At the regular Pierceton Town Council meeting on Monday, Sept. 12, at the Pierceton Community Building are from left: Council President Mandy Espinoza, Council Member Tom Barker and Council Vice President Matt Brubaker. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

PIERCETON — The Pierceton Town Council has decided on whom it wants to hire as its next town marshal.

At its regular meeting on Monday, Sept. 12, the council approved offering the town marshal position to a candidate. However they declined to name who the individual is.

“We can’t name (him) right now until he accepts and the other applicants have been notified of this,” said Town Council President Mandy Espinoza. “This also will give the applicant time to notify the person he’s working for and to give that week or two notice that he’s leaving their position.”

Town Clerk-Treasurer Myra Mast later told InkFreeNews that leaders are hoping that the individual will start work as marshal before the council’s next regular meeting on Monday, Oct. 10. They should swear him in at that meeting, she said.

Town Budget

The council also held a public hearing on the town’s planned 2023 budget.

No one from the public commented during the hearing.

For the budget for 2023, the council is considering an amount of $1,655,756, an increase of $147,299 over the 2022 budget of $1,508,457.

That breaks down to: $30,000 in the rainy day fund; $499,537 in the general fund; $75,500 in the local road and street fund; $136,970 in the motor vehicle highway fund; $150,000 in the cumulative bridge and street fund; $5,000 in the continuing education fund; $15,050 in the park fund; $14,000 in the park non-reverting capital fund; $10,000 in the building demolition fund; $8,000 in the cumulative capital improvement fund from cigarette tax; $45,000 in the cumulative capital development fund; $90,000 in county economic development income tax (CEDIT); $312,750 in the redevelopment general fund; $20,000 in the Christmas lights fund; $0 in the trailway fund; $3,000 in the skate park fund; $10,000 in restricted donations; and $230,949 in the ARPA fund.

The council plans to vote to adopt the budget at its next regular meeting set for Oct. 10. That meeting will start at 6:30 p.m.

Engineering contract

The council also approved entering into a special contract with Fleis & Vandenbrink, which provides engineering services for Pierceton, for the company to complete a long-term infrastructure plan for the town.

“What it would be is putting together a plan that’s pretty broad, generic that would help us determine this is where the town is at in the year 2022, over the next say roughly 10 years, what type of infrastructure improvements does the town want to accomplish,” said Fleis & Vandenbrink Office Manager/Project Manager Chad Salzbrenner.

In other business, the council:

• Approved spending $740 on a controller to fix a clock at Brower Park.
• Agreed to set trick-or-treating in town from 5-7:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 31.
• Heard from Annie Espinoza from the town’s park board that the town’s youth league “had an outstanding season this year.” “They did really well on making money up there. The kids were happy. We had no big complaints,” she said.
• Agreed to allow the town’s Christmas decorating committee to put a live Christmas tree in town. The committee hopes to put it by the police station and senior center.