.

"The board received a letter from water Supt. Jim Hubbard and Assistant Supt. Matt Brough, who both said they are in favor of the 60 day extension," said Clerk-Treasurer Rita Dupire. "The board tabled the issue because they want to

There will be a city council meeting tomorrow 4/2/08 at 6:00 pm. It is to be held in the Bicknell City Hall upstairs in the council meeting room.

It seems like the notices of these events is getting shorter and shorter. John R. Stanczak

Since John wasn't there and there was some news made and with Johns permission I will pass along what happened from my view.

First the Clerk Treasurer asked that minutes from last months meeting not be read to save time (apparently they had copies) and since there was no old business discussed I guess last months meeting must have been pretty empty.

New business was a proposed change in zoning for the part of the industrial park to be used for a new concrete plant from I-1 to I-2. It was also mentioned that McCallisters (machinery?) will occupy the area just past Rex's Body shop.

Good news first and then the bad!!

SIDC announced that Bicknell has been awarded a Community Development Block Grant for housing rehabilitation in the amount of $150000. 300K Had been applied for.
As I understood it will award 11k plus to 12 recipients of the 20 that applied.

Councilman Frank Gugliotta has researched the financial needs of our Water Dept and after lots of years running in the red being bailed out by the Sewage Dept and possibly the general fund recommends a raise in water rates from just over $4 per thousand gallons to $7 per thousand gallons.

This would be more on a par with other communities around.

He explained to get the water department self sufficient would help the chances of possibly getting a water dept grant in the future.

No opposition to the raise was voiced in fact one person said he thought it should be $10.

But nobody seemed to jump on his bandwagon.

More investigation is being made and more info will be available at the next meeting.

I wanted to ask 3 unrelated questions but there is still no time allowed for the public to speak except for agenda items so I didn't get to ask them. However after the meeting some answers were supplied from Brenda and Frank.

It seems that the city is making grant appeals to our Senators and our Congressman and Rural Development.

IDEM has said they would assist so I suggested them to Brenda. Also Peggy MaGill says the new GACKI, Inc group, strictly for Knox county will pursue grants and development locally.
Its web is gacki.org. (Grant Association of Knox County IN). All this needs to be pursued vigorously.

My other questions were #1.

Where to go with yard waste now that the concrete plant is taking our burn spot?

Seems the city will get away from the wiener roast solution and may allow it dumped by the turkey barns. (How about finding somewhere outside the city where it could be buried or burned?) To bury it might require a landfill permit, don't know about the possibility of burning. Leaves and grass make good compost, maybe someone would be interested in that.

#2. What is being done to accommodate housing locally for plant workers?

But I found no one to ask this to.

The city may know something, wish they would respond to this post.

Ron Ackman

Listen to audio of city council meeting.

Listen to audio of city council meeting.