Hearing date set for Firecracker Hill annexation

The Nashville Town Council will have a public hearing about annexing 231 more acres into town on Monday, Aug. 14.

The land, known as Firecracker Hill, is home to a new Big Woods development under construction, Hard Truth Hills. It will be a place where visitors and locals can learn more about the company’s brand of craft liquors, and the company can expand its beer-brewing and distilling capacity. Plans show the land containing a visitor center and small restaurant, an event center, separate brewery and distillery buildings, and trails.

The company bought the 231 acres in June after buying 94 neighboring acres in December.

At the July council meeting, Nashville resident and Development Review Commission member Tricia Bock asked why things had to move so quickly in the annexation process.

“They already have 95 acres. They said they were going to build on five (acres). The DRC has not seen a plan yet and we still don’t know what’s going up on that hill. Now they want 326 acres?” she said.

Town Attorney James T. Roberts said the hearing is happening in the time frame it is because of state statute. A hearing must take place 30 days after a petition for annexation is filed.

“That’s so people who want to be annexed into an area can get a quick decision. That’s what we have to do deal with,” he said.

The town has received clearance to serve the development with sewer. The Brown County Regional Sewer District Board voted on that last week.

The town and the development’s owners signed a water connection contract in May, but whether or not the town will be able to provide the water is under debate. Brown County Water Utility, a private, member-owned utility not associated with county government, sued the town council in federal court in June, saying it has the right to serve this large customer directly instead of the town utility serving it.

Warning issued about trash can use, meeting notices

Nashville Town Council President “Buzz” King issued another warning about throwing personal trash into the town trash cans at the July 20 council meeting.

“I actually watched a local woman drive into the Washington Street parking lot, pull up to that trash can, pull the top off and put her trash in the barrel and just drive off just like it’s an everyday thing,” King said.

“If you’re walking down the street and you have a gum wrapper or a wrapper from an ice cream cone, throw it away. But don’t bring your newspapers from home or your cans or your 15,000 empty water bottles and throw them in the town trash. That’s not what it’s for.”

King said if residents want to throw their personal trash away in town trash cans, they can be billed on their water bill to “handle the cost.”

King also addressed comments he had heard about the posting of meeting agendas and publishing them in the Brown County Democrat.

“There is no law that says (the agenda) has to be (published in the newspaper). All we are required to do is post it 48 hours before in a public place,” King said.

“We did miss the paper this week, but I can’t control vacations or wet basements when they get back from vacation. I can’t control sickness. It just happens.”

The Indiana Open Door Law says governing bodies are required to notify media outlets of when they will be meeting at least 48 hours in advance, unless it is an emergency, in which case the media is supposed to be notified when board members are. The law does not say that meeting notices have to be published.

The law also says that if an agenda is used at a meeting, it must be posted at the entrance to the meeting place. Town council and other board agendas are posted on Town Hall’s bulletin board outside.

“If someone makes an issue of it, I will entertain a vote tonight or next meeting that we never publish anything in the paper again except what is required by law. We can do that,” King said. “We do it as a courtesy. That explains why (the agenda) wasn’t published, and I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it is.”

Nobody made that motion.

Executive session agendas also are posted 48 hours before the meeting, as required by law, he said.

The law allows governing bodies to meet in executive session, without the public present, for 12 specific reasons only.

“We don’t make decisions at executive sessions. We always have a meeting afterward and that’s where we make decisions,” King said.

“It’s not a secret meeting. It’s just an executive session.”

Four trees to come down in Nashville

Four trees are on the Nashville Tree Board’s removal list for 2017:

• A 15-foot-tall, dead, ivy-covered tree at Mound Street and Locust Lane, northeast of the History Center.
• A 15-foot-tall dead tree on North Jefferson Street by the H&R Block office. A new tree is already next to it.
• A live Bradford Pear tree at Grant Stuart’s shop on East Main Street. Bradford Pear trees are an invasive species.
• A live Bradford Pear at the Village Candlemaker shop on South Van Buren Street.

The tree board also plans to plant several new trees this year, but that list was not ready as of press time. Town Hall employee Sandie Jones said the new Visitors Center on South Van Buren Street and the new town park being developed at Washington and Johnson streets would be on the planting list.