At the Jan. 9 meeting of Milford Town Council, members — all of whom were unopposed in 2022 — were sworn in by Town Attorney Jay Rigdon, far right. From left are Clerk/Treasurer Tricia Gall, Vice President Ken Long, Bob Cockburn and President Doug Ruch.

Text and Photo by David Hazledine
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MILFORD — The Milford Town Council started its first monthly meeting of 2023 on Jan. 9 with the swearing in of members and the election of officers.

After members Doug Ruch, Bob Cockburn, Ken Long and Clerk/Treasurer Tricia Gall took their oaths of office, the council voted to continue with Ruch as council president and Long as vice president.

During the meeting the council also approved resolution 2023-1 to create a plan to use up to $10 million in American Relief Plan Act funds for revenue replacement, which the council can spend “at its discretion,” said Gall.

During public input, Kosciusko Economic Redevelopment Corporation’s Greg Fitzloff and Milford Redevelopment Commission President Dan Brown updated the council on the progress of a new housing development of 50 homes on 21 acres on Milford’s northeast side recently annexed into the town. The project is the first in KEDCo’s countywide initiative to increase workforce market rate housing.

Fitzloff said the “three-year journey” was at the point of doing the land transaction purchase. Miller Brothers has been chosen to build the development. “This is going to end up being a $15-$16 million development project in the town of Milford,” he added. “We’ve made a tremendous amount of progress.”

Brown explained that a meeting with the Kosciusko County Area Planning Commission was somewhat hampered by the “misunderstanding this was a county project and it’s a town of Milford project.”

The APC also had an issue with the plan’s proposed single entrance. “The designers are prepared to address that,” said Brown. Other requirements dealt with traffic and deceleration lanes and utility issues.

Brown submitted MRC’s recommendation that the development require two entrances with 100-foot tapers and storm sewage drainage as designed by the engineer, Tim Saylor, along with utility easements requested by APC.

Long, who is on the project’s steering committee, noted Steve Moriarty of Kosciusko County Highway Department predicted a “minimum” of 50% decrease in traffic in the proposed development area after the extension of CR 1300.

The council voted to accept MRC’s recommendations and send a favorable recommendation to the APC before its February meeting.

A representative of Commonwealth Engineers updated the council on the Master Utility Study, which he said would be “90% complete” by Feb. 19, at which point a draft will be presented to the council.

During police reports, the council approved the $2,400 purchase of a pop-up tent to help increase public outreach at upcoming events such as Food Truck Fridays. A motion was also passed to pursue the purchase of a patrol car being auctioned by the city of Woodburn. Town Marshall Derek Kreider said he had applied for a grant for $18,000 of ARPA funds from the county to purchase four new radios.

Street, Water and Park Superintendent Steven Marquart received permission from the council to have periodic maintenance done on the town’s street sweeper at a cost of $6,349, with an additional amount not to exceed $5,000 for any additional work. Another $1,500 was approved for flowers to decorate Milford’s downtown this spring.

The council also approved an amount not to exceed $68,392.06, the matching amount of 25% of the total of $273,568 the town will receive if approved for a Community Crossing grant, used to improve town streets.

An amount not to exceed $2,380 was approved for Peerless Midwest to improve flow at the town’s wellhouse.

The council approved Marquart’s request to send a letter informing homeowners their water can be shut off if they do not reply to requests to install new meters in a “timely manner.”

The renewal of the contract with BL Anderson to provide cell router service to the water tower was approved for a cost of $1,200.

John Beer was appointed to replace Charlotte Siegfried on both the Area Planning Commission and Milford Redevelopment Commission.