By David Fenker
david@nmpaper.com
NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. – The Town of North Manchester will soon have its ordinances recodified, for a price of $9,650.
The Town Council voted unanimously to approve a quote from American Legal Publishing Corporation, a Cincinnati-based company that provides codification services to municipalities and counties.
“Ours have not been done for several years. This is something that we need to do; it is very eminent, very necessary… all of our ordinances will go through a legal review process, where a team of lawyers will go through and make sure that our ordinances don’t conflict with state and local law, and don’t conflict with each other,” Town Clerk-Treasurer Carrie Mugford said.
She noted that the quote from American Legal is similar to other quotes that she has seen for similar services. The company will provide both hardcopies and electronic copies of the ordinances when they are finished.
Mugford added that the process will take about one year to complete, and should be done every three to five years for a town of North Manchester’s size.
The council also approved the first reading of a special ordinance that amended the town’s 2007 zoning ordinance. The special ordinance, the first ordinance of the year, changed the zoning of 216 E. Old Wabash Road from Limited Industrial to Residential Estate, allowing the current owners to construct a house on the property.
“They bought the property with the intent of renovating [the original house], but it became cost-prohibitive so they tore the house down. Now they would like to build a house on that property,” Town Building Commissioner Steve Shumaker said.
He noted that the property was zoned Limited Industrial as far back as 1979, and that the former house was grandfathered in when the zoning changed to Limited Industrial.
Additionally, the council passed a second ordinance establishing a petty cash fund of $100 for each town department: Water, Wastewater, Stormwater, MVH, Parks, Town Manager and Town Hall.
Mugford recommended the ordinance, which increases the existing petty cash funds from $50 to $100.
“That $50 just doesn’t go as far as it used to, and so the department heads would like to have $100 to be able to make more than one purchase throughout the month,” she said.
Additional news from the council meeting included an Arbor Day proclamation, by which Town Council President Jim Smith declared that the town will observe Arbor Day Friday, April 28. The Tree Commission will have an Arbor Day ceremony at 3 p.m. that day at Timbercrest Senior Living Community, located at 2201 East St.
The council also accepted a proposal from the Indiana Department of Transportation to use Wabash Road as an unofficial detour for INDOT’s replacement of the bridge on State Road 13 between State Road 114 and Old Wabash Road. The proposal states that INDOT will perform any necessary repairs to Wabash Road needed as a result of the road being used during the bridge replacement.
The official detour uses State Road 15.