<strong>COVID relief grants available to businesses in town</strong>
The Nashville Town Council is offering another round of grant funding for small businesses that have been impacted by the pandemic. Funding comes from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs, which provided $250,000 for the COVID-19 Response Phase 3 program.
Applications are open to for-profit businesses located in the town of Nashville. A grant amount of up to $10,000 will be given per business. Applications are due Friday, June 11 by 4 p.m.
Visit the following link for more information and an application: townofnashville.org/small-business-grants-covid-19-phase-3.
<strong>Town council ends emergency executive powers</strong>
The Nashville Town Council did not vote on extending the emergency executive powers of council President Jane Gore at the May regular meeting, automatically terminating her ability to make certain decisions without a council vote. She had had executive powers since March 19, 2020, because of the pandemic, with council members being required to vote at every meeting since about whether or not to extend them.
At the April 15 meeting, which Gore did not attend, council member David Rudd made a motion to renew the executive powers, then a debate ensued. Council member Nancy Crocker said she didn’t think those powers were needed anymore and added that "as far as what has happened in the past two weeks, I’m not comfortable with it either." She later said that she wasn’t comfortable with Gore’s decision to have a blended in-person and Zoom meeting that month.
Town Attorney James T. Roberts said the only executive orders Gore had carried out as far as he was aware were closing Town Hall to the public and closing the public restrooms, which happened more than a year ago. The restrooms later reopened.
The vote went 2-2, with Alisha Gredy and Rudd voting to continue emergency executive powers and Crocker and Anna Hofstetter voting no.
Since Gore was not there to vote, town Clerk-Treasurer Brenda Young had to be the tiebreaker. She voted yes and said she was comfortable doing so because this was a decision the council would have to review at every meeting.
At the May meeting, the council decided to reopen Town Hall to walk-in visitors and to not require masks to be worn. Town Clerk-Treasurer Brenda Young said her front office staff had all been vaccinated, so she was comfortable with that.
<strong>Surprise, Blueberry Drive not actually a town road</strong>
The Nashville Town Council learned in March that one of the streets it’s been taking care of, Blueberry Drive, is not actually a public road in the town’s inventory; it’s private. Town Attorney James T. Roberts is working on the legal process to make it an official public town road.
Roberts explained in the April council meeting that the road was built as part of Johnson Addition by developer Fred Bates Johnson, but it was never dedicated on the plat. So, technically, the road belongs to the landowners on Blueberry Drive.
The plat is so old that the roadways aren’t clearly shown, so the first step was to get a survey, Roberts said, then the landowners would have to sign dedication documents.
